By Jeremy Dann

“Time is on our side.” So quoth the Rolling Stones. Truer words were never spoken about the business school application process. Smartly investing and budgeting time is a key to generating the great essays needed to accurately represent your achievements, talents, goals and potential contributions to a top b-school admissions committee. But, if you neglect tending to your calendar and work schedule, then time will most decidedly not be on your side.

Candidates need to balance the significant investment of hours spent developing essays with the other commitments in their lives: work, family, community service, friends, etc. The best way to do this is to start to put together your application calendar and time budget months before the deadlines you are targeting. Candidates need to think about time management from a number of angles.

Finding the HOURS: Enough time to grind out those essays
Although the time MBA aspirants take to generate their applications varies greatly depending on writing ability, general work efficiency and other factors, you should basically plan on spending 40-60 hours in front of your computer working on your collection of, say, four to eight applications. This amount of time generally covers the writing, revising, editing, proofing, formatting and inputting of essays. Someone currently immersed in writing and editing as a part of his or her career—maybe someone authoring investment reports or working in corporate communications—will probably have a much smoother process than a person who has been imprisoned in Excel Hell for the last three or four years. Non-native English speakers will also probably need to plan on spending more time on their applications.
Aside from the essays themselves, candidates need to set aside the hours necessary to prep recommenders (which we will deal with in coming weeks) and continue with the reading, community service and other activities that enhance their candidacy. Oh…and of course, we can’t forget the hours to fun and frolic spent prepping for the GMAT.

Planning the DAYS: The best ways to structure your work sessions
Different folks have different sorts of work patterns. Some are most efficient when they can break up tasks into manageable pieces. Some work best when they can devote eight hours at a time in marathon writing sessions. MBA applicants should be aware of the way they work the most effectively and efficiently and structure their writing/editing sessions accordingly.
I recommend to most of my clients that they allocate two to three hours each time they sit down at their computer to work on their essays. Shorter sessions, I believe, don’t allow enough time for people to get into a “literary groove.” Essays should be handled holistically, especially in the first two drafts. Don’t think that you’re going to have a strong end-product if you steal 15-minutes here and 30-minutes there to generate that Wharton leadership answer. Essays composed in pieces often read as disjointed, unpolished tracts.
Most applicants should also avoid the “marathon session.” It is the rare individual who is as sharp or creative eight hours into a writing and editing session as he was at the beginning. If you need to catch up by doing extra work, trying breaking it up with a session in the morning and another in the evening.

Budgeting the WEEKS: Allow enough time for reflection and feedback
While some people think they produce their best work under intense pressure, it is extremely unwise to try to polish off a set of applications in just a week or two. Distributing the work over a sensible time period of four to six weeks lets you maintain a steady, but manageable pace. Spreading the work out a bit allows you to reflect on things you may have written over previous days; you may think of a better microexample to illustrate a certain character trait or develop much more interesting or humorous language for a specific paragraph. This will not happen if you are forced to work at warp speed.
Distributing your writing and editing over a reasonable period also makes it easier for friends, family or colleagues to provide feedback on your essays if you choose to ask them. It’s extremely unfair to ask someone to turn around comments in a 24-period, so provide them a few days to give you their comments and critiques. And of course, leave yourself adequate time to reflect on and incorporate their feedback. Don’t be one of those applicants that sends essays out to a friend in the last couple of days just for the sake of gaining the “security blanket” that comes with hearing “Great job! I know you’ll get in.” Select people who will tell you the real deal and give yourself enough time to act on it.
Finally, if you choose to work with a professional application advisor, make sure you take this into account in your calendar. Advisors in some ways make the process take longer—with the extra discussions and feedback cycles—but can also save time when all is said and done by helping make sure you don’t follow any “dead ends” in your essay writing process.

For insight into how one future applicant is getting a head start on the process, check out UniQpath’s blog. She is already struggling with some of the key questions that need to be addressed throughout this process.

Yesterday, Bschool Diva wrote that this is “boring” time on the bschool front. I suppose it is true - this is the calm before the storm. It’s a time to take action wherever you can - GMAT, a Calculus class, lobbying for that promotion. OR…assessing your extracurricular profile…

Applications will soon be published. Many prospective applicants are bemoaning the fact that they have not been involved with any activities outside of work since college. Life has been too hectic, with 80 hour work weeks and a desire for a bit of fun. While it’s understandable that there has been little time, most of those who are ultimately admitted to the top schools, make time to nurture their interests and hobbies.

If you think that suddenly becoming a regular at the soup kitchen will look suspicious, you are probably correct. That type of involvement will not do you much good in terms of applications, although your contributions will always be appreciated! If you want to become involved with something now, think about who you are, what truly interests you, and what talents or skills you can contribute.

Make sure that whatever you do is genuinely meaningful to you and helps to support a story about your interests and abilities. See my previous post which provides some examples.

Also, try to become involved in a way that helps you highlight your leadership skills. Just listing off some volunteer work is not going to be as helpful as a story about how you initiated a fundraiser for a cause you hold close to your heart.

If you are really grasping for ideas, here are a few quick and easy ones:
- Can you give back to your undergraduate institution? Alumni interviewing, fundraising…? Schools always like to see this because it shows a track record for giving back to your alma mater.
- Many cities have groups such as Hands on Bay Area (in the Bay Area) which can inform you of opportunities.
- Check out Volunteer Match to help you locate local opportunities.

Choose something that you enjoy and have some fun cultivating interests, meeting new people and giving back!

By Jeremy Dann

“How many schools should I apply to? Which schools should I apply to?”

These are key questions aspiring MBAs ponder during the spring and summer before the busy application-writing season in fall and winter. The answers are different depending on where the applicant is within his or her “window” of applying to business school.

I_Will_Make_It wrote last month in Why MBA about her MBA plans and how her values, goals and desires have shifted a bit through the years. It’s important to be aware of where you are in life and how this impacts your school decisions.

The vast majority of MBA students are in their mid-20s to early 30s. Only a small portion come directly from college and only a few attend full-time business school in their late-30s and into their 40s. But even within the, say, eight-year “window” from 24-32 years of age, applicants have a variety of inputs to consider when deciding the portfolio of MBA programs they should apply to.

Age: Many applicants in their mid-20s decide they will only apply to their first two choices this year, figuring they can reapply a couple years down the line when they have a bit more experience. I can understand this approach for some younger candidates, but applicants who are a bit older should strongly consider a different approach. They should apply to a wider array of schools to ensure that they will at least have the option of attending business school in the fall of ’07. Of course, the best scenario involves an intelligent mix of top schools and “safer” schools that will yield a choice of MBA programs for the applicant. Some candidates, frankly, get on an unreasoned “Harvard or Stanford…or nothing!” kick that doesn’t serve anyone’s interests.

Next career alternative: Some MBA aspirants are in positions in which they could continue on for many more years. Others hold roles at places like consulting firms or top investment banks where policy and/or tradition encourage young employees to get further education. In environments where one can continue to advance unfettered, a candidate might consider applying solely to his or her top choice programs. However, candidates coming from companies with 2-3 year analyst programs that don’t allow for much upward progression should probably cast their nets a bit wider, assembling a bigger portfolio of schools.

Career track satisfaction: I have talked to several MBA aspirants who feel they are “locked” in roles that are too technical or too narrowly defined. Yet, some still want apply to just a couple of very highly ranked programs. When people desire to make a career transition to an entirely new role or industry—sooner, rather than later—I highly encourage them to apply to a broader array of business schools. There are incredible programs throughout the top 20 in the b-school rankings (and even beyond) that can provide the classes, career programs and alumni networks that aid this kind of transition.

First timer…or re-applicant?: A candidate who is going through his or her second round of business school applications should almost always apply to more schools. If the candidate is applying a couple of years down the line after dramatically improving his experience base, then he might add a couple of new schools to the mix but still target his top programs from a few years before. However, if the candidate is applying the very next year without significant changes in role, experience or “extracurriculars,” it makes a lot of sense to pursue a different base of schools, with perhaps one or two holdovers from the year before.

Family considerations: Taking two years to get an MBA is not just a “business decision,” it’s a “life decision.” Sometimes, the interests of boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, wives and children are critical factors in making the decision of if, when and where to apply. These considerations are much more complex and varied than the factors listed above, so it’s difficult to work through them in depth here. For instance, I knew some students who wanted to get through business school quickly so that they could start a family afterward, but I also knew of others who thought that business school (with day-care, low travel requirements, etc.) was a great environment to begin to build up their brood.

Candidates should talk with family, friends and mentors (and potentially an MBA application advisor) early in the application process to determine where they are in this “window” for business school. It’s an absolutely critical step in managing this multi-month application process thoughtfully.

In the past, I have addressed the issue of applicant age. I am constantly asked by applicants if they are too old or too young. Recently, more individuals are concerned about being too old, as the rumor is that younger applicants are more desirable. Just RusGirl addresses one aspect of the age issue, as it pertains to women, in Women in business schools. In my prior post, “Am I too Old“, I provide some general insights on this topic.

Since Harvard and Stanford, in particular, are often cited for seeking out younger applicants, I thought I would provide some insights, straight from the mouth of Stanford’s Dean Joss:

Why We Want Some Early Career Students

Back in the 1960s when I went to the Business School, most of us were straight out of college or had less than two years of post-college work experience. Among them, Phil Knight, MBA ‘62, went on to found Nike. My classmate Hank McKinnell, MBA ‘67, is now CEO of Pfizer. John Scully, MBA ‘68, manages private equity investments. Jeffrey Bewkes, MBA ‘77, went on to become chairman of the entertainment and networks group at Time Warner. Even in the 1980s, people still came directly from college as exemplified by Robert Kagle, MBA ‘80, now general partner with Benchmark Capital, and Ann Livermore, MBA ‘82, an executive vice president at Hewlett-Packard.

Over time, however, the post-undergraduate work experience of applicants to business school has grown. The range is great but the average is now four or five years. A myth has developed that you must have four years or more of experience or top business schools won’t even look at you. That’s not true at Stanford. Yet the myth has deterred outstanding early-career applicants from applying. While those who have worked longer bring valuable experience to class discussion, we want to see a few strong early-career students in the mix too.

What do I mean by early-career?

Generally, applicants with fewer than three years of full-time work experience. This group includes individuals who want to pursue an MBA directly following undergraduate study with no prior full-time work experience.

Why reach out to these prospects? First, remember that the Business School’s philosophy is to have maximum impact on the management effectiveness of leaders at different career stages. The Sloan Master’s Program is aimed primarily at mid-career managers. Executive Education supports practicing mid- and senior-level managers. The MBA is a transformative experience for those who know, no matter their career stage, that leadership of organizations is their lifelong calling. That’s where we have a tremendous opportunity to accelerate the development of rising leaders.

Second, we think we’re missing out on some talent. I know at least two current chief executives of major corporations who years ago were denied admission to the Business School partly because they applied too early, but they were admitted elsewhere. We don’t want to lose outstanding candidates to other programs because we are perceived as unnecessarily rigid.

Third, the opportunity cost of being out of the workplace for two years is the largest cost component of an MBA, and that cost is lowest in the early-career stage. In addition, for candidates thinking about when to begin a family, early entrance to business school is often an attractive option. Women now earn the majority of undergraduate degrees in the United States and will be increasing in the MBA applicant pool as a result. Evidence suggests that women and men are at parity in law and medical schools partially because many women are able to establish their post-professional school careers before taking time out for children.

What are we doing to recruit early-career candidates?

Over the last several years, we have increased our efforts to reach undergraduate students by visiting 50 colleges to discuss the merits of an MBA education in general and at Stanford specifically. For the first time this year, the Business School offered the GSB Summer Institute for liberal arts and science undergraduates and early-career individuals to provide an early exposure to management education.

What do students with less work experience contribute?

Professors observe that early-career students are able to contribute along with those who have more work history. Early-career applicants may have fewer work experiences, but it is the quality of their experiences and not the quantity that matters, and we select all our students for the quality of what they bring. Different early-career applicants make different contributions, just as is the case with other demographic groups that make up the class—and that’s the point: We admit people as individuals, and by having outstanding early-career applicants in the pool, we have a stronger pool from which to select. Each person makes his or her own unique and valuable contribution to the whole, and each receives individual benefits from the program.

Recruiters strongly support the presence of some early-career students in the program. These students are sometimes more flexible about the location and types of positions they consider, and they can be more patient in the career years immediately after the MBA—factors that lead to considerable placement success for them. Our emphasis has always been quality of experience rather than quantity, focusing on what applicants have achieved relative to their opportunities.

Does this mean that Stanford is only interested in early career applicants? No. It also does not mean that you have a better chance if you apply at a younger age. It just means that these schools are becoming increasingly open to all ages, and realize that you have a lot to contribute in different ways at various life stages. Your job as an applicant is to search internally for what you have to offer - whether it is ten years of accumulated work experience or a high quality, unique summer internship.