As you consider pursuing an MBA, you will hear different advice from friends, family, and current students/alumni about the programs you are targeting. Read on as we at Stratus dispel the myths that many applicants hear throughout the application process to set your mind at ease!
1. “R1 applications don’t come out until June/July, so there’s nothing you really need to do until then.”
Before the applications become available, you should work on developing a strong application strategy that includes your unique strengths and skills, clearly defined career goals, and what you need from an MBA. You should not assume that MBA application essays will stay the same from year to year—and your strategy should not depend solely upon the essay prompts anyway! By leveraging time in the spring to develop a solid strategy, you can hit the ground running when MBA programs release their essays and can spend the precious time in July and August refining your writing rather than brainstorming how to tell your story.
The spring is also a perfect time to connect with current students about their school experiences. These conversations can help you identify and clearly articulate what you want to get involved in at a school and why you are drawn to the culture of that school. Although classes at most schools have finished for the year by May, you can still catch students as they transition to their internships. Leverage LinkedIn to see who might be interning in your local area, and keep an eye out for local coffee chats with interns from a specific school or recent alumni. Late spring/early summer is also a popular time for MBA fairs and local admissions events. Making the effort to develop your elevator pitch before you attend these events can help you stand out as prepared.
2. “You must come from finance, consulting, or big tech.”
Admissions teams want to recruit a diverse class of students—and this diversity includes incoming industries and functions. The more diversity in a class, the richer the classroom discussions. We hear from admissions teams that where someone plans to be post-MBA is not a part of building a class; articulating your career goals is more of an assessment as to whether your specific goals make sense for you.
Although an MBA can be the next step in career progression for finance and consulting professionals, many people also leverage an MBA to change careers or to expand their leadership skills and grow into higher level managerial roles. What’s most important is to talk about why an MBA is the right step for YOU. Don’t try to guess what the admissions team wants to hear.
Whether you are applying from finance, technology, education, or nonprofit, the admissions committee wants to know what unique perspective you will bring to the classroom and to see that you’ve identified what you need from an MBA (and that school’s program specifically) to be employable in your short-term career plan.
3. “You need a 750 on the GMAT (or a 695 on the GMAT Focus) to be accepted.”
Implicit in this myth is the perception that the GMAT is the only test MBA applicants can take. Admissions committees are now indifferent to whether you take the GMAT or the GRE, and more schools are accepting the Executive Assessment (EA) as well. In fact, a recent Poets&Quants article talks about how many schools actually see a larger percentage of applicants submitting GRE scores versus GMAT scores. Also, though the number is decreasing, some schools offer testing waivers that you can apply for before you submit an application.
Start by taking a practice test for each and decide which one feels most comfortable to you or plays to your strengths. Give yourself the time you need to prepare—and plan to retake! Applicants commonly take a test multiple times. And although it’s less common to see significant increases after a third attempt, taking a test multiple times will not hurt your chances of acceptance; schools look at your highest test score. (Know that each test does have an annual and lifetime limit of attempts.) Many admissions teams will even consider multiple attempts a sign of persistence and evidence of your hard work during the testing journey.
Remember, your test score is only one part of your application—and in conjunction with your GPA and your quantitative work, it helps the admissions committee understand your ability to handle the academic rigor of their program.
4. “Recommendation letters must come from a senior executive at your employer to be credible.”
The strongest recommendation letters come from individuals who know you well and can share specific examples of you demonstrating leadership, creativity, analytical skills, and teamwork. A vague and generic recommendation from a high-ranking employee at your company is not helpful to the admissions committee and will not help showcase what is unique about you. Recommenders should be people who know you well, are senior to you, and can explain how you are ahead of your peers. The specific examples that back up your recommender’s claims are what make a recommendation a valuable part of your MBA application—and someone who has worked closely with you will do a better job of telling specific examples than someone who doesn’t know you well.
If you have a manager and a skip-level manager or two people from the same company writing recommendations, make sure they are talking about different sides of you. Having two recommendations that say the same thing, even if they are fantastic, is a missed opportunity to showcase more of your experiences.
5. “Leadership experiences must come from work; academic and social leadership experiences won’t carry as much weight.”
Leadership potential is the cornerstone of MBA admissions. Candidates with only a few years of work experience often haven’t had the opportunity to lead teams at work, manage direct reports, or take on P&L responsibility for a business unit—but leadership can be demonstrated in many different ways, including through your community involvement. For example, if you’ve led student organizations in college, taken on significant nonprofit leadership opportunities, or led your company’s diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, you should emphasize these experiences in your application. As important, make sure you articulate the results you achieved and the value you added through these endeavors. Admissions committees believe that candidates with a history of leading and taking initiative will continue to do so in business school and beyond, so demonstrating this quality in your MBA applications is crucial.
6. “All volunteering/nonprofit work will be perceived as equivalent. Having these activities on your application is simply a matter of ‘checking the box.’”
Every year, many prospective MBA applicants scramble to find volunteering opportunities in their community so they’ll have something to mention in their application. It is naïve to assume that a one-time volunteering experience alone is enough for you to be considered someone who is actively involved in your community, has compassion for society as a whole, and will continue to remain engaged throughout your lifetime.
If you want your community roles to add value to your application, get started early and go beyond just being a participant—be a leader! If you think a local community organization could be implementing new initiatives but isn’t, propose your idea to the appropriate people and take the steps to make it happen. Your community involvement at your undergrad institution is important too; it can demonstrate that you were an involved student once and foster the perception that you likely will be again during your MBA studies.
7. “It’s R1 or bust!”
What’s most important is to apply when your application is the strongest. Although R1 is the earliest round, in recent years, acceptance rates during R1 and R2 have been similar. We see successful applications across both rounds. In addition, we have recently heard that R1 has increased in size, making R1 and R2 more equal. People decide to apply to an MBA program at different times, and that is okay. YOU need to decide what is the best timing to make your application the strongest. Ensure you’ve done your research, talked with students or alumni, and developed a strong story.
Over the last two years, we have seen an increase in acceptances in R3. If you are planning to apply in R3, it is important to talk about why NOW is the right time for you to get your MBA—rather than waiting another year—and why you didn’t apply in an earlier round. If you are planning to apply in R1 and find that you need extra time, it is nice to have R2 to fall back on.
8. “Ranking is the most important thing when identifying the best business school for you.”
An MBA is a tool to help you pivot or change your career. This could entail rising within the ranks of your current company or switching to a new industry and/or role. What’s most important is to find an MBA program that will help you achieve YOUR goal.
Look at employment reports from schools of interest to you to understand what roles, companies, and geographies are recruiting recent graduates. Talk with current students at your target schools to find other students who have traveled similar paths, and learn what concentrations, certificates, experiential learning opportunities, and clubs they leveraged. Conduct informational interviews at companies of interest and find out if they have relationships with particular business schools. Use LinkedIn to search for a school’s alumni at a specific company. Explore a school’s culture and learning style, and then assess whether it meshes with how you like to learn and work. All of this information—rather than rankings alone—will help you find the best school for YOU.
An MBA is a very personal endeavor. Take the time to be thoughtful and strategic about your application—and try to avoid traps that reduce your uniqueness as a candidate. If you would like our expert opinion on your candidacy, sign up for a free consultation!