Evaluating Your MBA Candidacy from the AdCom’s Perspective
Every year, we hear of MBA admissions offers going to applicants who were Olympic athletes, counterterrorism officers, NASA scientists, and former White House aides. While these profiles grab the headlines, they can discourage candidates without a flashy personal or professional story. Business school applicants can’t help but fret over what their target MBA programs want to see in a candidate. Today, we’re pulling back the curtain on the four specific areas the admissions committee focuses on when evaluating your MBA candidacy.
The welcome news for applicants of all stripes is that standing out in these aspects can happen no matter where you’ve worked or your background.
Are you curious about your chances of getting into a top business school? Contact us to talk strategy with a free 15-minute advising session with an SBC Principal Consultant.
Four Considerations When Evaluating Your MBA Candidacy
One: Work Experience and Professional Goals
The admissions committee generally prefers applicants to have three or more years of work experience before applying. However, the quality of the overall experience matters more than the length of time.
Have you worked within flat organizational structures where you’ve had the same title for years? You can still differentiate yourself by highlighting substantial professional growth and quantifiable achievements. Or by showing examples of times when you embraced new challenges and took advantage of learning opportunities.
Whether your pre-MBA experience is at Goldman Sachs or your family’s business, the admissions team will look for steady progression.
Business school is the ideal place to refine your career goals by studying new disciplines, having discussions with students and professors, and pursuing entrepreneurial projects. That said, you do have to make some choices and explain your areas of interest to get admitted.
Make sure to include a definite role you envision for yourself in the future. Explain the impact you want to have in the business world and society. Successful essays won’t include the statement, “I look forward to figuring out my future career path in business school.”
Finally, remember to convey realistic post-MBA career goals. Consider the application process from the school’s perspective. MBA programs want to launch graduates who will become successful in their careers. Grads also serve as vibrant members of the alumni community. Don’t forget to sell them on your employability. The admissions team should feel confident you’ll find a great job quickly upon graduating.
For more inspo, listen to B-Schooled Podcast #166: Career Goals
Two: Leadership
Business schools strive to create the leaders of tomorrow. The admissions committee wants to see that you already have a framework in this all-important area. Many applicants worry about how the admissions team will perceive their leadership skills if they’ve never actually held a management position.
However, your leadership examples don’t need to be your most extraordinary life or professional achievements. Applicants can call upon times when they’ve led sports teams, student groups, etc.
Successful leadership examples should show how you motivated other people. Did you bring out their passions? Or did you educate and help them see organizational priorities in new ways? The work of a leader energizes or improves the work of others. Find anecdotes from your professional and extracurricular background that illustrate this behavior.
Define the leadership challenges you faced, not the management ones. Collecting impressive titles does not make someone a great leader. However, helping a team overcome significant challenges does.
When evaluating your MBA candidacy, remember that in the adcomm’s view, your past is a strong predictor of how involved you’ll be on campus if admitted. Ultimately, leadership examples from college, on the job, and your time at business school signal future employers how you would perform in their organization.
Learn more about SBC’s 2-hour strategy engagement, which explores your strengths and weaknesses, target schools, positioning and differentiation AND allows you to test the waters with your consultant before committing to a full package.
Three: Creativity and Intellectual Aptitude
When some Type-A personalities see the word creativity in this context, they freak out and assume we’re talking about something artistic. But we’re referring to expressing creativity by showing when you have solved problems at work or in your volunteer activities by thinking outside the box.
Some business schools use creative MBA essay prompts. Think Duke Fuqua’s 25 Random Things About Yourself. Or the cover letter and video statement for the MIT Sloan School of Management. When evaluating your MBA candidacy, admissions teams will look for evidence in responses that show you have a unique perspective that will add something new to the classroom.
So, think beyond your apparent achievements. You can differentiate yourself by highlighting the most compelling, memorable stories and experiences.
Intellectual aptitude, meanwhile, will be judged based on your submitted GMAT or GRE scores as well as your undergraduate GPA and major. A solid 3.2 overall GPA from an Economics or Chemistry major will weigh more heavily than a 3.8 GPA in the Arts or Humanities.
However, admissions committees actively seek a diverse class that includes those so-called “poets of B-school.” That’s where a strong GMAT score or taking additional college-level math courses that prove you can handle the academic rigors of the program comes in.
Four: Interpersonal Skills and Fit
The admissions process at many business schools now includes video essays, team-based discussions, and group interviews. These additions ensure the applicant has the appropriate interpersonal skills for success and will fit well with the program’s culture.
Business schools want students who will play nice with others. Watching how someone interacts with peers before anyone gets admitted can be very telling. Your application and interview should support those individual attributes that make you a great candidate and person overall. They should reveal your understanding of the school’s culture. Finally, they must convey that you will be a terrific fit if admitted.
Listen to B-Schooled Podcast #186: Conveying Program Knowledge and Fit
At some schools, fit and knowledge of the program matter as much as concrete qualifications when evaluating your MBA candidacy. Of course, you still need to have those qualifications. But without a complete understanding of the many terrific facets of the school, you could find yourself on the rejected applicant pile.
Round one application deadlines are now upon us. By evaluating your MBA candidacy in these four areas, you’ll boost your chances of reaching the interview stage and beyond.
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Stacy Blackman Consulting offers multiple services to meet your needs, from our All-In Partnership to test prep to hourly help with targeted tasks. Contact us today for a free 15-minute advising session to talk strategy with a Principal SBC consultant.
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 ...
×Kerry
Kerry is a former member of the Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS). During her 5+ year tenure at HBS, she read and evaluated hundreds of applications and interviewed MBA candidates from a wide range of backgrounds across the globe. She also led marketing and outreach efforts focused on increasing diversity and inclusion, ran the Summer Venture in Management Program (SVMP), and launched the 2+2 Program during her time in Admissions. Kerry holds a B.A. from Bates College and ...
×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 ...
×Geri
Geri is a former member of the Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS). In her 7 year tenure in HBS Admissions, she read and evaluated hundreds of applications and interviewed MBA candidates from a diverse set of academic, geographic, and employment backgrounds. Geri also traveled globally representing the school at outreach events in order to raise awareness for women and international students. In additio ...
×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 ...
×Erin B.
Erin has over seven years of experience working across major institutions, including University of Pennsylvania, Columbia Business School, and NYU's Stern School of Business. At Columbia Business School, Erin was an Assistant Director of Admissions where she evaluated applications for both the full time and executive MBA programs, sat on the admissions and merit scholarship committees and advised applicants on which program might be the best fit for them based on their work experience and pro ...
×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. ×
