First impression leaves behind a permanent trail of prejudice in our mind. MBA Admission process offers several touch points for the AdCom, and, unfortunately, these interactions are subject to AdCom’s rationality in separating first impression from prejudice, and how impressionable they are at believing in Generalizations.
Here is how you manage first impression in each round
Applying for an MBA after your business has gone bankrupt does not have to be a weakness. Business schools appreciate innovation and entrepreneurship. The experience of starting and running your own company can be an interesting perspective you can bring to enrich the MBA program. Even the lessons learned from the failed venture can be worthwhile as well. There are some key questions on the minds of the admission boards when evaluating an entrepreneur whose business has failed.
First, they will evaluate the scope of the business (is this someone tinkering with a hobby or is this a real venture?) Then they will assess what you achieved (did you create a product that is being patented/raise funds from investors to expand the business or did the business not take off in the first place?) And finally, they will investigate why the business failed and the lessons you learned from the bankruptcy (are there holes in your skill set that you need to strengthen or did you make glaring mistakes that raise questions about your judgment?)
Confidence influence how you are perceived among the MBA Admissions team. It starts with your written words in essays, spoken words in Interviews, and most importantly the actions you took. A thin line separates arrogance and confidence, but you have to find the essence of your confidence before articulating what confidence means for you. In simple words, Confidence is the acknowledgement of your power – as an individual, and as a team player.
Learn how to use numbers to demonstrate confidence
According to a Gallop poll, only 28% of the workforce is actively engaged, rest of them are going through the motion, collecting paychecks, and a small fraction – 19% are actively involved in destroying the organization.
An MBA is not for the 19%, but it is likely that you are part of the 53% who are doing their job for the money.
If you confess again that post-MBA, you are likely to be in the 53% group, perhaps an MBA is a bad investment
Fuqua uses a tool called Talisma, Booth & Kellogg use a much sophisticated tool – ‘Slate’ to track all previous communication from MBA Applicants.
Business Schools are increasingly using these tools to measure eagerness or demonstrated interest in the program. They are preemptively measuring your motivation by using communication meta-data.
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Applicants who had planned about positioning themselves as a distinct brand over 3-5 year pre-MBA time horizon tend to perform better than those who do 1-year pre-MBA image tweaking. By the time you are ready for MBA Application, there are two factors that you have no control: your reputation among Employers and the diversity of your experience. This article offers strategies for MBA aspirants with less than 2 years of experience.
Here are some traits that you have to develop for your Personal Brand
We approach challenges with one question – by the end of the task, will I gain or lose? The apprehension and unease is magnified when we approach high stake tasks – committing 1 year for MBA Admissions, preparing three months for GMAT, or revealing plans for MBA Admissions by inviting supervisors and managers for the recommendation writing process.
Here is a simple Method for better framing
Students with high IQ tend to be generalists, and ignore sitting for long hours preparing for any exam, and therefore the grades might not reflect their abilities. GMAT tends to level this discrepancy as the questions are in a multiple-choice format, and the concepts tested require comparatively less rote learning. Studies have shown that 20% of life success is contributed by intelligence; rest is influenced by Emotional Intelligence.
Here is why Emotional Intelligence is important for MBA Admissions
Anxiety is an all-common emotion when deadlines become part of our awareness. The deadline to prepare for the GMAT, take the test, complete the essay, pursue recommenders, and finally meet the Round 1 deadlines; all impact how we handle the stress of preparation. Develop the habit of writing down your action plan with clearly defined deadlines for each task.
The 1-Year MBA Admission process is a gamble, and uncertainties infuse emotions that can become unmanageable.
Understand how Environment, Perceived Threat, & Measuring Progress help us deal with the roller coaster emotional states
Willpower is the weapon that converts passion into action. It gives you the ability to push through tasks that you don’t enjoy. The tasks include shortlisting 5 schools from over 100 top MBA programs, creating a 3-Month GMAT Prep Plan or collecting resources for MBA Application essays; all essential tasks but most of them monotonous in nature that require greater concentration, and attention to details: two things that will drain your will power.
With each temptation that you overcome, willpower is depleted, leading you to a state that is vulnerable and ineffective. According to research, an average human being is resisting temptation 4-hours a day, overcoming the desire to sleep, eat, perform sex, use social media, or browse the web. Find out how to strengthen will power for MBA Admissions
The word limit for MBA Application essays has come down by 50%, and applicants are trying to find unique ways to express themselves. Most applicants are carefully planning how they present themselves by spreading out stories to different MBA admission rounds. The essays focus on the essential qualities – maturity, leadership, and effective communication while the interviews and group discussions allow aspirants to showcase their interpersonal and teamwork skills.
You might have often heard of comments like "Unless you have worked in a Blue Chip Firm, you are never going to get into a top business school"
Next time when you hear someone giving comments like that smile politely, change the subject or if the bad advice continues, find the nearest exit. Read More
The number one questions that MBA aspirants ask when they browse through hundreds of MBA Admissions Consultants emerging in the market every year is “Is it worth it?” That is an important question. If you invest in the wrong consultant, the loss is not limited to money but time, and a chance to get into a top Business School. Here are some best practices to pick the best consultant.
MBA Admission is a year long process with Business School Research, GMAT Prep, Essay Writing, Recommendations, Interviews, and Funding. The number of hours and the tasks involved in each stage of the process can be overwhelming. Here is a simple 5-Step process to handle the stress.
Although Business Schools would love to have A+ candidate, a class full of students who are in the pre-destined Finance and Consulting background would add very little value to the diversity of the class. AdCom is looking for students who have pivoted in their career.
Even if you are not a typical student with 3.5+ GPA and 720+ GMAT, your career choice till now can impress the AdCom. Find out how!
Most applicants I speak to spend a fair amount of time studying for the GMAT because they know it plays an important role in the admissions process. However, often applicants overestimate or underestimate the importance of the GMAT and the role it plays in the admissions process.
They want to get to know about you, your background, your goals, and how they can help you to reach them. MBA admissions committees don’t need to hear a script-worthy story, they just want to hear your story. Find out what admission committee wants to hear.
Q) I am a 26 years old Indian national , done Bachelors in Technology with 60% marks from a tier-2 school in India and Post-graduation(marketing & operation) from Symbiosis college(distance education) with 70 % marks. I am working as an import manager in a Steel Plant - Uganda(East Africa) for the last 5 years. The company I work for is not a well known brand. My job profile in this company is to procure the necessary raw materials for the plant from different parts of world. I deal with suppliers from almost 10 countries. Additional I know multiple languages- Hindi, English, French and Spanish. I have given GMAT and scored 760. What are my chances to get top business school like LBS/HBS. Will my low scores in grad school and the brand value of the company I work for affect my admission?
Stacy Blackman: I hope the following is of help. Regarding your low undergraduate record, I recommend you read this case study of a candidate who had a low GPA and was accepted into several top programs. It should give some insight into how you can address your grades.
Many students are opting to pursue their MBA abroad, sometimes traveling halfway around the world. Though programs outside of the United States may not prove the best option for each and every student, there are many reasons to consider this opportunity.
Going abroad for your MBA education does not require a sacrifice in quality. There are many top-ranked and highly selective business schools outside the United States. Learn more about top Business Schools outside US.
Dan Bauer(The MBA Exchange): Fortunately for applicants with less than ideal academic profiles, the MBA admissions decision process is subjective enough to give them a chance for success.
A dual degree may involve you getting either a Bachelors and Masters in the same program or getting two Masters degree at different universities. If it is the latter, then you will pursuing these degrees either at different schools in the same university or perhaps across 2 different universities . There are several dual degrees programs you can pursue along with an MBA such as a masters in urban planning, international relations, law, nursing, public health, journalism and engineering amongst others.
F1GMAT's Winning MBA Essay guide will teach you how to transform your essay into a life journey with trials and tribulations that will move the admission team.
+ Over 245 Sample Essays (Read Previews of F1GMAT's Winning MBA Essay Guide Sample Essays here)
F1GMAT's Essay Guides
Harvard MBA Essay Guide (20 Sample Essays)
Example #1: Persistence Narrative
Background Information: The applicant – a design and music talent, shares her journey through several setbacks. She attributes curiosity to her growth.
Curiosity: Philosophy
Curiosity (Explained): Curiosity as a philosophy is tough to translate into a narrative unless you are from the creative industry or your contributions had an influence on a solution or an initiative.
MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to capture the humanity of the applicant and her influence in music instead of just highlighting how she overcame multiple roadblocks to gain attention as a designer.
Theme: Persistence
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Life Starts at NO (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #2: International Community Building
Background Information: The applicant, a Machine Learning (ML) entrepreneur specializing in healthcare diagnostics, shares how his curiosity to learn other ML algorithms’ evolution in diagnosing Alzheimer’s, cancer, and heart disease transformed his platform into a global community.
MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to show the applicant’s contributions in diagnostic from 2020 to 2024 by citing two events. Such examples build credibility instead of engagements that were recent. The evolution of the platform from an AI development community to a community for discussing the application of AI in diagnostics is captured through a ‘curiosity’ angle.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Growth through Collaboration (AI in Healthcare) (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #3: Culture
Background Information: The applicant, an Entrepreneur from India narrates his first entrepreneurial experience – facilitating exchange of stamps in the late 1990s.
Theme: Culture
MBA Essay Strategy: Instead of addressing the biases in the investor community that could turn preachy, I wanted to focus on the applicant and his entrepreneurial journey by citing two entrepreneurial experiences – a platform(club) for stamp collection and his Grocery delivery App.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – The American Dream (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #4: Addiction
Background Information: The applicant – a beneficiary of the foster home system, captures the sacrifice his adopted grandparents made to save him from a path of addiction. Paying it back through early intervention among teenagers and community engagement is the curiosity narrative.
Theme: Addiction
MBA Essay Strategy: My strategy is to capture a gratitude narrative in the first one-third of the essay to demonstrate motivation for starting the venture and dedicate the latter part of the essay to the unique solution
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Drug Addiction and Gaming (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #5: Scarcity
Background Information: The applicant, an education major, recognizes that 70% of all students in Kenya don’t have a computer. The curiosity that drives him to pivot from one solution to another is the growth narrative.
Theme: Innovation
MBA Essay Strategy: Often, innovation is captured with a ‘hero’ narrative where the applicant is the sole originator of an idea. I wanted to break that cliché and include a person from whom the applicant learned to use a concept called ‘scaffolding.’
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Scarcity (Growth-Oriented HBS Essay Example)
Example #6: FinTech
Background Information: The applicant captures a vulnerable moment of a beneficiary to compare his journey of side hustle before a technology giant noticed his talent. Although cryptocurrency is not a flavor for the year, capture niches where innovation is still happening.
Theme: Education, Child Welfare
MBA Essay Strategy: Empathizing with a techno solution is tough without a strong backstory around the beneficiary. For the essay, I wanted to clearly establish the beneficiary – Rami, before the applicant narrates the similarities to his journey and finally shares the solution that emerged from his curiosity.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – FinTech as a Tool for Good (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #7: Learning from the best
Background Information: The applicant – a Remote Engineer in the Oil and Gas industry, reflects on a value that has helped her learn from the best regardless of her geographical limitations.
Theme: Learning
MBA Essay Strategy: The effectiveness of the case-study method depends on the assumption that peers in a Harvard MBA class will help elevate your learning experience. For the essay, I have highlighted the applicant’s recognition of this value proposition with three examples.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Learning from the Best (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #8: Military & Search for IMPACT
Background Information: The most common narrative for US military applicants is to quote 9/11 and the reaction your immediate family had while watching the events unfold. The horrifying moment is captured as a motivation to join the Military. On digging deeper, most applicants would share that their motivations were diverse.
Theme: Career Choice
MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to quickly highlight that the applicant had the choice of entering any industry. One achievement to demonstrate his curiosity that I shared in the first half is the invention of a game. Since the game is mentioned in the resume and verifiable through search, I didn’t quote the name. By clearly highlighting the person’s curiosity and career options, the family legacy is used as a factor in joining the military.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Career Choice after a Military Career (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)
Leadership-Focused Essay: What experiences have shaped who you are, how you invest in others, and what kind of leader you want to become? (up to 250 words)
Example #9: Small Business Values
Background Information: The applicant - a second-generation Asian American, is familiar with the values of fiscal conservatism, building relationships, and understanding the daily struggles of the community through his family’s department store.
Theme: Customer-Centric
MBA Essay Strategy: The applicant’s role in developing an App for the store is highlighted in the essay at a crucial part of the narrative so that the essay is not all about his father. I have also humanized the journey – by sharing how upset the father was when the revenues fell by 40%. The essay is about the transformation in the applicant’s value from a person chasing productivity and optimization technique to someone who is truly thinking about the customers.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Small Business Values (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #10: Breaking Away from Family Business
Background Information: A unique challenge that applicants whose parents are public figures or CXOs of businesses or entrepreneurs are the pressure to live up to the parent’s standards or milestones. For the leadership narrative, the burden of legacy is established before the narrative addresses his leadership principles.
Theme: Authenticity
MBA Essay Strategy: For the essay, I want to capture an entrepreneur’s journey to rise above his entrepreneur father’s image. But I didn’t want to make the entire essay about this complex dynamics. The narrative is around the applicant’s focus on customers and surrounding with teams who keeps him grounded.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Breaking Away from Family Business(Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #11: Creativity and Communication
Background Information: When the overall percentage of users with internet access is 62% in South Africa and the inequality accentuated by the rural and urban divide, the applicant endured the lack of digital infrastructure, and spending close to 22% of the family income on gaining relevant information on schools, global exams, and financial assistance.
Theme: Creativity, Communication
MBA Essay Strategy: The strategy is to share why the applicant values no distraction in a child’s home for optimum education experience. Then I highlight the many roadblocks the applicant’s non-profit faced in receiving fee waiver for their cooperative run ISP.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Non-Profit (Telecom) (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #12: Mental Health
Background Information: The applicant like most didn’t pay much attention to the mental health epidemic until tragedy hit home.
Theme: Communication, Innovation
MBA Essay Strategy: A question we frequently get from applicants is whether they should cite tragedy in the family as a motivation for a venture or a non-profit initiative. As long as you don’t linger too much on the tragedy and offer a balanced narrative, there are no restrictions on leveraging unique stories from your life.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Mental Health (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #13: Trauma, Healing & Finding Authentic Self
Background Information: The applicant narrates the absurdity of war in the narrative about the duties in Kabul, and the trauma. Instead of wallowing in on the horror, the applicant takes what makes military applicants strong and guides unprivileged children build life and leadership skills.
Theme: Resilience
MBA Essay Strategy: Capturing PTSD in an essay, the healing process, and the cues that helped the applicant are too sacred to be shared in a Harvard MBA application essay. However, with the right motivation and narrative arcs, you can capture the essence of your journey without sharing the darkest secrets. That is what I did by merging two stories – the horrors of the war with a non-profit engagement.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Military & PTSD (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #14: Addiction, Setback and Leadership Mantra
Background Information: In this narrative, the applicant captures Peru’s Silver mining boom of 2006. The growth experienced in her father’s business shifted the family’s economic status to a new stratosphere. Through the changing economic and family dynamics, the applicant finds her voice in a unique way, initially to record her unheard voice but later as one of the youngest subject matter experts in mining and commodities.
Theme: Failure
MBA Essay Strategy: For the essay, the strategy is to show how life’s unpredictability is a blessing. By narrating two setback events, the essay demonstrates the applicant’s resilience and her acknowledgment of people who made a comeback possible.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Addiction, Setback and Leadership Mantra (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #15: War, Immigration and Starting Over Again
Background Information: Despite a raging war in Syria, the family of the applicant was unblemished by the chaos. The strategic government assets near the applicant’s house would have made the region an easy target, but it was not. The calmness of her journey is shattered in one event. From the privileges of a cocooned life, the applicant is forced to think about survival, her sister’s future, and her future in the US. The second half of the narrative captures the change that was forced on her.
Theme: Gratitude, Resilience
MBA Essay Strategy: I consciously chose not to start the essay with a dialogue or trauma. Two lines are allocated to set up the narrative before the trauma event.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – War, Immigration and Starting Over Again (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)
Harvard MBA Business-Minded Essay: Please reflect on how your experiences have influenced your career choices and aspirations and the impact you will have on the businesses, organizations, and communities you plan to serve. (up to 300 words)
Example #16: Creative or Finance
Background Information: The applicant starts the narrative with the origin of her talents. The unbridled enthusiasm receives a reality check when in high school, the applicant’s father has a conversation with her about academics. While the applicant picked up her quant skills, she was reaching over 50,000 loyal fans, and her videos captured 1 million views.
Theme: Passion, Talent
MBA Essay Strategy: Capturing vulnerability is the toughest part for Harvard MBA applicants. For this essay example, I have captured the applicant’s uncertainty about career choice throughout the essay. Here the goal is to show vulnerability in the career choice essay while for leadership and growth essay, I could capture one example each from creative and PE industry respectively to balance the narrative. So don’t follow this example without a strategy.
Read: Harvard MBA Business-Minded Essay – Creative or Finance (Business-Minded HBS MBA Essay Example)
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