A Young Applicant's Advice : The B-School Application

1. Take Your GMAT, GRE, Or Both Early.
While you’re still in college or right after graduation, you’re still focused in academics. Preparing for and taking another exam is just another part of your daily grind. Take advantage of that and don’t get stuck 1, 2, or 3+ years out having to cram in study sessions after work and on the weekends. It’s not a fun way to spend your early twenties.


2. Know Your Story.
Yes, you’re young, but if you’re committed to business school, you have to know what you’ve accomplished so far and where you plan on heading. Turn that into a story and make sure it’s convincing.


3. Research Your Schools.
Research, research, research. Visit, visit, visit.
Attending information sessions alone will not do too much good in narrowing down your school picks. After awhile, a la undergraduate applications, every school will start sounding the same to a certain extent. Take the time to visit campuses, sit in on classes, etc – you’ll see if younger applicants are welcomed into the community and given a chance to show what they can do, or if another school is a better fit for you.


• Don’t apply to schools just because someone ranked them #1, 2, and 3.
  Applying to business school is not like applying to college, where you can throw spaghetti at a wall and hope it sticks. Make sure you end up at a school where you can challenge yourself and grow – don’t end up at a “ranked” school and regret it because it’s not the right fit for you. Choose wisely.
  
  
• Don’t apply to too many schools.
  Applying to business school is a LOT of money and takes up a LOT of time. Find 6 or 7 (or fewer!) schools where you know you WILL attend if admitted and apply to those.


4. Have A Back Up Plan.
Figure out your career direction and have a couple of paths in mind (too many will make you seem direction-less). Adcoms know you’re young and that you’ll likely change your career direction once you’re in bschool. However, to get into business school, you first have to have a concrete (sounding) career plan – and an achievable back-up career plan, too.


5. Commit To The Application Process.
Do not, I repeat, DO NOT go through the application process just because you think it’s the “next thing to do” after college. You’ll only show the immaturity of younger applicants if you do so.

Instead, if you’ve decided to apply to a traditional full-time MBA program (or a program like 2+2, Silver Scholars, etc), know what you’re getting into and make a 110% effort to show the adcom why you need an MBA to achieve your goals.


• Rock Your Interviews.
  Wear a suit. Act maturely. Convey to the adcom, your interviewer, and the other interviewees at your interview day (some of whom may be 10+ years older than you) that you can hold your own.


6. Have A Back Up Plan.
Yes, another back up plan. Once results come out, hopefully you’ve made it in somewhere you love. However, if this application cycle didn’t work out for you, it is not the end of the world. You still have time. Pick yourself back up and re-evaluate your application and steps #2 through #5. Figure out your strengths. Figure out where you can improve. Then, make steps to improve those areas of weakness:


• Weak Undergraduate GPA?
  Applying with a weak undergraduate GPA and little work experience is an uphill battle, but not impossible. Take an additional quantitative class and do well in it. Take on more responsibilities at work. Show the adcom you can handle bschool academics.
  
  
• Weak Exam Scores?
  Retake your exam. Do better than you did before.
  
  
• Weak Essays?
  Re-evaluate your story. Make sure your essays complement your application. Get advice from an admissions consultant if you need it.
  
  
• Weak Interviews?
  Practice, practice, practice. Most interview questions can be found online somewhere. Take the time to think about your answers and practice saying them out loud.
  
  
• Weak Extracurricular Activities?
  Join something. If you’re ambitious enough to apply to business school as a younger applicant, you were likely pretty involved in undergrad. Get involved again. Find activities in your city you can join. Do something that you like to do, something that is meaningful to you.
  
  
• Weak Work Experience?
  This is probably the biggest problem area for younger bschool applicants. You have to show the adcom that you've had enough experience to hack it in bschool. Re-evaluate your story and your career direction. Maybe it IS worth it to wait another year or two and apply again – if your current job isn’t putting you on the right path to achieve your goals, change jobs or get more responsibilities. These will only enhance your next try at the bschool process.

I'm In College And Want An MBA!

• HBS 2+2
  If you are a motivated undergraduate who has their ducks in a row with your GMAT, a high GPA (if you don’t have a 3.5+ regardless of what school you’re coming from, it’s going to be a tough road), and a strong story, I see no reason not to apply. I love that this program is a guaranteed 2 year deferral. You’ll still get the work experience necessary to contribute a bit to the case study method and ultimately, you’ll get a lot more out of the program after working full-time. The only disadvantage I see is that you’ll be applying to 2+2 because it’s HBS. You won’t consider if HBS is the right place for YOU.
  
  
• Yale Silver Scholars
  This program is innovation at its best, based on the current program offerings for students applying directly from college. It started out as a 3 year program, where you attended bschool for 1 year with everyone else, took a year off to get full-time work experience, and then returned to Yale for your second year of courses. Now, as I understand it, that 1 year full-time work experience in the middle is not a mandatory 1 year – you can extend it to 2 or 3 years and gain more experience before returning for your second year of courses. Add in the required international experience, and you'll come out with some amazing experience and a solid direction for your career. My concern with the program is that I’m not sure how much you can contribute to the classroom in your first year if you don’t have an extraordinary background to draw upon.