There are many great resources available for people thinking about applying to MBA programs. In addition to many web sites with helpful, general advice, there is also an industry of application advisors who offer one-on-one consultation to assist candidates in putting together a strong application.
I’d like to add a few of my own observations to this topic as a business school insider. Over the past 18 years I have chaired or sat on Admissions Committees for eight MBA and EMBA programs at five universities in three countries. I have had the chance to look at several thousand applications and speak with even more people who are interested in applying to an MBA program. Specifically, I’d like to share the perspective of how a school looks at the overall pool of applicants, not simply one application.
Anyone applying to an MBA program at a “top” school is facing a situation where that school is over-subscribed with applicants (i.e., there are more qualified applicants than available seats). While admissions decisions are made, by definition, one at a time, the Admissions Committees are also actively shaping the overall profile of the class with these decisions. In fact, this is why many MBA programs administer the admission process in rounds (rather than a rolling basis) so that the overall characteristics of the class can be managed.
The target profile of a class will be considered across a number of criteria in order to meet the expectations of the program stakeholders. This includes, for example: the school looking at a class profile that will lead to strong rankings; the faculty preferences for the students they teach; employer preferences for specific hires. Admission Committees are actively tracking class demographics across dimensions such as: domestic/international; male/female; STEM/non-STEM backgrounds; GMAT; undergraduate GPA; work experience; ethnicity; stated career path. A school’s MBA admissions process is strategically aimed at balancing these criteria to achieve a target class profile that is optimal in meeting the program’s need to meet the stakeholder expectations.
The takeaway from this observation is that an applicant must consider how his or her admission to an MBA program will contribute to the class profile the Admissions Committee is trying to craft. To put that another way, an insightful applicant will be able to make the point (subtlety but clearly) that his or her admission is good for the program. This is certainly the case if an applicant falls into a particularly oversubscribed category for top US full-time MBA programs (e.g., international students).
Applying to MBA programs is high-stake endeavor and the more informed an applicant is about all of the considerations in this process the better the chances of being successful.
I’d like to add a few of my own observations to this topic as a business school insider. Over the past 18 years I have chaired or sat on Admissions Committees for eight MBA and EMBA programs at five universities in three countries. I have had the chance to look at several thousand applications and speak with even more people who are interested in applying to an MBA program. Specifically, I’d like to share the perspective of how a school looks at the overall pool of applicants, not simply one application.
Anyone applying to an MBA program at a “top” school is facing a situation where that school is over-subscribed with applicants (i.e., there are more qualified applicants than available seats). While admissions decisions are made, by definition, one at a time, the Admissions Committees are also actively shaping the overall profile of the class with these decisions. In fact, this is why many MBA programs administer the admission process in rounds (rather than a rolling basis) so that the overall characteristics of the class can be managed.
The target profile of a class will be considered across a number of criteria in order to meet the expectations of the program stakeholders. This includes, for example: the school looking at a class profile that will lead to strong rankings; the faculty preferences for the students they teach; employer preferences for specific hires. Admission Committees are actively tracking class demographics across dimensions such as: domestic/international; male/female; STEM/non-STEM backgrounds; GMAT; undergraduate GPA; work experience; ethnicity; stated career path. A school’s MBA admissions process is strategically aimed at balancing these criteria to achieve a target class profile that is optimal in meeting the program’s need to meet the stakeholder expectations.
The takeaway from this observation is that an applicant must consider how his or her admission to an MBA program will contribute to the class profile the Admissions Committee is trying to craft. To put that another way, an insightful applicant will be able to make the point (subtlety but clearly) that his or her admission is good for the program. This is certainly the case if an applicant falls into a particularly oversubscribed category for top US full-time MBA programs (e.g., international students).
Applying to MBA programs is high-stake endeavor and the more informed an applicant is about all of the considerations in this process the better the chances of being successful.
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