How to handle the Emotional Roller Coaster Ride during MBA Admissions

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.

Environment

Work: Most MBA Aspirants are working at mid-level positions that require tremendous focus, even to handle the daily chores. As we had written about Will Power, and the need to conserve them for making bigger decisions, the demands of the job will exhaust your will power, making it impossible to focus on GMAT problems.

Creating a balance is the key. Since most individuals are alert in the morning, make it a point to do the daily 1 hour of GMAT preparation, early in the morning, before you start your office hours. The commute can be used for reviewing the notes. If you are driving, record your notes and hear it back. Occupy your mind with the fundamentals of Sentence Correction, and Problem Solving. Listen to your notes during the break. When you start the next day’s GMAT preparation, the fundamentals will be second nature.

Competition: With GMAT preparation, the mode of preparation is of little substance as you are likely to compare the answer choices that you select with the competition at large, either through forums, in class or with computer adaptive tests. The emotional state will change for the worst when you are comparing the progress of your preparation with students who have already spent 1 or 2 months extra on preparation. Moderate participation in forums and a renewed focus on mastering the fundamentals will ease you of the negative effects of competition.

Perceived Threat

Meeting Deadlines: 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.

Plan for Uncertainties: The delay in getting original transcript, unavailability of recommenders, getting GMAT Score below the class median and underestimation of effort can lead to apathy. Planning for delays is the solution. The earnest recommender might find it tough to meet the deadlines that you have set for him, even after getting 700+ in all GMAT practice test, you might score 680, 40 points below the class median of your target school, and despite your best efforts, the essays might look ordinary.

Plan how you will communicate with the recommender when delays occur

Have a backup recommender, who might be less effective, just in case the first recommender is unavailable.

How much time should be planned for a GMAT retake in case you fail to reach the target?

How to rewrite essays to make it more appealing, and persuasive?

Measuring Progress

Planning for uncertainties cannot happen without developing a system for measuring progress. Daily, Monthly and Annual progress columns should be set for your entire action plan, and set ‘getting into your target school’ a clearly visible objective. This will give you perspective on what every goal, task and action are set to achieve.

Progress Columns alone is not enough. You have to understand that, after the initial positive feeling associated with pursuing a new goal, boredom or routine will creep in if the progress is moderate. Divide the MBA Admission process into smaller achievable phases – Business School Research, GMAT Preparation, Essays, Recommendations & Interviews, and assign days to complete each phase. By doing so, you will not be impatient, and realize that successfully navigating through each phase require due diligence. Focusing on each phase will increase the probability that you would complete them successfully.

Don’t focus on goals from other phases unless it has to do with recommenders. This process will make sure that you have single-minded focus necessary to reach top MBA programs.