The One Thing Every MBA Applicant Must Do...

You've probably seen the other web sites purporting to help you with the MBA application process. One typical example offers "tips" on how to write good essays. They have 12 tips. Tip #9 is "Conclusions are critical." Tip #12 is "Revise, revise, revise." Tip #3 is "Be yourself."

How many of you out there are finding this sort of thing useful? How many of these supposedly helpful web sites have you read? Are you still confused? Are you skeptical of the self-declared web gurus of MBA admissions-- some of whom don't seem to have any educational or admissions credentials themselves? Are you extremely hesitant to send them any money? (I would be!)

Have you already plunked down some hard-earned cash on a 400-page 'How to get in Business School' book, but still feel completely frustrated and mystified? Are you overwhelmed by the whole application process and don't know where to turn?

Do you want to know the ONE proven strategy to get into business school? Would you like to know how to make even the most jaded admissions officers stand up on their chairs and say, "Hell Yes! I want this applicant in my program!"

It is possible.

How do I know? Because I am one of those admissions officers. I've been evaluating (and mostly rejecting) applicants for one of the top-rated* MBA programs in the country since 1989. Occasionally, I'd also help a friend or colleague with their apps. It worked, of course. They were admitted to Harvard, Tuck, LSE, and other top schools.

This past year, I finally decided to hang up my interviewing spurs, stop spending my time passing judgment on other people, and start helping them instead. Call it karma. So I got smart and made my services available to a wider audience. I worked with a small group of proteges. Over 80% were admitted to top programs. (Yes, I'll admit a few didn't get in. But, they only applied to one or two schools, against my recommendation.) The admissions committees at two top programs were so impressed with my proteges, that they offered them 50% unsolicited scholarships. That's what happens when you do the ONE thing I coach my proteges to do.

But you don't need to hear this from me. Check out some of my clients' comments and testimonials to see how our work together got them the results they wanted. I would love to do the same for you, so send me an email and we'll set up a complimentary initial evaluation.

You should also pick up a copy of my eBook, Admit or Deny? What One Thing Every MBA Applicant Must Do to Get Even the Most Jaded Admissions Officer to Stand up on Their Chair and Say, "I simply MUST have this applicant in my program!"

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*Well, really the top-rated program in the world, depending on which rating you believe. I'll give you a hint: we're the one with all the Nobel prizes in Econ and Finance.

Myth #2: Background

Myth: If you don’t have a wildly unusual background, don’t bother applying because you won’t stand out from the crowd

This viewpoint results, quite literally, from backwards reasoning. The idea here is that, if the class as a whole will exhibit diversity, then those people who are “most diverse” should have a better chance of getting in. The problem is, there is no such thing as a “diverse” individual! “Diversity” is a term that only applies to groups. Duh! That said, obviously if you’re a junior analyst at an investment bank, or a second-year accountant-in-training, your work experience alone simply will not grab the admissions committee by the collar and make them stand up and take notice. No problem! We don’t deny people simply because they work in commonplace professions. By the same token, we don’t let people into our business schools based solely on the bizarreness quotient of their work experience. Nor does “diversity” in one’s personal background guarantee entrée. The mere fact that an applicant plays first oboe in the Jamaican Philharmonic, speaks fluent Croatian, and knits earmuffs for underprivileged Inuits in her spare time away from her job as a designer of rocket propulsion systems does not guarantee her admission.[1]

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[1] Indeed, anyone exhibiting such a profile would be at pains to weave the disparate pieces of their life into a coherent and compelling story.

Myth #1: GMAT and GPA

Myth: You must have above a certain GPA or GMAT score, or don’t bother applying because you won't make the minimum score

The fact is, the GPA and GMAT scores are the very first things the admissions readers see—and the least important. They typically spend about as much time looking over your GMAT score and transcript as you have just spent reading this sentence: that’s right, about 5.7 seconds. Sure, the official spokespeople for the admissions offices will always say, “we consider every part of the application very thoroughly…” or words to that effect. Of course they do! But realistically, how long does it take to digest a college transcript? I can see at a glance that you’re an engineer who took a few classes in French literature for kicks, and of course the obligatory “Human Sexuality” class pass/no-fail sophomore year. Duh! I’m a fast reader! And how much time does it take me to see that you scored a 580—or a 780—on your GMAT? If it’s a 580, my reaction is, “Okay, so you’re not too great at standardized tests—now show me what you got.” If it’s a 780, my reaction is, “Okay, so you’re a whiz at standardized tests—now show me what you got.” Note the similarity.

Getting through business school does require a certain base level of brainpower. You don’t need to be a math genius to get passing grades, but if you’ve never grasped the fundamental principles of calculus, for example, you will struggle in many classes, because the basic concepts of statistics and finance are founded on calculus. For an outstanding applicant with a low GMAT score or poor academic credentials, the admissions committee must consider whether the applicant can realistically make it through the program, or will fail academically. In these rare instances, the admissions committee would probably contact the applicant and recommend they take some introductory or preparatory classes prior to entering the regular MBA course of study—a calculus primer or review course, for example. Some business schools offer these the summer before regular classes begin in the fall, or during the first few weeks of the regular school year.

So when you hear an admissions officer say at the next open house function you attend, “we don’t have any fixed formula or minimum required GMAT” don’t scoff— believe them! Test scores are merely used as an indicator of whether an applicant can cut the mustard academically. If you really and truly bombed the GMAT, or you failed out of undergraduate in spite of every effort to pass, then you should think twice about going to business school, because it’s going to be really, really hard for you to pass the courses. But otherwise, and for the vast majority of candidates, scores and numbers constitute a relatively minor consideration in the overall application.

Finally, assuming you’ve already completed college and taken the GMAT, your GPA and GMAT score are two things you can no longer influence. In decision-theory terms[1], they are “sunk costs” or “the dead hand of the past.” You can’t change the past, so why worry about it? Focus instead on the parts of the application you can affect: the essays, the letters of recommendation, and the interview.

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[1] Which is to say, in MBA terms. MBA’s naturally think in the vocabulary of economics, finance, game theory, statistics, operations, and so on. If you don’t already think like this, you might as well start now and get used to it.

Sin #1: Passive Voice

Adopting the Passive Voice

Take a moment to read the following paragraph, from a real business school application essay:

There is good reason why I want to transition to money management. My current and prior roles are all reactive to investment managers’ decisions. The investment side requires a higher degree of thinking and the ability to be forward looking and the ability to accurately predict the future. They need to constantly be up to date with current events and be aware of everything that is going on around them. For example, earlier last year there was an earthquake in China that devastated Wenchuan County. The province that was hit hardest, Sichuan, was a large agricultural producer. As an investment manager, you need to be forward thinking of the effects that this earthquake has on the rest of the world, and specifically in the investments you own and don’t own.

The applicant gets his point across, but it's tiresome.

Now read the following paragraph, which conveys much the same information:

I want to transition to money management because, in my current role, I merely react to investment managers’ decisions, rather than thinking ahead and predicting the future myself. As in investment manager, I’ll need to update myself constantly on current events. For example, an earthquake last year in China devastated Sichuan province, a large natural gas producer. As an investment manager, I would need to predict the effects this would have on the rest of the world, specifically on the investments in my portfolio.

What’s the difference? Passive voice versus action verbs! The first paragraph over-relies on the passive verb “to be” whereas the second uses dynamic verbs, often called “action verbs.” In a good, strong, action-verb-filled paragraph, you can almost get the sense of the paragraph by reading the verbs alone.

Let’s go back to the original, unedited version and highlight every appearance of the verb “to be”:

There is good reason why I want to transition to money management. My current and prior roles are all reactive to investment managers’ decisions. The investment side requires a higher degree of thinking and the ability to be forward looking and I’ll even go as far as saying that investment managers need the ability to accurately predict the future. They need to constantly be up to date with current events and be aware of everything that is going on around them. For example, earlier last year there was an earthquake in China that devastated Wenchuan County. The province that was hit hardest, Sichuan, was a large natural gas producer. As an investment manager, you need to be forward thinking of the effects that this earthquake has on the rest of the world, and specifically in the investments you own and don’t own.

The paragraph looks like a bad case of acne! Notice how many extraneous words we chopped simply by switching from passive voice—is, are, was, to be—to active voice: want, react, devastated, predict. The passive voice encourages you to use more words than you really need; it tempts you into verbosity. And verbosity will put your reader to sleep.

To get the passive voice out of your system, try this exercise: take a simple declarative sentence, and gradually torture it into the most convoluted and passive atrocity you possibly can. Here’s an example:

1. Write a paragraph using the passive voice.

Clear enough. Now let’s make it passive:

2. A paragraph should be written by you, using the passive voice.

Bad, but we can do worse. Let’s get even more passive:

3. The passive voice should be used in a paragraph written by you.

Notice how the subject, you, comes at the end of the line? Also notice how the same thought requires more and more words to express, as we get more and more passive. Each succeeding sentence gets longer and longer. But we’re not done yet! Let’s see just how atrociously passive we can get:

4. A voice, which should be passive, should be used, in a paragraph written by you.

Sickening, isn’t it?

The Seven Deadly Sins of MBA Applications

The Seven Deadly Sins most MBA applicants commit:

1. PASSIVITY: Adopting the passive voice, i.e., overusing forms of the verb "to be" rather than action verbs, which leads to verbosity and dull writing.

2. FORMALITY: Adopting an overly formal tone.

3. PANDERING: Telling the Admissions Committee what you think they want to hear.

4. DISCONTINUITY: Failure to "connect the dots," i.e., to weave the pieces of your story into a cohesive and coherent whole.

5. EXCUSE-MAKING: Drawing unwarranted attention to perceived shortcomings (e.g., "my GMAT score is low because...").

6. LACK OF INSIGHT: Failure to draw insightful conclusions from experiences.

7. PERSONALITY: Failure to understand the personality of the school to which you are applying, and to explain how the school's personality fits with your own.