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MBA – Admissions
How do business school admissions work?
Business school admissions committees consider your GMAT scores, undergraduate performance, career experience
(they want at least a few years, so you should not apply too early!!), essays, recommendations, and interviews,
but not necessarily in that order.
A quick look at who's accepted reveals that without a threshold GMAT score, usually in the low to mid-600's,
you will probably not be eligible for admission to top schools. Once you reach that threshold, though, the rest
of your application becomes for more important than the difference between say a 680 and a 740. Take a look at
our description of what the GMAT involves, and if you want more help than that, you should think about taking our
comprehensive test-prep course.
Essays are probably your greatest opportunity to make yourself stand out among those truly being considered
for top business schools (candidates with sufficiently high GMATs). You should not short-change yourself on this
segment of the application. Think long and hard about how you want admissions boards to see you, then think about
how to get that image across. If you know that your writing skills are somewhat lacking, let us help you.
We are offering a special promotion in this, our first year of essay consulting. We want to accumulate a body of
successful sample essays to use in the future. Take this opportunity to look at our promotion and let our
professional, ivy league editors make your essay its best. Even if you consider yourself a strong writer,
and do not think you need the help of a personal editor, have a look at our tutorial. Its free!!
Your job experience is weighted fairly highly by admissions committees, which is why you should not apply after
only a few years of working, and why you should use your essays carefully to portray your job experience in a unique,
exciting light. A very small percentage of top B-school classes are comprised of students with two-years or less
experience. A surprisingly high percentage of top B-school classes are made up of those coming from non-conventional
backgrounds. Take this as a tip off, even if you do come from a consulting or finance background
(if you haven't guessed, those are the conventional ones), play up the aspects of your job experience that are
unique--the type of work that not every consultant/invesment banker does in their first five years of work.
The GPA plays a surprisingly small role in your admission to B-school. Sure. If you graduated magna cum laude from
Harvard, that will help you out, but if you didn't, or even if you partied your way through college, earning a modest
2.7, you are not out of the race. Use your essays to show why you deserve another chance, and be sure you get your
GMATs to where they need to be.
Finally, the admissions committees look at recommendations and interviews. These provide the same kind of
opportunity that the essay does, to provide a subjective picture of yourself, but they are not weighted as highly.
Tips and recommendations for those are provided in the tutorial section on this website!
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