My MBA admission experience ...

This post is really long overdue. Ever since I mentioned that I will be going to bschool in Fall 2007, I received questions from several ppl. I hope I have attempted to answer them to the best I can. Including this information for future MBA aspirants: (Disclaimer: this posting reflects , my opinion based on my MBA admission experience and is not endorsed by any business school)


1) To MBA or not: The MBA thought has popped in my mind. But, I am not really sure if I want to do an MBA or not.
A: There is no straight forward answer to this question. It really depends on you, where you are in your career and what your aspirations. Talk to people, who have done an MBA. While there are various reasons to do an MBA, the most prominent ones are:

a) i want to advance in my career using advanced business skills, use it within my or different organization
b) i want to switch careers - maybe something like XYZ to finance or marketing
c) i am not really sure. I will do my MBA and figure it out.

No matter what your reasons are, don't use it only for the sake of a career switch, job search tool. Academically, the MBA degree will include courses which will provide a good foundation in business, leadership and teamwork. But the two years that you spend doing an MBA, will help you develop perspectives (global or otherwise) and incorporate non-textbook knowledge that will last a lifetime. Therefore, it's not enough to simply state that you want to do an
MBA for career switching or advancement. You should find out your mainstream goals in life. What is that one or few things you aspire to improve in this world? And then, does the MBA degree help you with that? After some introspection along these lines, 'to MBA or not' may be simple enough for you to answer ..

2) If I decide to apply for MBA, what should I do next?
A: There are several things in store for you,if you decide to apply for MBA. Depending on when you start the process, you may want to understand that the bschool deadlines and how your tasks fit with those application timelines. Generally, there are 3 admission rounds. Very few schools have either 2 or 4 rounds. Round 1 deadlines are in Sept/Oct, followed by round2 in late dec/early Jan, while round 3 deadlines are in march. A rough guideline to align with the application deadlines:

- Your goals and reasons to do an MBA : 6 months before the deadline
-- GMAT (spend ~two months) : 4 to 5 months before the deadline
--- Research, visit and finalize bschools : 4 months before the deadline
---- Start writing essay drafts, talk to current students, prep your recommenders : 3 months before the deadline
----- Get essay feedback, revise your drafts, prepare other application materials such as bio, work etc information : 2 months before the deadline
------ More feedback and essay revision, follow up with recommenders : 1 month before the deadline
------- Submit application when you are ready, follow up with recommenders : days or hours before the deadline

Generally speaking, the application process will keep you busy for a good 6 to 8 months (Don't forget the two months wait after you submit the applications). While most tasks are driven by the applicant, the one that requires the most careful attention is recommendations. You should definitely allot a good amount of time to your recommenders to complete this task, be patient with them and follow up carefully, so as to not come across as bothersome. Do not wait till
the nth hour to ping your recommender. If they haven't completed the recommendations a few days before the deadline, you should remind them about the deadline and try to find if they are working on a draft. Sit with them and have a conversation about yourself. That will make it easy for them to write a recommendation. At the same time, if you have had a close working relationship with your recommender, you should know what is your recommender's style, and
if he/she will be completing the reco minutes before the deadline, trust them on that.

3) Any advice regarding the GMAT examination?
A: Use the OG (Official Guide). See my post here for my GMAT plan. There are several MBA applicant blogs that talk about this. Dave's MBA blog is a good starting point for various resources

4) What about the essays? What do bschools want? What should I write in the essays?
A: Hmmm...this one really deserves a seperate post. There's no golden answer to what be written in the essay. To start with, do not think in terms of "what the bschool wants to hear", think about "what you want to tell them". Answers to the essay questions should come from within you. (Remember that inner voice of yours, listen to it. Now is the time.)

Beginning
I chose to begin this journey with by writing my own story (I was born here. I did this and that. I want to this and that etc..). Writing in such plain old fashion helped me to find the loose gaps between the statements, add my thoughts and then keep refining them. Trust me when I say that I trashed the first set of drafts here. In no way, they reflected me- the person. Some things that also helped me were making a list of all things that I have done so far, things that I have enjoyed doing, things I like and don't like, and of course, things that i cannot live without. Doing this exercise also showed me some patterns in my life - of the type of person I am, the choices I make and how they define me. I took help of family and close friends while going through this
task. I think I spent about a month & 1/2 on this, taking breaks when I found myself going in circles. When I found my voice reflected through the essays, I knew that the time spent doing this was well worth the effort. And I had to move on to the next phase.

Middle
After writing my own story, I was clear about what I had done, what I am doing now and where I wanted to go. In my opinion, answers to these questions form a crucial part of your essays. However, this is not just about essays. It's possible that when you have reflected so much, you may come to the conclusion that you really don't want to do an MBA. That's fine. All the thinking, writing, reflecting that you have done is not a waste of time. It will help you make
decision on how you want to not just the MBA factor, but also how to want to advance in your career, what activites you want in your life. Now, before I entered the next phase, I had finished my GMAT, researched my schools and more or less finalized the schools that I would be applying to.

Looking at these bschool essays, you will notice that there are some common questions and themes around them:
- Career goals & why - the exercise that you did at the start should help you here. Bschools do not give instructions on what is a right goal or wrong goal. But don't get confused about this. A good rule of thumb is the ability to express these goals to a stranger and if they stil make any sense. Most ppl I spoke to mentioned "starting a company" as a goal. While that is a good starting point, dive deep into that aspect. Why do you want to start a company? What
problem are you trying to solve? What is the company about? What is your vision? Simply mentioning that you want to start a company will not do any good.

-- Leadership - almost all bschools will have a question or two about leadership. Infact, the underlying theme of HBS application is leadership. They either ask you to describe your leadership experience in your past, or ask you about how you plan to use the MBA to enhance your leadership skills. In writing answers to such questions, you have to first find out what leadership means to you, how you have dealt in such situations, what you have observed about your leadership skills.

--- Personal or work experiences
---- Involvement within your community
----- Creative or ethical experiences

The above 3 points are specific questions related to what you have done so far. A good guideline here is the 'what have you done, how did you do it, what you have learned from that experience'. Such questions usually have a length of 400-600 words, which suggests that you should be writing in a concise manner. You can also use a certain theme for your essays for a bschool.

Your school research will help you in polishing your essays. You will notice that each school has a distinctive culture, a spirit that is embodied within its student body and also reflected in how the school operates and what the school values.

The End
Get feedback on your essays, revise them to fit within the word limits (+/- 5 to 10% rule is a good idea), and complete the essays at least 10 to 12 days before the deadline. Let them rest a while. Within the last few days, you can do some minor tweaks, correct grammar and focus on any polishing. Rewriting at the last minute is not a good idea, unless you are really sure what you are writing about.

The following should sum up the above:
- Write your own story. Be true to yourself. No one other than yourself can write these essays
-- Do not cut, paste, copy amongst the various bschool essay.
--- You are different and unique. Do not worry about others. What you choose to worry about can sometimes define how your application shapes up.

Coming up: my essay outlines ...