Decoding My MBA Application Journey: A Personal Odyssey
Target Right Schools, Prepare Application Materials, and Craft Strong Essays
This year will be year 5 since my MBA graduation. Looking back on the MBA application season, it felt like a long marathon — from receiving interview invitations to being waitlisted by four top schools and finally making a decision — it was definitely a rollercoaster ride.
Now it’s MBA application season again. I’d like to share my experience and hope that readers can gain some useful insights. Specifically, I’ll discuss how to
Choose the right school,
Prepare for the applications, and
Craft a strong essay as a self-discovery process.
If you find this helpful, please feel free to like and share.
Disclaimer: This only describes my personal view and experience. Each person may have different experience.
My final application results:
Choosing the Right MBA School
The first important step in the MBA application journey is choosing the right MBA programs. I specifically considered the following factors:
School reputation: My undergrad liberal arts college (Carleton College) had excellent teaching quality, but it is less well-known to people outside of Minnesota. This was a major disadvantage in my job-hunting process, especially as an international student back then. A top MBA program can largely compensate for the lack of brand recognition of my liberal arts background in the business world. At least it helped me get recruiters to show greater interest in my qualifications.
Program resources: An MBA is a great way to step out of one’s comfort zone, broaden horizons, and learn more about the world. The resources range from world-class professors to high-caliber peers, potential career pivot or advancement opportunities, and more. Being surrounded by super smart people is invaluable to cultivating more creative thinking to enter the mind and then put it into practice.
Alumni network and employment opportunities: The quality of the alumni network will directly impact the difficulty of the post-graduation job hunt. During school visits and Admitted Students Days, I was told by some alumni that "Wharton is finance, Harvard is GM, Kellogg is marketing, Stanford is entrepreneurship, and Berkeley is tech." Of course, this is an oversimplified and inaccurate generalization, but different schools do have more or less job opportunities in different professional fields due to their alumni networks and geographic locations.
School branding, program resources, alumni network, and employment opportunities are all important factors in my school selection. Unlike undergraduate applications, MBA does not need a so-called "safety school", because no one should give up two years of salary to invest in an MBA from a "safety school".
Application Preparation
Once the schools are selected, the next step is to prepare for applications. The process was very standardized, mainly involving essays, standardized test scores (GMAT/GRE/Transcript), letters of recommendation, leadership experience, and teamwork experience. It will also consider Cultural Fit, Personality Fit, and Background Diversity given the already admitted student body.
I will briefly describe my preparation work for each item, for reference only.
Essays are very important, which will be discussed in the next section.
Standardized test scores (GMAT/GRE/Transcript): This is a hard metric, and there is no shortcut. Many admissions officers have mentioned that the disadvantages of university grades can be compensated by the advantages of GMAT/GRE scores. I personally found that GMAT has lower vocabulary requirements than GRE. I took the GRE when I graduated from university in 2013, and took the GMAT a week after I passed the CFA Level III in 2016. I was lucky that I had memorized GRE vocabulary in high school and studied statistics in college, so I found it quite easy when I took both tests. My GRE vocab was very helpful in saving me a lot of preparation time for GMAT. However, if you are only taking the GMAT, there is no need to memorize GRE vocabulary.
Letters of recommendation: All admissions officers specifically mentioned that the recommender's familiarity with you is way more important than the recommender's fame or prestige, so you should prioritize direct superiors, and whether they are MBA alumni does not matter much. University professors back in school days are a no-no unless you have daily contact with them in your work. In my opinion, the best recommenders are those who know you well and also carry prestige in their careers.
Leadership/Team Experience: Promotions, volunteering outside of work, and team leadership within and outside of the company. In fact, most people have these experiences, so it is more important to describe them from a unique perspective and form a coherent personal story.
Application Essays
Writing essays might be the most time-consuming yet most rewarding part of the application process. It forces you to dig deep into your background and answer questions related to life and career aspirations.
Apart from some unconventional essays, the vast majority of application essays can be summarized into the following questions:
What are your short-term and long-term goals?
What are you looking to gain from an MBA?
What can you bring to this MBA program?
These questions may seem very formulaic, but it is very valuable for you to figure these out before applying for an MBA program. I personally recommend thinking carefully and answering them truthfully. Overall, the key action items are:
Define your goals.
Match the schools.
Dig into yourself.
Below are the three questions I asked myself before I started drafting my essays:
Question 1: Long-term and short-term goals.
The pace of an MBA is very fast and you will have no time to think about career planning once the program starts.
Job hunting for summer internships starts a few weeks into the program. It would be very helpful to have answers ready for why you want to apply for this position and why you want to enter this industry. MBA will open doors to many opportunities, and if your goals are not clear, it is easy to get lost and inefficiently spread your energy in various interview opportunities.
Having clear future career goals before you start school will help you express yourself clearly when writing essays, and find the right school for you that fits your career aspirations.
Question 2: The value of an MBA.
MBA is a major investment of time and money, and only you know what its true value is.
The key to answering this question is to gather information from the school's website, talk to alumni, and visit the school to ensure what is truly helpful to you besides the school's reputation. I highly recommend school visits and alumni meetings.
The perosnal values and ways of thinking expressed by students from each school are quite unique and different. Only by personally experiencing it can you clearly know whether it is suitable for you.
Question 3: Your true, unique self and value-add.
Business school is also a melting pot. Each school strives to recruit students from different backgrounds to let everyone have a collision of ideas.
Answering this question is a good opportunity to reflect on yourself. If everyone is a product, where is your product-market fit, and where are your outstanding qualities? The answers to these questions are also inspiring for finding the fields and careers you will excel at.
Conclusion
The MBA application process is not just about getting into a top business school. It is also about a journey of self-reflection and growth. As you write your essays and prepare for interviews, you will have the opportunity to learn more about yourself, your goals, and what you want to achieve in your career.
I encourage you to embrace this journey and to use it as an opportunity to grow as a person and a professional. The MBA application process is a challenge, but it is also an opportunity to learn and grow in ways that you never imagined.
I hope that my insights have been helpful. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn. I am always happy to help other MBA applicants on their journey.
Good luck!
