It’s always amazing how much shorter the day feels when the sun goes down earlier!

And while the days are shorter in my part of the world, your workload is probably getting bigger.  Maybe you’re working full time. You’ve got your extra-curriculars. Not to mention, family, friends and of course, (if you celebrate), what to be for Halloween.

With so much going on, your biggest challenge is going to be finding the time to work on your application.

Chances are, you’re already finding that there’s always something to do that’s MORE IMPORTANT, more pressing, than your application.

So: how do you fit your application in to your overly packed schedule?

Great question!

The truth is, in order to put your best foot forward, you have to make your application a priority.  We protect ourselves from rejection by finding reasons not to really try.  Some people never even finish their application.

But, no one gets an acceptance letter for almost trying. You have to work hard and work well.

Your dreams have to be more important than your excuses.

That sounds good, right? But HOW?

Another great question!

First: Block out 30 minutes a day for your application. Great if you can find more time, but everyone can find 30 extra minutes in their day, from a college senior to a working mom.

Next: Remember, you’re going to stumble. You’re not going to work efficiently and productively every day. But the point is, you’re working every day.

Finally: Make your application a priority. So don’t just make a commitment to work 30 minutes a day, keep the commitment.

Applying to business school is no different than training for a marathon; you’ve got to log the miles to get to the finish line.  There is no better recipe for success than training yourself into success.

Say no to that Halloween party or politely decline the last minute ski trip and hunker down and get to work!

For more on making your application a priority, check out my latest Tuesday Tip Video.  There’s much more to say on how and why to make your application a priority!

Until next time,

“For me, the resume is just as important as your essays,” Soojin Kwon, admissions director at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, recently wrote on her blog. Wednesday, October 10th is the round one deadline, so there’s no time like the present to weigh how your resume stacks up against her expectations.

Here are the three tips she passed on to applicants:

1. A good resume takes time.

“I find that many applicants don’t take enough care with their resumes,” Kwon said, perhaps dashing off  something that might suffice if you were applying for a job in your industry. This is yet another chance to tell your story, but it most be done with brevity and in a way that engages the reader. No industry jargon, please! “It should be clear and concise, yet detailed enough to give us an idea of your skills, experiences and interests,” Kwon explained.

2. Quality trumps quantity.

For applicants concerned their resume is on the thin side, Kwon stressed that the admissions committee is looking not at the number of years worked but on the quality of that professional experience. Ross wants to see what skills you’ve gained and the contributions you’ve made.

3. Fear not, ye poets!

For UM Ross, like most top business schools, the beauty of creating a diverse class comes from pulling together compelling candidates from all sorts of undergraduate backgrounds—which includes those from liberal arts or other such “non-business” degrees. Class discussions would fizzle pretty quickly if everyone in the group came from just one or two industries or majors.

Have you seen this recent story on MBA essays for sale in Bloomberg Businessweek? Two MBA graduates, a husband-and-wife team from UC Berkeley Haas School of Business and Stanford Graduate School of Business, respectively,  have a website called Wordprom.com that has b-school admissions officials steaming.

Launched in August, the website offers potential applicants a crack at buying b-school essays from more than 400 current students or recent graduates. But judging by the response in Businessweek given by representatives from Harvard Business to School, London Business School and UCLA Anderson School of Management, the general consensus is that purchasing essays–even if supposedly used for inspiration only–is unhelpful at best and unethical at worst.

In my view, what Wordprom.com is doing is a complete rip off.  Let’s face facts: MBA essays have always been available.  You can ask your friend who applied last year, you can buy a book, or you can search the web.  Therefore, paying $50 for an essay is ridiculously expensive.

They are not giving any personal consulting – they are just giving a sample of what an essay looks like – again, this is available for a lot less elsewhere, and it is nothing new.  Selling them this way gives the impression that perhaps Wordprom.com is offering something special, but they are not.

Applicants may choose to use the essays for inspiration, but anything other than that is a mistake.  I always warn clients against getting too hooked on sample essays as they can harm the creative process and also be misleading.  Applicants may be admitted in spite of an essay, not because of it. What works for one applicant in the context of a full application may not work at all for someone else.

I don’t love clients using samples but understand why they want to.  However, given the recent spate of plagiarism detected by UCLA Anderson, and the uptick in business schools using Turnitin for Admissions to suss out the copy cats, MBA applicants must be extremely judicious about how they use sample essays. For some, the temptation to crib may be too hard to resist.

This post originally appeared on Stacy’s “Strictly Business” MBA blog on U.S.News.com

All aspiring MBAs must decide how many and which business schools to apply to; the key is to be aware of where you are in the application “window”—or where you are in life in general.

The vast majority of MBA students are in their mid-20s to early 30s. Only a small portion comes directly from college, and only a few attend full-time business school in their late-30s or 40s. But even within the prime eight-year window—from 24 to 32—applicants should consider five issues when deciding where to apply.

1. Age: Many applicants in their mid-20s decide to apply only to their first two choices, figuring that if they don’t get in, they can reapply down the line when they have more experience. While this approach may work for some younger candidates, it’s not recommended for applicants who are a bit older. Instead, older candidates should apply to a wider array of schools to ensure that they will at least have the option of attending business school next fall.

Of course, the best scenario involves an intelligent mix of “reach” and “safety” schools that will yield a choice of MBA programs for the applicant. Unfortunately, some candidates get on a misguided “Harvard or Stanford … or nothing!” kick that doesn’t serve anyone’s interests.

2. Career path: Some MBA aspirants hold positions where they can continue for many years, but others work in areas, such as consulting or investment banking, where policy or tradition encourages 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 two- to three-year analyst programs, which don’t allow for much upward progression, should probably cast their nets wider and assemble a bigger portfolio of schools.

3. Career track satisfaction: Several MBA applicants, who feel locked in roles that are too technical or too narrowly defined, have told me they want to apply to just a couple of very highly ranked programs.

However, when people hope to transition to either an entirely new role or industry sooner rather than later, they should apply to a broad range 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.

4. First timer or reapplicant: 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 her experience base, then she might add two or three new schools to the mix, but should still target her 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, he should pursue a different base of schools, with perhaps one or two holdovers from the previous year.

5. Family considerations: Taking two years to get an MBA is not just a business decision—it’s also a life decision. Sometimes, the interests of boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, wives, or 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, some students want to get through business school quickly so they can start a family afterward, while others may view business school (with day care, low travel requirements, etc.) as a great environment to begin to build up their brood.

Candidates should talk with family, friends, and mentors (and potentially an MBA application adviser) early in the process to determine where they are in this window for business school. Says Jesse Hopps, founder of DemandMetric, this was an absolutely critical step in managing the application process thoughtfully.

Don’t try to stand out, do make sure you understand—and are excited about—the case method approach to learning, and stay curious are three of the main pieces of advice Harvard Business School’s Dee Leopold offers applicants in a recent post on her director’s blog.

While some candidates may feel deflated after reading her remarks, fearing they might have to switch strategies mid-stream, Leopold’s tips benefit anyone applying to Harvard and other case method-based MBA programs.

Tip #1

“Try to resist the urge to make “standing out” your primary goal in the admissions process. If you have made traditional choices all along (college, extra-curriculars, major field of study, jobs), own it. You’ll look silly if you try to portray yourself as a rogue daredevil. There are plenty of people at HBS who come from traditional backgrounds.”

I would add that excellence comes in many different packages, and sometimes small examples can brilliantly illustrate your distinctive contributions. Avoid any attempt to manufacture a memorable impression and instead focus on relaying with enthusiasm your own unique accomplishments and interests. You’re not being asked to talk about yourself for any other reason than to help a school learn why you made the choices you did. What those choices were is hardly relevant.

Tip #2

“Do your homework about the case method. It’s our signature pedagogy and it is nothing like traditional academia. Watch Inside the Case Method on our website and ask yourself if you find this method of learning intriguing and exciting. If it’s not for you, choose another school now vs. later.”

The Case Method approach is a proven winner because it brings the subject to life, brings business back to reality, and allows you to benefit from the professional experiences of a diverse group of classmates. However, this method may not be for everyone.  Other top programs, such as Chicago Booth School of Business, Kellogg School of Management, Yale School of Management and more rely on a broader mix of teaching methods.

Tip #3

“Stay curious. It’s so easy to stay “heads down” during the application process and become so introspective that you lose sight of the larger world. Keep reading. Keep listening. We’re looking for people who can dig into a case about a company they have never heard of, in an industry they don’t think they care about – and be 100% engaged.”

I like to remind applicants to stay connected to the bigger picture – remember what this process is all about.  Ultimately it is not about submitting a set of essays.  It is not even about getting in to X school.  It is about your future, your career, creating opportunities for yourself.  Tap into all the things in life that inspire you; this will help you to make things happen.

If you are contemplating applying to the Chicago Booth School of Business, here are just a few items to focus on when crafting your application package.

According to a recent Business Because interview with Danielle Foster, associate director of admissions at Chicago Booth as of October 2011, applicants would do well to study her top three tips for impressing the MBA admissions team.

Tip #1:  Be Authentic

Don’t try to sell the admissions committee on an idealize image of the perfect b-school candidate. Considering the thousands of applications that come across their desks each year, it’s safe to assume their baloney detectors are finely honed! “We are very transparent at Booth and we appreciate applicants who are able to do the same on their application,” Foster says. Just be true to yourself and tell your own unique story.

Tip #2:  Do Your Research!

In addition to doing a lot of soul-searching to determine why you want to pursue an MBA, and why now is the time to do so, you must convey to the admissions committee why X program is the best fit for your career goals, learning style, etc. Culture and fit are two very important aspects of an MBA program, and truly do vary from school to school.

Foster says the admissions team values applicants who can demonstrate a clear understanding of Chicago Booth culture, and can describe how it is a mutual fit.

Tip #3: Pay Attention to Those Essay Questions

The temptation to cut-and-paste essays from one school to another is a strong one, and in some cases you may be able to judiciously recycle certain examples that support specific attributes or situations. However, Foster notes that often applicants miss the mark on answering the question actually asked in the essay set.

“We may receive a great essay, but if it is not answering the question, you have missed an opportunity to showcase your skills and talents,” says Foster.

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If you’re looking for clear examples of how to address the essay questions, check out our recent Chicago Booth MBA essay tips post for guidance on how to successfully convey your professional and personal stories.