Reapplying to B-School

Reapplying to B-School

by Jeremy Shinewald, founder of mbaMission

With this application season nearing its end, the time comes for applicants to make some choices. While many are now in the fortunate position of choosing between schools, some are suddenly confronting a different and unexpected question: “Where did I go wrong?” For those seeking to analyze their applications, we have posed several questions and explored the answers to help you identify common errors, which you may have inadvertently let slip by.

Did you write essays that clearly connect your candidacy with your target program?

Although connecting your goals and ambitions with your target school’s resources is always critical, in a competitive year—when a school can easily accept one candidate over the other for the most arbitrary of reasons—ensuring that your essays have profoundly linked you to your target programs is especially important. As you reanalyze your responses to questions like “What are your short-term and long-term post-MBA goals? How will Columbia Business School help you achieve these goals?” think to yourself, “How strong was my case for Columbia?”

Without realizing it, many candidates offer very trite and clichéd reasons for wanting to attend target schools. It is not enough to write at a high level: “Kellogg offers a world-renowned marketing program and a strong team environment.” The prospective applicant must truly make his/her own personal case, offering details of classes, clubs, professors, research centers, etc. Then, the candidate must directly tie these resources to his/her specific career goals to create a compelling case. If your rationale for applying to a certain school was not truly compelling, then the MBA school likely chose another candidate who exhibited a true passion for and connection with its program.

Did you connect with your target program?

MBA programs do their best to manage their yields (number of acceptances/number of offers), as a high yield can help boost their position in certain rankings. So, the schools want to know that candidates are truly interested in and committed to their programs. While visiting your target campuses is not a prerequisite, it is strongly encouraged; when candidates cannot visit, it is advisable for them to connect in some way with alumni or current students to get to know a target program beyond its Web site. Candidates should ask themselves whether they proved at some point in their applications that they have firsthand knowledge of and experience with their target programs. The candidate who never visited the classroom and did not come to campus to interview may inadvertently send the wrong message and may simply face a relative disadvantage compared with another, similarly qualified candidate. While pinpointing this as “the reason” is difficult, it can be a factor within the bigger decision.

Did you clearly, credibly and profoundly express your career goals?

As you reexamine your application, another potential trouble spot to consider is your goal statement. Without realizing it, many candidates offer superficial goals and do not convey the requisite passion for or knowledge of their prospective careers:

“In the short term, when I graduate from NYU-Stern, I want to become a Brand Manager. After three years, I will climb to the position of VP of Marketing, and then in the long term, I will become a Director of Marketing.”

Providing the most basic information is not enough to answer the question. As you reread your goal statement, ask yourself whether you showed an understanding of the demands of your future position and the value that you could bring to it. Further, consider whether you connected your existing skills and the skills you will acquire via your MBA with your career goals. Finally, the most difficult task, try to discern whether you exhibited true passion for your goals—are they ambitious, but achievable? Is there a personal/professional imperative that you strive for these heights? Again, in such a competitive field, if your goal statement lacked passion, there were certainly many others out there who exhibited it.