MBA Application Checklist – 10 Things to Consider

MBA Applicants dread October 1st Week and January 1st week. For Round 2 applicants, say goodbye to the winter break. You will obsessively rewrite the essays, and triple check the required documents, but it is worth the sacrifice. Even if you have all the soft copies of your certificates, transcript, and other awards, DO NOT UPLOAD YOUR ESSAYS, RESUME & RECOMMENDATION LETTER ON THE DEADLINE DATES. Despite the warning, many MBA applicants will upload the documents on the D-Day – a last-minute activity that has frozen even the most reliable online MBA application systems.

Consider these 10 items before submitting your MBA application:

1) Essays

You might have spent 1-3 months writing, and rewriting the essay. With expert advice picked from our essay guide or mentorship from experts, you might have captured the essence of your candidacy in 500 words, but re-read the essay again. You will be tempted to change the phrase to a more believable narrative. STOP. Do not do any last minute changes unless you spot a grammatical error. If you can’t get sleep over a line that sounded perceptive but looks amateurish now, consult the essay reviewer, and rewrite it but avoid the temptation to make several edits on the upload date. Once you found peace with the words that you have captured, upload the essay. Almost all online application systems have the option to upload the essay, and save the application in draft. Do it at least 1-week before the deadline.

2) Recommendation Letter

Request your recommender to upload recommendation letter two weeks before the deadline. MBA application systems offer a different username/password for the recommender. It is not ethical for you to rewrite your recommendation letter, but it is acceptable to plan the recommendation letter according to the strengths and weaknesses that you have covered in the essay. The recommendation letter should confirm the narrative in your essay with either the same experience or preferably a new experience that your recommender had observed. Visit the recommender, and re-read the recommendation letter. Be polite when you spot grammatical errors, and if you feel awkward reviewing the recommendation letter, purchase a recommendation letter review service, and let the professional review your recommendation letter. While purchasing the service, brief the reviewer about the examples you have used in the essays, and the strengths & weaknesses captured in it. Reveal your strategy so that the reviewer will have clear guidelines on what to review, after the basic proof reading.

3) GPA

Schools want the original transcript as hard copy. With a small fee, most universities will provide the transcript – a 1-2 page summary of all your grades/marks. Take at least three scanned copies of the transcript, and back it up in your hard drive. Enter the GPA on a scale of 0-4 and upload the scanned copy of your transcript. For international students, GPA might not be available on a 4-point scale. It is too risky to convert grades or percentage marks to a GPA scale based on a third-party service. Most conversion does not capture the competition, and a faulty conversion table can undermine your grades or marks. Enter 0 for the GPA and the scale like 0/0, and the admission team (AdCom) will convert the grades/marks for you. With data about your university and the performance for your undergraduate year, the AdCom will have a better context on your performance.

4) Family Information

You have to enter Education Qualification & Employer details of your parents. Contact your parents, or preferably ask them to mail you this information to avoid any spelling errors.

5) Personal Information

If your actual date of birth is different from the official one, stick to the official date in the transcript and use the correct correspondence address. If you are in the middle of a job transition or you are planning to take a break before the MBA program, use your parent’s or partner’s address for correspondence. Most communication happens through email, but welcome kit and other information about funding will be sent to your mailing address.

6) Resume

If you are still using the 5-10 page resume, it is time to change it to a concise one, or learn how to convert your standard employment resume to an MBA resume. Business Schools expect a 1-2 page resume. Download the resume guide for 1-2 page MBA resume templates

7) Employment

You have to enter your title, dates of employment, job function, roles & responsibilities and compensation in US dollars (for US Schools). About the employer – you have to add employer’s annual revenue, size of the company, and the official address of the employer with contact details. Some schools will require you to add separate entry for each title, even if it was with the same Employer while others will ask for just the title. Do not include part-time jobs or your volunteer experience in this section. If you had gap in employment, you can address them with the optional essay included in the MBA Application.

8) Extra-Curricular Activities

Schools expect you to submit extra-curricular activity experiences in three broad categories: college-level, community service and Entrepreneurial. Use the latest experience first and conclude with college-level experience. Most schools allow you to include three extra-curricular activities. Add experiences where you have a proof of participation, either in the form of a certificate or an appreciation letter. You will be asked to enter the dates of participation. So don’t include extra-curricular activities where you funded the initiative, but had no active participation or the ones where you supported the initiative with sporadic annual participation (1-2 week). You should only list experiences with the organization where you had worked for at least 3 months.

9) Awards and Recognition

Once you have added the extra-curricular activities, include awards and recognitions, not covered in the extra-curricular. Add activities where your abilities in Music, Writing, Drama, Math Olympiad, Military, Academic (top 1%), Acting, Stand-up comedy, Rock-climbing, Triathlon, or Hiking were recognized. Do not worry if you just had a participatory certificate. Add them anyways. If your achievements & awards are in community service, include them here. You might repeat yourself, but it is better to include all your awards in this section. Most extra-curricular activities section will not have the space to include certificates. Again, the most important award first, followed by other awards in reverse chronological order.

10) GMAT or GRE

You will be asked to submit one of the scores from GMAT or GRE. Do not average your best GMAT scores, or add the best individual section scores (Verbal, Quant, AWA, or IR) and convert them into a total score. The school will ask you to submit the test date and check the score based on the official GMAT score report sent directly to the Business School. So any inconsistencies in the score can be detrimental for your MBA Admissions. There is no GMAT waiver for top MBA programs, and the scores play a key role in Admissions but do not do anything foolish out of desperation. For international students, the same rule applies for the test of English language (TOEFL) scores. Include your best overall test score.

Also, you have to take the GMAT or GRE before submitting the MBA application. Technically, you can get around this by submitting ‘0’ for the scores, but MBA Admissions team might not respond too kindly when they know that you have gamed the system.