MBA aspirants - There is a lot to be done NOW. Even in March.

Most people who apply for MBA admissions start the process only by July/ August each year with the belief that it is a year long process and since most programs commence in Fall each year, it is ok to begin the previous Fall. Their plan is to take the GMAT by August/ September and proceed with the actual application process in next few months.

But the reality is that if you begin in Fall, you might just have missed some opportunities already. In fact the right time to wake up to this exercise is NOW. These are important months in the application timeline which, if you use them well, will not only ease the process later but might also afford you some opportunities that you might miss otherwise.

But before I come to the early opportunities, let me first address another group of aspirants – those who applied in the R1 or R2 for Fall 2014 entry and did not get through. If you are thinking it is all over for this season and you need to wait for Fall this year to begin applying again, look around again. It is true that Round 3 is not a good option for admission applications but there are many other options still open to you. Many business schools, including some top ranked ones, have a January intake as well. And the time to apply for January 2015 intake is now. For example INSEAD has R1 deadline of 21^st March and R2 deadline of 28^th May for their January 2015 entering class. HEC Paris has a deadline on 1^st of every month for next few months. So use this time to target these schools. In fact EDHEC Paris is still open even for a Scholarship round till 31^st March, and that too for the Fall 2014 entering class. So do your research and find the opportunities that suit your goals. The important thing is to WAKE UP.

Moving on then, to those who are yet to start their thinking process for the entire project for application to MBA programs, here is why you too should wake up NOW:

·         Pre-Final year students interested in going to ISB:  The Young Leaders Program of ISB is just for you. If you are selected, It not only guarantees you admission to the prestigious MBA program at ISB with a two year deferral, it also guarantees you a Rs 1 Lac scholarship to boot. BUT the deadline to apply is NOW – 15^th March 2014. Moreover this is a onetime window of opportunity because only those in their Pre-final year of a UG degree program or of an Integrated or dual degree program are eligible. And you are going to be in your pre-final year only once. No? So wake up now and, if you qualify, apply before 15^th March.

 

·         IIM aspirants: Those wanting to apply to the IIM’s for 2015 intake – Many of you might have already started preparing for CAT 2014. If not, you need a careful self-evaluation to determine how many weeks/ months of prep time you need for this exam, often touted as ‘among the toughest entrance exams to crack on the planet’, and begin your preparation accordingly. Main thing is to avoid a realization in June or July that you do not have enough time to prepare any more. Though there is no ‘Best Duration’ of preparation time for CAT, it may be just a few weeks for some or even more than six months for some others. The point is to know yourself and make that evaluation to decide how much prep time will take you to a relaxed and confident state on exam day. Because that is how you will score well – by being relaxed and confident.

 

·         Those wanting to apply to GMAT accepting business schools in US and other countries (and to ISB in India): For you also, these are important weeks and months which you don’t want to miss out on. Because what you do now, can be immensely helpful later. It is true that the main application process does not begin till July when most schools start to open their portals for applicants and put up their essay topics etc. But till then, don't lose time. Do your research, take the GMAT early, decide if you want to hire an advisor to help you with the application process and do your search to find the advisor who works best for you. And here is why doing these things early will help later:

o   Do your Research: There are hundreds of Business schools you can target. But which ones are best suited for you? Apart from the Rankings, there are other factors to consider. For example, some schools have a better program for the energy sector than others. At some schools you do not need a US based co-signer to get a student loan. Some schools have a locational advantage in some way. Some aspirants might prefer a small town setting for the business school or vice-versa. All the research you do now will help you make better informed decisions about the schools to apply to later in the season. Moreover, some of you may be in jobs that involve travel to the country where your dream school is located. If so, make it a point to visit the school. Business schools encourage aspirants to visit them, interact with students and staff, even sit in on some classes with prior permission. So do all these things. This will not only help you makeup your mind better, it might even show the school how serious you are about joining their school during the evaluation of your application.

o   Take the GMAT early: Get this over and done with before the application pressure begins. Taking the GMAT by June or earlier has two benefits. Firstly you go to the exam at a time when you are not already thinking of your applications, so you are more relaxed – recipe for a better score. Moreover, should something go wrong on exam day and you end up with a score below your expectation, there is enough time to schedule a repeat exam. Though I do not always advise aspirants to repeat the GMAT easily, the point is that if you do need to repeat it, there is time.

o   Search for the right application advisor: This can often be a project by itself because there are so many of them out there. Of course you need to first decide if you need one at all. And once you know that you do, find the one who best suits your working style. Check out their work, ask around among your colleagues and seniors, look for references and only then hone in on the advisor you choose to work with. Because this is an important selection that can affect your career. The quality of application you finally submit will surely be influenced by the advisor so take care to evaluate and select the one who works best for you.

o   Spread your applications between Rounds 1 and 2: Don’t wait to send in all the apps in R2. Preparing a good application is time consuming and making multiple applications with the same or similar deadlines a herculean task. Round 1 deadlines can be as early as September so If you begin the process early, take the GMAT in good time, you have all the time you need to choose the application round you want to apply to. Keep the work schedule on applications light by spreading them out over 2 rounds. Bunched up applications will stress you out and you will surely not produce your best work with essays etc. if you are stressed.

To conclude, it may still be March, but it is not too early to start thinking and planning, and in many cases, acting on some opportunities. But in any case, the wake up call, if you want to apply for MBA admissions, is NOW.

Components of your Application - IV - Career Goals

All Business Schools want to know about your career goals in some part of their application. Some might ask you to write an essay about it, others might pose this as a short answer question, some might ask for your long term and short term career goals and even how an MBA from that particular school will help you achieve them.

But before you answer this question to a Business School, or in fact to anybody else, it is important to be sure yourself what your career goals are. Remember, Business Schools expect you to be very clear about why you want to get an MBA degree, why from that particular school and how the decision, at this stage of your career, will help you achieve the immediate post-MBA goals you have set for yourelf, and even how achieveing your immediate post-MBA goal is part of a larger plan to achieve your long term career goals.

Sounds daunting? Not sure of what kind of career you want to pursue?And how an MBA (from any particular school) will get you there? Then why the decision to do an MBA? Just because your friends are doing it? Well that will just not do.

So even before you contemplate applying to B schools, you need to get your career goals exercise done. Ideally you should be able to clearly describe to the Ad Comm:

• What is your current state - this is done through your resume, essays, recos, etc.
• What are your immediate post-MBA goals - what kind of career do you wish to pursue right after you complete the MBA course.
• Medium and long term goals - what do you plan to be doing in say 5 years/10 years down the line.

And finally - you should have a ready GAP ANALYSIS between your current state and your long term goals. Which means, you should know what you currently lack in terms of knowledge and skills to get to your post-MBA objectives.

This GAP in skills and knowledge is what you should aspire to fill from the MBA program.

Further - if you can also show how a particular school's individual strengths by way of their curriculum, faculty, known areas of excellence, etc, will help you fill these gaps, then you have absolutely hit the nail on the head.

But, as I have heard from many a candidate, life is so uncertain. "How can I be totally sure of what I want to do?" "What if I change my mind while I am studying for my MBA over next 2 years?" Well friends, the answer is simple.

The Ad Comm does want you to show a certain clarity of vision when it comes to your career goals and reasons for getting an MBA degree. They also like to know that you researched these schools before applying and that you will endeavor to use their individual strengths to further your goals. BUT, and this is important, they don't expect your goals and plans to be cast in stone. It is okay if your change your plans mid-way, take up a different career post-MBA compared to what you planned to pursue when applying. After all, an MBA is also about expanding your horizons.

So get rid off that mental block. Think freely. Work out the best career plan for yourself - one which excites you, one which you would pursue with passion, energy and joy :) Work out how you can get there. Be prepared to state with clarity and conviction, about the skills and experience you already have, which will help you on your way. And clearly show what new skills and experiences you need to add in order to get where you want to. And that will surely bring out clearly what you hope to gain from the MBA program and how you will use it.

And by doing this, you will see that you answer this question extremely well, not only to the Ad Comm, but also, and most importantly, to yourself.
 

Your GMAT score is not important!

Well, I should amend that I guess because your GMAT score is definitely important, very important. But it is certainly not the be all and end all of a business school application. I am sometimes asked by applicants "I scored XYZ in GMAT. What schools can I apply to?"

It is this applicant with such a mindset that I want to address this post, to say that while your score is important, you must not let it weigh you down if you scored a tad less than you expected. Understand that it is just one of the several factors that the AdComm will evaluate and if you take good care with the other elements of the app like your essays, the application form, your resume and the recos, you can offset a below par GMAT score.

Also, while most aspirants look at the mean or median GMAT scores published by a school, one should also look at the range. So while the median GMAT score in Stanford class of 2014 is around 730, the lower end of the range is around 550. And since most schools display the GMAT score range of the middle 80% of the class only, the actual lowest score to make it to Stanford might be even lower than 550.

But this does not mean that one need not put in the hard work to maximize his or her GMAT score. Remember that each and every element of the full application package must be as strong as we can make it, while retaining full authenticity, because the competition is fierce. The things to remember are:

• One below par element of your application package (like the GMAT score) is not enough reason to give up hope.
• The more profitable view is to evaluate the overall strength of your own application and take that as one of the inputs, along with other inputs like your career goals etc., to choose the correct schools to apply to.

Components of your application - I

 

We would like to take up different parts of your MBA application, in a series of posts on this page, with some suggestions on how one can handle them to their advantage.

 

Let's start today with the Extra Curriculars Activities section.

 

This is one of the most neglected sections of many a resume and MBA applications, whereas it has the potential to become amongst the most important ones. Typically students populate this section with one liners like "Member - school football team", or "Helped organize the college tech fest XYZ", or "Interested in reading Science Fiction" or "Learning to play the violin for the last 4 years", etc. None of these is a bad entry in the sense that it adds some diversity to your profile, something most AdComms would like. And if you have multiple such entries in the extra-curriculars activities section of your resume, it might even be considered good as it gives you a multi-faceted, well rounded personality.

 

But what about "Is it good enough?" Or even, "Could it be better?" Or "Could it actually be good enough to make up for a weakness in some other part of my resume?" The answer to the latter 2 questions - a resounding "YES, it can".

 

To be continued...

Harvard Business School lobs a googly this year

Harvard Business School has lobbed a solid googly this year by asking for just one essay in the MBA App and that too an open ended one - without a specified word length. So how many stories should one write here? What should be the length of the essay? The essay topic is "You are applying to HBS, we can see your resume,school transcripts, extra curricular activities, awards, post MBA career goals, test scores and what your recommenders have to say about you. What else would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy?"

Well, according to us, from the wording of the essay topic it is clear that the AdComm wants to see something other than all the hard facts already presented in the application form, your resume and recos. A good strategy could be to bring out some of your soft skills which otherwise don't come out in your GPA or GMAT score. Use some events from your past - from your work-ex or your college days, even your family life or a vacation you took - which bring out such skills. Take care however that what you write must be clear, concise, compelling and authentic. And while it may be compelling to go into lengthy storytelling, remember that Quality always scores over Quantity in such cases. Try to keep it to within 600-750 words, though this would be very case dependant and could vary significantly. This could be one long story or several short ones but the story style must be brief. Also do not reach or claim more than what you actually did or you will lose authenticity. And finally, howsoever great it reads to you, be sure to get it reviewed by some outsider, someone who can give you an unbiased critique, and ask them if your essay conveys to them, what you started out to convey.