Preparing for MBA

Applications

CLEAN UP YOUR RESUMEI suggest this is one of the first, if not the first, things you do. Cleaning up and revising your resume gives you a chance to look back on things you have accomplished in your professional or academic life. It also gives you the opportunity to see if you really are ready to apply to business school and that it makes sense.

Furthermore, asking people to review and provide feedback on your resume is a way to begin communicating your desire to apply to business school and will help you generate a support system during the application process.

ASK YOURSELF “WHY?” AND “WHAT FOR?”Asking yourself the reason for why you want to earn your MBA, and what you think it will help you achieve, will make the process easier and more meaningful for you in the long-run. As part of this reflection, carefully think about where you are in your career and whether or not the investment will be worth the time, money and sacrifice. And for when people ask you why you are applying to business school, you can easily communicate your WHY and OBJECTIVE.

DO YOUR RESEARCHOnce you know why you want to earn your MBA, research programs and schools with that reasoning in mind and see which ones best match your needs, wants and goals. Do as much research as you can. This includes attending informational sessions and reaching out to current students, faculty, academic advisors, and alumni – for example, in-person “coffee” chats or meet-ups could be even more helpful than relying solely on online research. Set a deadline to finalize a list of schools you wish to apply to.

CREATE A CHECK-LISTWhen you have your finalized list, create separate tabs for each school you will be applying to in a binder. Print out the specific criteria and application deadlines for each school. For every school, there will be different application components you will want to lay out and fully understand. You will want to create to-do lists and add contact lists to the tabs. You can even create a master calendar that includes all the deadlines in one view at the beginning of the binder.

This is just one specific suggestion, but there are other ways of organizing your list of schools and the important application information for each of them. At the very least, you’ll want to know which schools have earlier deadlines and prioritize those applications first.

PREPARE PERSONAL FINANCESI always advise that people get accepted into their schools before thinking or worrying about how they will fund their education (although you will want to know and write down all the financial aid, scholarship or fellowship application deadlines ahead of time). It is a privileged mindset to think in these terms, but I think it’s more important at the outset to have options available to you and not let cost dissuade you from applying, especially if you are at a point where you have decided that you are willing and able to incur those future cost burdens of an MBA program.

Either way, you will want to start saving and planning for the more immediate costs that come with the application process itself. The expenses include application fees (look for ways to waive those fees), GMAT registration fees, GMAT test prep courses, GMAT study materials, etc.

SIGN UP FOR THE GMATGive yourself enough time to study. Consider signing up for the GMAT first before you begin studying or enrolling in a test prep course. It helps to have an end date in mind to serve as motivation and to help you plan your study schedule.

REQUEST TRANSCRIPTSSigning up for the GMAT and requesting transcripts are probably two of the easiest things you can do right away. Requesting transcripts can get tricky, however, if you are applying to a lot of schools, so I suggest doing this well in advance.

ASK FOR PERSONAL RECOMMENDATIONS(NOW RATHER THAN LATER)Identify the people you want to write a letter of recommendation on your behalf. Each school’s application has different criteria on who they want to see recommendations from, but overall, you’ll want to choose people who genuinely know your work and what you are capable of. I suggest you craft email drafts for when making that first ask, then have trusted colleagues, friends or family review the emails. Make sure to include your resume, why you want to get your MBA, and offer the opportunity to speak further via phone call or in-person. Make it easy on them by providing enough detail and enough time for them to put together a recommendation. Also make it clear how they should submit their letter – each school is different.

SET DEADLINES FOR PERSONAL STATEMENTSJust like for your GMAT prep, give yourself enough time to write your personal statements. You’ll also want to set deadlines for yourself when writing your personal statements. I recommend starting your personal statements as early as possible and not worrying about them while you’re preparing for the GMAT (focusing on them before studying or after you take the test). This is because I think it is best to write the personal statements when your mind is not stressed or worried about other things. The biggest challenge can be getting out that first draft because we get so wrapped up in how we think we should convey ourselves to admissions. It is easier to sound more authentic and be done with the first draft, in particular, when we are not working under pressure. It is also easier to write all of them at the same time because many of the prompts of the different schools will be related somehow, although you’ll want to customize as much as possible.

BEGIN ONLINE APPLICATIONSYou can knock out the online portion of the application fairly easily. I suggest setting some quality time aside on a weekend to get these online applications done. Again, make sure to prioritize schools based on varying deadline.