Do’s and Don’ts for Reapplying to Business School
Many top MBA programs welcome reapplicants—and even encourage them to do so. Reapplying to business school signals resilience and a deep commitment to your goals. As this UVA Darden blog post affirms, reapplicants can absolutely succeed. But you must show how your candidacy has grown stronger. Take a closer look at the application components below to figure out where to focus as you prepare for a second (and more successful) attempt.
Did you know SBC offers a Ding Analysis as an a la carte service? Contact us today to learn more.
Reapplying to Business School? Rethink Your Target Programs
If you received multiple dings, consider revising your list of schools. You may have applied to programs that didn’t align well with your profile. Prioritize fit over brand. Match your learning style with each school’s teaching approach.
DO apply to at least four schools across a range of competitiveness.
DON’T apply to too many schools—usually six or more—believing that hedging your bets in this way will guarantee admission somewhere. While that strategy sounds logical, in reality, your efforts will become diluted with each successive application. There won’t be enough passion there to sway the admissions committee.
DO include your dream school. Even long shots are worth the swing when you’re all in.
Refresh Your Letters of Recommendation
Unsuccessful applicants sometimes don’t realize that the rejection occurred because their letters of recommendation came across as weak endorsements at best.
DO make sure whoever you ask is willing to write a compelling recommendation. Since it’s not a given that you’ll see the letter once it’s written, it’s perfectly OK to come right out and explicitly ask for what you need.
DON’T choose a recommender for superficial reasons. We’ve seen too many applicants dinged for committing this mistake. Asking the president of a company, an alum of your dream school, or any other bigwig won’t do you any good if they cannot speak intimately and enthusiastically about your many virtues.
DO remind your recommenders to address specific examples of your accomplishments and leadership abilities. They should also discuss your work ethic or team-building skills. Writing a strong endorsement requires some effort, so make it easy for your recommender by providing a list of the accomplishments you want to highlight.
Raise That GMAT or GRE
Business schools always stress that test scores are just one metric of admissions decisions. However, they are valuable because the admissions committee has to ensure the people they accept can handle the quantitative work.
Partner with Stacy Blackman’s best-in-class GMAT and GRE experts and increase your score significantly. Check out our test prep services here. Request a free game plan chat with SBC’s lead test prep coach by emailing testprep@stacyblackman.com.
If your initial scores don’t compare to those of an average student at the schools you’re applying to, you need to make significant gains on your GMAT score in subsequent sittings or have other extremely impressive qualifications when reapplying to business school.
“Most students take the GRE or GMAT test two or three times—and that’s fine,” says Anthony Ritz, SBC’s Director of Test Prep. As discussed in prior posts, preparing early and adequately for the entrance exam is critical.
DO allow time to retake the exam. Nerves or lack of preparation might have torpedoed your first effort. The familiarity of taking it a second or even third time will often lead to a higher score.
DON’T wait until the last minute to take your GMAT. Take care of it early in the year before you have to juggle the other aspects of the application.
DO consider alternative preparation methods to see if they yield better results. If you studied on your own last year, see if a formal class or working with a GMAT tutor helps you improve your weak areas more efficiently.
DON’T cancel a score when the option appears upon completing the test, even if you’re pretty sure you’ve blown it. Schools will evaluate your highest score, so don’t worry about a low score reflecting negatively on you.
That initial score provides valuable feedback about your testing strengths and weaknesses. You may also find out that your performance was not as bad as you imagined.
B-Schooled Podcast Episode #182: Updates on the New Shorter GRE and GMAT Tests
Rock Your Essays with a New Narrative
Sometimes, applicants get hung up on writing the “perfect” essay. In reality, they should focus on writing a compelling essay instead. Candidates must really do their homework about the schools they have targeted.
After doing so, they can create compelling essays convincing the AdCom that the program will help them reach their career goals. This also predicts how they would contribute to the school as students and eventual alumni.
DO use the additional essay to explain what’s changed in your situation to make you a stronger candidate when reapplying to business school. Make sure to address both professional and personal advancements, but show that you are realistic and self-aware. Revealing your humanity, with all its quirks, weaknesses, and flaws, can often help the admissions committee like you.
DON’T recycle essays from the first time around, and don’t use the same essay for multiple schools. At best, your essays will all sound generic. At worst, you might accidentally leave the wrong school name in the essay. Trust us—we’ve seen this unfortunate error happen many times. You’ll get rejected outright for your lack of attention to detail.
@stacyblackmanconsulting #mba #mbaadmissions #sbcyourjourney #hbs #harvard #stanford #reapplicantadvice #dualadmit ? original sound – Stacy Blackman Consulting
Key Takeaways for MBA Reapplicants
- Refresh and refocus your school list with better alignment.
- Make clear, measurable upgrades to your candidacy—test scores, essays, and leadership stories.
- Lean into support. Reapplying to business school is tough, but it’s not a solo mission.
Finally, take comfort in knowing that many people in business school right now were dinged the first time they applied. The MBA admissions process requires resilience, so take some time to recover, reassess, and dive back in.
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Reapplying to business school takes strategy, resilience, and the right support. Whether you need a full reset or targeted feedback, Stacy Blackman Consulting can help. From Ding Analyses and test prep to essay overhauls and recommender coaching, our services are designed to help you stand out the second time around.
Contact us today for a free 15-minute advising session with a Principal SBC consultant and create a winning reapplication plan.
Here’s a snapshot of the caliber of expertise on our SBC team.
Ashley
Ashley is a former MBA Admissions Board Member for Harvard Business School (HBS), where she interviewed and evaluated thousands of business school applicants for over a six year tenure. Ashley holds an MBA from HBS. During her HBS years, Ashley was the Sports Editor for the Harbus and a member of the B-School Blades Ice Hockey Team. After HBS, she worked in Marketing at the Gillette Company on Male and Female shaving ...
×Pauline
A former associate director of admissions at Harvard Business School, Pauline served on the HBS MBA Admissions Board full-time for four years. She evaluated and interviewed HBS applicants, both on-campus and globally. Pauline's career has included sales and marketing management roles with Coca-Cola, Gillette, Procter & Gamble, and IBM. For over 10 years, Pauline has expertly guided MBA applicants, and her clients h ...
×Laura
Laura comes from the MBA Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS) and is an HBS MBA alumnus. In her HBS Admissions role, she evaluated and interviewed hundreds of business school candidates, including internationals, women, military and other applicant pools, for five years. Prior to her time as a student at HBS, Laura began her career in advertising and marketing in Chicago at Leo Burnett where she worked on th ...
×Andrea
Andrea served as the Associate Director of MBA Admissions at Harvard Business School (HBS) for over five years. In this role, she provided strategic direction for student yield-management activities and also served as a full member of the admissions committee. In 2007, Andrea launched the new 2+2 Program at Harvard Business School – a program targeted at college junior applicants to Harvard Business School. Andrea has also served as a Career Coach for Harvard Business School for both cu ...
×Jennifer
Jennifer served as Admissions Officer at the Stanford (GSB) for five years. She holds an MBA from Stanford (GSB) and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Jennifer has over 15 years experience in guiding applicants through the increasingly competitive admissions process into top MBA programs. Having read thousands and thousands of essays and applications while at Stanford (GSB) Admiss ...
×Erin K.
Erin served in key roles in MBA Admissions--as Director at Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and Assistant Director at Stanford's Graduate School of Business (GSB). Erin served on the admissions committee at each school and has read thousands of applications in her career. At Haas, she served for seven years in roles that encompassed evaluation, outreach, and diversity and inclusion. During her tenure in Admissions at GSB, she was responsible for candidate evaluation, applicant outreach, ...
×Susie
Susie comes from the Admissions Office of the Stanford Graduate School of Business where she reviewed and evaluated hundreds of prospective students’ applications. She holds an MBA from Stanford’s GSB and a BA from Stanford in Economics. Prior to advising MBA applicants, Susie held a variety of roles over a 15-year period in capital markets, finance, and real estate, including as partner in one of the nation’s most innovative finance and real estate investment organizations. In that r ...
×Dione
Dione holds an MBA degree from Stanford Business School (GSB) and a BA degree from Stanford University, where she double majored in Economics and Communication with concentrations in journalism and sociology. Dione has served as an Admissions reader and member of the Minority Admissions Advisory Committee at Stanford. Dione is an accomplished and respected advocate and thought leader on education and diversity. She is ...
×Anthony
Anthony served as the Associate Director of MBA Admissions at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he dedicated over 10 years of expertise. During his time as a Wharton Admissions Officer, he read and reviewed thousands of applications and helped bring in a class of 800+ students a year. Anthony has traveled both domestically and internationally to recruit a ...
×Meghan
Meghan served as the Associate Director of Admissions and Marketing at the Wharton MBA’s Lauder Institute, a joint degree program combining the Wharton MBA with an MA in International Studies. In her role on the Wharton MBA admissions committee, Meghan advised domestic and international applicants; conducted interviews and information sessions domestically and overseas in Asia, Central and South America, and Europe; and evaluated applicants for admission to the program. Meghan also managed ...
×Amy
Amy comes from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where she was Associate Director. Amy devoted 12 years at the Wharton School, working closely with MBA students and supporting the admissions team. During her tenure at Wharton, Amy served as a trusted adviser to prospective applicants as well as admitted and matriculated students. She conducted admissions chats with applicants early in the admissions ...
×Ally
Ally brings six years of admissions experience to the SBC team, most recently as an Assistant Director of Admission for the full-time MBA program at Columbia Business School (CBS). During her time at Columbia, Ally was responsible for reviewing applications, planning recruitment events, and interviewing candidates for both the full-time MBA program and the Executive MBA program. She traveled both internationally and dome ...
×Emma
Emma comes from the MBA Admissions Office at Columbia Business School (CBS), where she was Associate Director. Emma conducted dozens of interviews each cycle for the MBA and EMBA programs, as well as coordinating the alumni ambassador interview program. She read and evaluated hundreds of applications each cycle, delivered information sessions to audiences across the globe, and advised countless waitlisted applicants. ×
Dana
Dana served as Assistant Director of Admissions at Columbia Business School for the Full-Time MBA program and has over 10 years of experience working in higher education. Known as a scrupulous file reader, Dana reviewed countless applications and assisted in rendering final decisions for the Admissions Committee at CBS. While leading information sessions at Columbia and on the road, Dana met and advised myriad applicants� ...
×Holly
Holly worked as a member of the NYU Stern MBA Admissions team for seven years and holds an MBA from NYU Stern. In her tenure as Director of NYU MBA Admissions, Holly worked closely with admissions teams from Columbia, Michigan Ross, UVA Darden, Cornell Johnson, Berkeley Haas, Yale SOM, and Duke Fuqua on recruiting events domestically and internationally. On the NYU Stern admissions committee, Holly conducted interviews, planned and hosted events, and trained staff on reading and interviewi ...
×Mark
Mark has been working in global higher education for nearly ten years, focusing on MBA Admissions at European programs including Oxford Said Business School and London Business School (LBS). At the University of Oxford’s Said Business School, Mark was the Associate Director of MBA Recruitment, leading the recruitment of all applicants to the Oxford MBA and 1+1 MBA programs. In this role, Mark advised countless MBA applic ...
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