As one group of nervous applicants transitions to being enrolled students, another group gets ready to apply. Why not learn from the successes, failures and decisions of the group before you? For the next several weeks we will be publishing interviews that we conducted with some of last year’s clients. We gave them a list of questions and asked that they be brutally honest and try to provide any insights that could help future applicants.

Biggest mistake you made or almost made in this process?
Lack of organization and planning/procrastination. Applying to business school is a long process that requires planning and preparation. Do not underestimate the amount of time various aspects of the process take, such as writing and re-writing your essays. Plan ahead. Also, don’t miss the forest for the trees. When you first decide to apply to business school and begin the process, it is easy to get bogged down in the details and focus only on the many tasks at hand. However, it is important to look at the bigger picture and start thinking about other aspects of applying to business school, such as how you are going to fund your education and the many scholarship and fellowship opportunities available. I thought my work was done after submitting my school applications; I forgot about the many fellowships and scholarships for which I could apply.

Some keys to your success?
Thinking about the end goal and all of the hard work I had put in up to a particular point in time. It is often difficult to stay motivated, especially because the process is so long. For me, the entire process took about 2 years, from the time I began researching MBA programs and preparing for the GMAT to the time I made my final decision on which school to attend. You will likely encounter many frustrations and stumbling blocks along the way, so it is important to remind yourself of why you are applying to business school, what you hope to get out of the experience, and how business school will help you achieve your goals. Without a doubt, working with an admissions consultant to help me clearly and convincingly write about my goals and why I want to obtain an MBA was instrumental to my success.

What did you find most challenging?
Staying on top of everything that needed to be done for the application process while working on a very large, strategic project at work and continuing my involvement with extracurricular activities. Applying to business school while working long hours and maintaining hobbies is not an easy feat, but you will need to be able to prioritize and balance in business school and beyond, so you might as well learn now.

What was an exercise you went through that was helpful?
Thinking about my work experience, accomplishments, volunteer work, interests, hobbies, interesting stories, etc. and writing all of these down prior to even looking at applications. This served as a great exercise and excellent fodder for my essays.

How did you put together the following important aspects of your story?
– why MBA?
I thought I could clearly and convincingly write about “Why an MBA”, but what I thought was a clear path that made sense did not necessarily make sense to others. This is where my consultant was able to add tremendous value.

– why this school?
I conducted extensive due diligence on each of the schools to which I was applying, so I had a pretty good idea of how each school would benefit me both personally and professionally, as well as how I could contribute to each school’s community. My consultant helped me refine this aspect of my essays.

– what are your career goals?
I’m a career switcher, and my career goals were pretty clear (at least to me). My consultant helped me tie my career goals to what I had done in the past up until the point of applying to business school.

What was most helpful in your interview prep?
I opted for alumni interviews where possible. This is a risk, as you never know what you will get when interviewing with alumni. However, it was a risk I was willing to take. While I suspect that AdComs have a set list of questions to ask candidates and know exactly what they are looking for, an interview with an alum can be very casual and relaxed. I have interviewed many people during my career, and I think the interviewing principles and rules that apply to business also apply to business school. One interviewing “truth” that I have discovered during my career is that people hire others that they like on a personal level. If you can develop a good rapport with your interviewer and get him/her to like you as a person, you stand a much better chance of getting hired. I believe the same holds true for business school interviews. Of course, the interview is what you make of it, and you can have a very casual and relaxed interview with an AdCom and develop great rapport with them, but I think AdCom interviews are generally more structured, whereas you could spend your entire alumni interview talking about sports or some other common interest. One thing I did to prep for my interviews was Google my interviewers and see what I could find out about them online. I felt that the more information I was armed with, the better able I would be to develop a good rapport with my interviewers. I also reviewed my entire application, including essays and resume. In addition, I compiled a list of potential interview questions from various sources and thought about various examples and stories I could use in my responses to the questions.

How did you select your recommenders?
I selected my recommenders based upon who I felt knew me best on both a professional and personal level. My recommenders knew the quality of my work, my strengths and weaknesses, and my various contributions, and they could cite very specific examples to support their points. Also, my recommenders and I were friends outside of work, so I knew they would put forth great effort while working on my recommendations.

How did you prep your recommenders?
I provided my recommenders with a package that included an overview of my career goals and why I want to attend business school, my resume, a copy of my application essays, deadlines for recommendation submissions, and a document outlining my work experience, accomplishments, volunteer work, interests, hobbies, etc.

What were you most nervous about in your profile?
Numbers/Academic profile: My GMAT score was within the 80% range of the top schools, but I could have done better. I attended a top undergraduate school, and while the school does not officially calculate a GPA, I had a B average. Although I had proven myself time and again in my professional life, I was concerned that my numbers may be a point of weakness in my application.

How did you overcome this potential stumbling block?
I took a Stats class and received an A. I had my recommenders emphasize my intelligence and analytical ability within their recommendations. Also, I wrote about the analytical and quantitative aspects of my professional experience in my essays.

How did you select your list of schools?
I had a clear idea of what I wanted to do post-MBA, so I knew what I wanted to get out of an MBA program. I conducted extensive due diligence on several of the top MBA programs, and selected a group of schools to apply to that I felt matched well with my goals.

What was helpful when you hit writer’s block?
Step away from the computer and take a break. Relax. Seek guidance from my consultant.

What was the best GMAT resource?
I studied with a GMAT tutor, which helped me tremendously. Previously, I had taken one of the more popular test prep classes, but this did not help me at all. I found that having a one-on-one tutor for the GMAT who could customize lessons to my needs was extremely beneficial.

END RESULT: ATTENDING U CHICAGO
For other Chicago insights, visit:
GSB Mennonite
diphThong
Le Voyageur
Wakechick
Poweryogi
Alator
Dirty Canuck
the daily travails

By Jeremy Dann

You’re going to be asked that question a lot over the next several months, so you need to come up with a good answer.  Actually, several different good answers, each tailored for distinct constituencies.

MBA admissions boards: Show them that you know appreciate the value of learning opportunities and have taken advantage of them.  Illustrate how the MBA program will be a better place to develop your skills and further your interests than your current job or even your likely next job would be.

Colleagues/managers: There are many firms where young professionals regularly exit to attend MBA programs, and a fresh crop of MBAs cycle in every fall.  In other workplaces, some colleagues might view an exit as “giving up on the team.” You don’t want your MBA admission to cast a pall over your final months in your current job.  If you explain your MBA as an opportunity to prepare yourself for opportunities a decade or two down the road—rather than as a route to get a better job than you could get coming from your current position—they may be more supportive.

“The Doubters”: Last year, a couple of my clients recounted how alumni interviewers probed deeply on why they were applying, even going so far as to say to an entrepreneurially inclined individual, “You don’t need an MBA to do what you want to do.”  Candidates who may want to stay in the same field (or return to the same firm) after graduation and those who want to enter the not-for-profit or government sectors often hear the same stuff.  My would-be-entrepreneur candidate was prepared: she countered with a list of a half dozen world-renowned entrepreneurs from this particular MBA program.  And in the political world, the President of the United States received his MBA…I mean the Mayor of New York received his MBA from Harvard.

“Da Haters”: There are people who don’t see the value of business school at all (shocking…shocking, I know).  After all, business people usually don’t need accreditations like doctors, lawyers and some other professionals.  You should be prepared to talk about why this will not just be a “two-year vacation” for you.

As one group of nervous applicants transitions to being enrolled students, another group gets ready to apply. Why not learn from the successes, failures and decisions of the group before you? For the next several weeks we will be publishing interviews that we conducted with some of last year’s clients. We gave them a list of questions and asked that they be brutally honest and try to provide any insights that could help future applicants

Biggest mistake you made or almost made in this process?
The biggest mistake I made was underestimating how much time the process would take. I was pretty sure I could get everything prepared and done for first round, and in fact I made it with only a week or two to space for second round deadlines! That’s an average of 1 month per school, and that includes a fair bit of essay re-use!! But I’m glad I didn’t make the mistake of trying to rush my essay writing to deliver for round one, I think the results would have been disastrous.

Some keys to your success?
The biggest key was definitely my consultant’s help. Not only were her edits always on point and prompt, her participation kept the momentum going. And the quality of her work made it imperative that my own revisions have some real substance.

Perseverance. You really have to want it, and have the energy to follow through. Writing and re-writing and re-re-writing essays nearly every day after work can be discouraging.

What did you find most challenging?
The essays, by far. Especially starting new ones, getting the flow right, telling an interesting story that delivers a strong positive message.

How did you put together the following important aspects of your story?
- why MBA?
This was relatively easy for me because I really did know why I wanted one. The challenge was in looking at my past and showing how each experience played a role in creating the person I am today. Then, identifying the ones which led me away from engineering and introduced me to the business/entrepreneurial/finance world, and describing those in a way that shows a definite passion and strong desire to learn more.

- why this school?
Web research! To start with, the schools I chose to apply to (after narrowing it down) had strong curricula in finance, or were otherwise well-suited to my goals — except HBS (should’ve skipped that one). That made it easy because I could speak to their strengths while being genuine about my interest. The aspects I highlighted (thanks to my consultant’s suggestions) were: specific classes I was interested in taking; specific clubs I wanted to participate and lead in; specific research centers and professors I would like to learn from/work with; geographic reasons.

What was most helpful in your interview prep?
I learned a ton from my consultant during my interview prep. Most importantly I learned how to describe my application’s biggest weakness (lack of community/social leadership) in a way that makes a strong positive impact. That was a huge benefit because when asked about that weakness I was not only very aware of it, but also had a real story and plan of action to redress that weakness.

How did you select your recommenders?
I was lucky in that I had a fair bit of choice at my work of people who I felt confident could write strong recommendations for me, and doubly lucky that my direct manager and his manager were both among that group. I chose those two because of the strong direct relationship we have at work, and also because they have different perspectives and backgrounds which I felt would help keep the essays good AND interesting (non-repetitive, different styles)

How did you prep your recommenders?
I used the recommender package template sent to me by my consultant, and prepared a semi-personalized letter for each of my recommenders describing the online process, giving them a hard copy of the questions, and a hard copy sample letter of rec. In the letter I included a list of the projects we’ve worked on together at my company, as well as a brief description of the strengths and weaknesses I’d be highlighting in my essays.

What were you most nervous about in your profile?
I was most nervous about my lack of involvment at the community level.

How did you overcome this potential stumbling block?
Community involvment and leadership was not just something that I thought I should have for my application, but something I was genuinely missing in my life. My consultant helped me formulate an answer to that question which conveys that genuine desire and a real plan to change that aspect of my life during business school.

How did you select your list of schools?
My criteria were: geography (could not be in California), ranking (had to be a top-10 MBA program), and specialization (had to be strong in finance and entrepreneurship). From there I narrowed it down to only the schools that I would be thrilled to attend if it was the only one I got into. No backup schools when you’re spending two years and 100K+, it doesn’t make sense.

What was helpful when you hit writer’s block?
It helped to go back to the brag sheet I put together with my consultant to see what I hadn’t yet talked about. Also, talking to my family about the particular essay question sometimes brought different ideas to the table. When all else failed I could always count on my consultant for a few suggestions as well.

How did you stay motivated?
Calculating the average time it took per essay and looking at the amount of time remaining before deadlines, you quickly realize how short 2 months is. The good thing is the average time per essay does go down very fast once you get the hang of things, luckily. Getting prompt, high-quality feedback from my consultant helped motivate me to keep the momentum going also. And most importantly, truly believing that an MBA makes sense right now meant that I had to follow through and do things right.

What was the best GMAT resource?
A combination of tons of prep materials (especially computer based tests and drills) and a study group. The materials are key because I believe it’s all about practice for standardized tests. The study group helped because we went through the same materials which had two advantages: 1) competition, and 2) when one person had it right and the other had it wrong, we could explain the solution and thought process to one another. Much better than reading the solution in a book…

END RESULT: ATTENDING U CHICAGO
For other Chicago insights, visit:
GSB Mennonite
diphThong
Le Voyageur
Wakechick
Poweryogi
Alator
Dirty Canuck
the daily travails

By Jeremy Dann
Some applicants view their recommendations as a part of the business school application process that can be put on auto-pilot. But make no mistake: even this part of your file will require a significant investment of time and attention.

Start to think NOW about a short list of candidates who you think would be capable, diligent and organized recommendation writers (remember, these folks will have deadlines to hit, too!). This list should be composed of people from your current job, previous employers, “extracurricular” activities and university. They should be from various levels of organizations. Some might possess a “name” or boast an impressive title, while others will be peers who have collaborated closely with you. Over the next several weeks, try to get some “quality time” with these people—potentially even re-establishing ties with someone from a previous job or an old college prof—in order to feel out who would be most jazzed about writing a rec. Believe me, the recommender’s attitude and commitment level is key.

Aim for a good “spread” among your recommenders, so they can write about you from various angles. Getting the partner from the “pharma cost-cutting consulting project” and also the partner from the “chemical cost-cutting consulting project” might not produce the recs that show the full range of your character and capabilities.

In general, I believe you should give these folks about six weeks of advance warning before the deadline and provide them any forms and prep materials three to four weeks before the date you would like the recommendation submitted.

This is no mere “hand-off” of a few Xeroxed forms, as some folks might believe. This is a task for which you should budget a few hours. All applicants need to figure out what their recs should say and how they should complement the points they themselves bring up in their essays. Even a recommender with the best intentions might end up writing a weak appraisal if it does not dovetail with the “Brand You” that is woven into your essays. For instance, a recommendation that emphasizes your data-gathering and quantitative analysis skills doesn’t do much for you if you tried to establish your “brand” around creativity and dynamic leadership.

Provide your recommenders with a list of anecdotes that will jog their memories. Very specific anecdotes, like “Remember the time on the XYZ negotiation where you said the deal structure I proposed saved the company $10 million?” Some of these anecdotes or “microexamples” can be things you yourself raise in the essays, while others might be fresh material that only the recommender employs. Stacy wrote a great post during last year’s application season about recs: check it out.

We’ll revisit this topic in coming weeks to talk about managing recommenders. Please let us know if you have any questions.