web.support.for
	Master the GMAT
	Crafting Your Application

Don't let those numbers frighten you. They are not intended not to dissuade you from pursuing a b-school education, but rather to dramatize a point. The decision to apply to business school has significant financial implications for you as an individual (and probably for your family).

From the perspective of the school, there are financial as well as social implications. A business school, like any educational institution, is a corporate individual, and its admissions decisions reflect financial and social policies adopted by the corporation. Consider first some of the financial implications for a business school to accept or reject an applicant.

The school has to be run as a business. It has employees; it owns or rents property; it operates a library; it buys furniture and office equipment; it pays utility bills; and so on. A large part of those expenses are paid using student tuition. A school, therefore, is dependent on a steady flow of tuition moneys. So admissions decisions must be made in the context of budgetary constraints. A school simply cannot afford to have large numbers of students dropping out of school. So one concern of a business school admissions officer is to ensure that those applicants who are accepted are committed to completing the course of study. Additionally--though this may not be an explicit concern--business schools rely heavily on alumni donations. So it would not be surprising to learn that an applicant who shows considerable professional promise would be considered favorably. And a school that graduates successful people gets a reputation for being a good school and such a reputation in turn tends to attract highly qualified applicants.

Financial considerations are only one aspect of the admissions decision. Business schools also have a sense of the social responsibility they bear as educators. They actively seek applications from members of groups who have been underrepresented in business.

Over 200,000 people start the admission process each year.

The admissions process, then, is the interface between two perspectives. The process is designed to match individuals and institutions who can mutually satisfy each other's needs. This matching function, however, is somewhat skewed, particularly at the top end, because there are more people interested in going to the competitive schools than there are seats available. At some schools, there may be 7 or 8 applicants for each seat.

Given the mismatch between the number of seats and the number of applicants, the application process is turned into a competition. You will have to compete against others for a seat (or at least for a seat at the school of your choice). To do this, you must make yourself attractive to the school. You must persuade the admissions committee that you will help them satisfy their economic and social needs. And that thought must guide you as you create your application.

Tell them what they want to hear.

You need to create an application that will give a business school a positive reason for accepting you. Two books that you should buy are Getting Into Business School Today (an ARCO publication by Martinson and Waldherr) and The Official Guide to MBA Programs. You can find them at most bookstores or order them on-line at a discount.

Need some expert help crafting the application (including preparing a professional looking package)?

 

What goes on behind the closed doors of the admissions office? Well, the first thing that you should know about the admissions process is that there is no one admissions process. Rather, each school has its own individual admissions process, and its process differs somewhat from that of every other school in the country.

At some schools, the decisions are made by faculty committees. At such schools, decisions may be made by majority vote, or unanimous agreement may be required before an acceptance is extended to an applicant. At other schools, the decisions may be made by a single professional admissions officer or by a dean of admissions. At other schools, decisions may be made by a committee with members drawn from both administration and faculty. And at some schools, students themselves may have some input into admissions decisions.

Despite the variety of formal structures, one generalization is possible: Every business school relies to some extent on the applicant's Grade Point Average (GPA) and GMAT score, but there are few (if any) business schools that rely only on these quantitative factors. What does this statement mean for you? First, it says that every business school uses the GPA and the GMAT score. The exact use of these numbers varies from school to school, but many use a formula that combines the two together into an index. The formula is designed to weight the two numbers approximately equally to give admissions officers some idea of how one applicant stacks up against other applicants.

The two most important factors in your application are your GPA and your GMAT score.

The GMAT is scored on a scale from 200 (the minimum) to 800 (the maximum). You may notice that the "200" and the "800" are reminiscent of the "200" and "800" scale of the SAT, and this is not accidental.  The 200 to 800 point scale has a special relation to the "0 to 4" grading system used by most colleges: 800 is 200 times 4. This permits the use of a formula to combine the two measures. For example:

[GMAT + (200 x GPA)] /2 = Index

This formula combines the two numbers to create an index. Let's use some numbers, say a GPA of 3.5 and an GMAT score of 700:

I = [GMAT + (200 x GPA)]/2

I = [700 + (200 x 3.5)]/2 = 700

Thus, the Index for this particular applicant is a 700--an artificial number, but one that will make sense to the admissions committee because all other applications at their school are classified in the same manner.

Another Index formula might average the numbers, which gives a number with a more familiar look. If you divide 700 by 200, you get 3.5. In other words, a student with a 3.5 GPA and a GMAT of 700, is 3.5 on that Index.

What does the Index do? That varies from school to school. Some schools have a fairly mechanical admissions process that emphasizes the Index. The school may set a minimum Index below which applications receive little or no attention because they are probably going to be rejected. Such schools may also have a second, higher minimum that triggers an automatic acceptance (unless the application shows some glaring weakness, e.g., the applicant has three felony convictions for stock fraud manipulation).

At the opposite extreme are schools that minimize the importance of the "numbers." These schools may not even calculate an Index. Such schools have a very flexible admissions process.

Most schools fall somewhere in between these extremes. Many schools use the Index as a screening device to determine how much attention will be given to an application. Applications with very low Indexes will receive little attention. The schools reason that unless there is something obvious and compelling in the application to offset the low numbers, then the applicant will be rejected. Applications with very high Indexes will also receive little attention. The reasoning is that unless there is something obvious and compelling in the application to reject it, it should be accepted. On this theory, the applications with Indexes in the middle receive the greatest attention. These are applications from candidates who are at least competitive for the school but who do not command an automatic acceptance. It is in this pool that competition is the most severe.

Here is a table that illustrates what happens at most schools:

CyberPrep U.		GMAT (Percentile Rankings)
Admissions Chances		61 - 70	71 - 80	81 - 90	90+
G	3.75 and above	2/19	49/101	102/116	72/79
P	3.50 - 3.74	6/112	75/275	301/361	120/129
A	Below 3.50	10/160	90/601	375/666	201/250

(Number to the right of the slash shows the number of applicants. Number to the left of the slash shows the number of applicants accepted.)

The categories in the table show what this school did with applications with certain GMAT scores (shown in percentile terms) and grade point averages. In the category in the upper right hand corner are candidates with scores above the 90th percentile and GPAs above 3.75. The table shows that 72 of the 79 were accepted and seven rejected.

What is obvious from the table is that some candidates with higher Indexes were rejected in favor of candidates with lower numbers. For example, of those candidates with scores between the 81st and 90th percentiles, 74 more candidates were accepted with a GPA below 3.49 than the higher GPA between 3.5 and 3.74.

Why would a business school reject an applicant with higher numbers for one with lower numbers? Because of the unquantifiable factors such as motivation, commitment, leadership, experience, and so on.

As you prepare your applications, you are, of course, saddled with your GPA and your GMAT score. There is nothing you can do to change those factors. This means that you have to work hard to craft an application that presents your credentials in the best light.

Want to know more about your chances for success at a particular  school? Consult the Official Guide to MBA Programs.

Your GMAT score is one of the most important determinants of whether your application will be successful; and the Graduate Management Admission Council, which is responsible for the GMAT, advises candidates that preparing for the test is a good idea.

Enroll in an GMAT preparation course? One may be available at your school  To find out go to: Cambridge Educational Services.

 

Rolling admissions is a device that regulates the release of acceptances. A typical  application season opens in October and closes in February or perhaps March. Applications will be received throughout the application season, and decisions are made on an ongoing basis.

Rather than saving all applications until the deadline for applications is past and then making decisions, rolling admissions allows schools to notify applicants on an ongoing basis. This is done by targeting an entering class. Based on its admissions history, a school will estimate what it thinks will be the range of GMAT scores and the range of GPAs of the students it will accept for the upcoming year. Then, as it receives applications (say, month by month), the school will act on them. Students with very strong applications compared with the target group will receive acceptances, and students with weak ones, rejections. Applications in the middle will be carried over--no notification or notification that the application is still pending.

The rolling admissions process is also a tool you can use to your advantage: apply early. Obviously, schools have greater flexibility earlier in the admission season than later. There are more seats available earlier in the year.

That is not to say that if you apply late in the season you will be rejected. In fact, it is impossible to quantify exactly the advantage that applications received earlier rather than later enjoy. Still, if you want to maximize your chances of acceptance, apply early!

The same advice applies for schools that offer early admission. Early admission procedures require applications by a certain date early in the application season and guarantee you a decision by a certain date. Early admission procedures may be restrictive or non-restrictive. A restrictive procedure requires the applicant to agree that if an offer of admission is extended then the candidate will withdraw applications from all other schools and decline any other offers of admission. In other words, applying for the early decision commits you to attending that school if you are accepted. Other early admission procedures do not require such a commitment.

Early admission? A good idea, but be sure to read the fine print because you may be committing yourself to withdrawing all of your other applications.

Given the financial commitment that you will be making, one of the obvious questions on your mind will be "Where should I apply?" You should apply to a group of schools such that, given your economic resources, you maximize your chances of gaining admission to the business school of your choice.

Let's assume that you have the resources to apply to ten schools and that you have an above average GPA and GMAT score. Depending on the exact numbers, you may very well have a chance at one of the top schools. But those are your long shot schools. You are almost a sure thing at many schools. And there is a long list of schools in the middle at which your application will almost surely receive serious consideration but is not guaranteed for acceptance.

Given these considerations, you should select two or perhaps three "long shot" schools. As the term "long shot" implies, the odds of your being accepted at these schools are not very good, but the potential pay-off justifies the gamble. On the other hand, you should also select one or two "sure thing" schools. To do this, you may have to apply to a school in your geographical area that doesn't enjoy a particularly good reputation or to a school that is located in another part of the country. The rest of your applications should go to your "good bet" schools--schools for which the chances for acceptance are 40% to 75%.

 

Hedge your bets. Apply to some "safe schools," some "reach schools," and more "bread and butter" schools.

This strategy of "stacking" your applications will maximize your chances of acceptance at a school you want while minimizing the chance that you won't get in to any school. Of course, the way the strategy gets implemented will vary from person to person. For people who are lucky enough to have a high GPA and a top GMAT score, the middle and bottom tier schools collapse into a single tier. And at the other extreme, those who are unlucky enough to have a GPA and GMAT score that are below what most schools accept will have to work with the second and third tiers.

As you prepare to implement your strategy, make a realistic assessment of your chances. Candidates unfortunately tend to overestimate the importance of what they believe to be their own interesting or unique factors. It is not unusual to hear candidates make statements such as "Well sure my GPA is a little low, but I had to work part-time while I was in school" and "I know my GMAT score is not that good, but I was a member of the University Senate." These are valid points and are usually taken into consideration by admissions officers. But the question is how much weight they will be given for they (or some similar point) are true of most of the people who are applying to business school. For example, if you are thinking of applying to Wharton and you have a 3.25 GPA and an GMAT score of 75th percentile, then there had better be something really special in your background (such as the Nobel Prize in Economics) because, in some years Wharton has a hundred-plus applicants with such numbers and accepts none.

A question related to the "Where should I apply?" question is "What are the top usiness schools in the country?" Since there is no single criterion for "best school" that would be accepted by everyone, it is arguable that this question simply cannot be given a meaningful answer. But even though no unequivocal answer can be given, it is possible to get an approximate answer.

Certainly, any listing of "top" business schools would have to include the following:

Old B-School Saying: There are 20 schools in the "Top Ten."

Berkeley, Carnegie-Mellon, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Hastings, Kellogg, Michigan, NYU, Sloan, Stanford, Tuck, Wharton, Texas, UCLA, Virginia, Yale

Another way of evaluating business schools is to think of them as falling into one of three groups: national schools, regional schools, and local schools. National schools are those with substantial academic reputations, such as those listed above. Regional schools have a substantial regional reputation but are not known nationally as "top" schools. Local schools are those whose educational mission is often the MBA for a particular purpose such as a career move and may offer part-time and evening programs. If your goal is a fast track position with a big company, then you should aim for a "national" school. On the other hand, if have a start-up plan in mind, , then (aside from the educational challenge) it may not matter as much where you go to school.

To maximize your chances of success, you must create an application that satisfies the needs of the school to which you are applying. This does not mean that you create an application out of whole cloth, but it does mean that you organize and present your experiences in a way that depicts you in the most favorable light.

Most of the questions you will be asked need only short answers, for example, "Did you work while you were in school?," "What clubs did you join?," and "What honors or awards did you receive?" You don't have much room to maneuver here. But you should try to communicate as much information as possible in your short answers. Compare the following pairs of descriptions:

Good	Better
Member of the College Orchestra	Second Violinist of the College Orchestra
Played Intra-Mural Volleyball	Co-captain of the Phi Kappa Volleyball Team
Member of the AD's CSL	One of three members on the Associate Dean's Committee on Student Life
Worked at Billy's Burger Barn	Assistant Manager at Billy's Burger Barn (25 hours/week)

In addition to the short answer questions, most applications invite you to make a personal statement. Some applications ask for very little, for example, "In a paragraph explain to us why you want to go to business school." Other applications are open-ended: "On a separate sheet of paper, tell us anything else you think we ought to know about you." The point of the question is to give you the opportunity to give the admissions committee any information that might not be available from the GMAT score, GPA, and short-answer questions.

For two reasons, you should consider the personal statement to be the most important part of your application. First, the personal statement should be your argument to the admissions committee for your acceptance. It should give the reasons to accept you. Second, the personal statement is the one aspect of the application over which you can exercise any real control. Your GPA is already settled. Your work experience was accumulated over years; your GMAT has been scored. Those are aspects of the application that cannot easily be manipulated. The personal statement, however, is under your control.

What should go into a personal statement? Arguments that interpret your academic, employment, and personal history in such a way as to indicate that you have the ability to do business school studies and that you are committed to studying. Importantly, the personal statement must not be a simple restatement of facts already in the application. Imagine, for example, a personal statement that reads as follows:

I went to State University where I got a 3.5 GPA. I was a member of the Associate Dean's Committee on Student Life, and I worked as the assistant manager on the night shift at Billy's Burger Barn. Then I took the GMAT and got a 600. I know I will make a really good b-school student and later a fine manager.

Not very interesting. Furthermore, all of that information is already included in your answers to the standard questions on the application. There is no point in simply repeating it.

Instead, your personal statement should interpret the facts of your life to make them reasons why you should be accepted.. Let's start with the GPA. Try to bring out facts that suggest that the GPA is really better than it looks. Did you have one particularly bad semester during which you took Physics, Calculus, and Latin that pulled your average down? Was there a death in the family or some other difficult time that interfered with your studies? How many hours did you work in an average week? What extracurricular or family commitments took time away from your studies? Did you follow an unusual course of study such as an honors program or a double major? Was your major a particularly challenging one? Did you participate in any unusual courses such as field research?

These are the points that the admissions committee wants to hear. For example:

The committee will see that my final GPA is 3.5. I should point out that the average would have been higher had I not had to work 20 hours each week to finance my education. Additionally, my grades in the first semester of my junior year were disappointing because my grandmother, who lived with my family and with whom I was very close, died. Finally, in order to fulfill the requirements for the honors program, I wrote a 50-page honors thesis on the economics of the Dutch fishing industry of the 18th century. I have included with this application a copy of the introduction to this paper.

You should take the same approach to your work experience. For example:

During my junior and senior years in college, I worked an average of 20 hours per week at Billy's Burger Barn as the manager on the night shift. I reported to work at midnight and got off at four a.m. As night manager, I supervised eight other employees and was responsible for making emergency repairs on kitchen equipment. For example, once I was able to keep the deep fryer in operation by using a length of telephone cable to repair a faulty thermostat. The night manager was also responsible for maintaining order. It's no easy job to convince intoxicated students who become too rowdy to leave without calling the police. And we were robbed at gunpoint not once but twice.

Of course, if you have considerable work experience, e.g., if you graduated from college several years ago, you will want to go into your experience in more detail than student work experience merits.

Can you say anything about the GMAT? Probably not much. The GMAT score is not usually open to interpretation, but there are some exceptions. One such exception is a history of poor scores on standardized exams. Consider the following:

I believe that my GMAT score of 600 understates my real ability for I have never had much success on aptitude tests. My SAT score was only 925. Yet, I finished college with a 3.6 GPA.

Or:

The committee will see that I have two GMAT scores, 310 and 600. During the first test, I had the flu and a fever and simply could not concentrate.

These are the two most common excuses for a disappointing GMAT score.

Finally, you must also persuade the admissions committee that you are serious about studying business. It won't do to write "I read the Wall Street Journal every day." You must be able to show the committee something in your background that explains why you want to go to business school. Also, it will help your case if you can suggest what you might do with an MBA. For example:

As a chemistry major, I joined the Student Environmental Association. Working with professors, we helped the local paper mill develop a plan to stop polluting the Ten Mile Run Creek. I hope to help a large business manage its operations in an environmentally beneficial manner.

A word of warning is in order here. Your career objectives have to be believable. It won't do to write "I plan to be a captain of industry." That's much too abstract. 

You may also wish to include in your personal statement information that shows that you have something that will help the school create a diverse student body. This additional information can be something dramatic:

One morning, a patron choked on a burger and lost consciousness. I used the Heimlich maneuver to dislodge the food and performed CPR until a team of paramedics arrived. The patron recovered fully in large part, according to her doctors, because of my first aid.

Or the information may not be dramatic:

My parents are Armenian immigrants, so I am fluent in Armenian as well as English. I would enjoy meeting others who share an interest in the politics, legal developments, and culture of that part of the world.

But don't overestimate the value of this kind of information. It is, so to speak, the icing on the cake. It makes you a more interesting individual and might tip the scale in your favor when all other things are equal. It will not, however, get you an acceptance at a school for which you are not otherwise competitive in terms of GMAT and GPA.

When you marshal your arguments for acceptance, you need to present them in an organized fashion. There is no single preferred format, but you might start with the following outline:

I. I have the Ability A. My college studies were good. I had one bad semester. I was in the honors program. I wrote a thesis. B. My work experience is good. I was promoted to VP of my firm. I worked while in college. II. I want to do something specific. A. I worked with professors on the pollution problem. B. I would become a specialist in environmental impact. III. There is something interesting about me.

Perhaps the best advice about so-called letters of recommendation is to think of them as evaluations rather than recommendations. Indeed, many admissions officers refer to letter-writers as evaluators. These letters can be very important factors in an application, so who should write them?

First, let's dispose of a common misunderstanding. A letter of evaluation does not have to come from a famous person. How effective is the following letter:

William Hardy, CEO MegaBucks Holding Company To the Admissions Committee: I am recommending Paul Roberts for business school. My head of Financial Operations knows his father, Mark, who works in our Bonds Division and says that Mark is a very hard worker.  If Paul is anything like his father, he too will be a good employee. Sincerely, William Hardy

The letterhead holds out great promise, but then the letter itself is worthless. It is obvious that the letter-writer doesn't really have any basis for the conclusion that the candidate will make a good student.

The best letters of evaluation will come from people who know you very well, e.g., a professor with whom you took several courses, your immediate supervisor at work, or a business associate with whom you have worked closely. A good evaluation will incorporate the personal knowledge into the letter and will make references to specific events and activities. For example:

Mary P. Weiss White, Weiss, and Blanche To the Admissions Committee: White, Weiss, and Blanche is a consulting firm that advises businesses on environmental matters. Paul Roberts has worked for us for the past two summers. His work is outstanding, and he is an intelligent and genial person. Last summer, as my assistant, Paul wrote a 25-page report that outlined a way of altering a client's exhaust stack to reduce sulfur emissions. The report was organized so that it was easy to follow and written in a style that was clear and easy to understand. Additionally, Paul made the live presentation during a meeting with the client's board of directors, engineers, and lawyers. He was confident and handled some very difficult questions in an easy manner. I should note that we have used Paul's innovation in several other plants. Finally, I would note that Paul made an important contribution to our company softball team. The team finished in last place, but Paul played in every game. His batting average wasn't anything to brag about, but his enthusiasm more than made up for it. Sincerely, Mary Weiss

To get a letter such as this, you will have to ask someone who knows you well. It may also help to provide them with some "suggestions" about what should go into the letter. So if you have not been in recent contact, send a resume with a cover letter reminding them of some of the important points that you might want them to mention. You might also want to include a copy of Appendix A of Getting Into Business School Today: "Guidelines for Writing a Letter of Appraisal for a Business School Applicant."

 

You are about to make a huge investment in your future. The cost of applying to school is virtually nothing when compared to the cost of the education. And the cost of your  education is miniscule when compared with your earnings potential over a lifetime--depending on where you get in. More importantly, it is your life--your time needed to complete applications, two years in school, and a career. So explore all options and maximize your opportunities.

 

Get an objective assessment of the content and style of your personal statement.

 

 

Contact: webmaster@cyberprep.com
©2000 by CyberPrep.com. All rights reserved.