How do you show an MBA admissions committee who you really are? Trying to anticipate what the adcom wants to hear never works! But considering your audience is an important part of your MBA application and essays. This means research into the program, school fit, and knowing that this business school is really the right one for you.
This week, Angela Guido talks about toeing the line of an authentic MBA application that considers the audience with great communication. So grab a beverage, get ready to put on someone else’s shoes, and settle in for another MBA Monday!
School research:
https://youtu.be/D__eu0J68_8
https://youtu.be/1JoRX_WqYac
How to build you career game plan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxYxp…
Check out the Ultimate Guide How to Get Into Business School: https://mbas.co/ultimateguide
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Prefer to read? Here’s the transcript:
So a lot of people ask themselves the question “Am I good enough to get into business school?” or “How can I say the right thing to get into school and convince them that I'm the one for them?”. And if you've watched any of my other videos, you probably already know that I don't think those are the right questions. However, there is an aspect of considering your audience that's incredibly important in your MBA applications. Hello, it's Monday. That means it's MBA Monday. I'm Angela Guido, the founder of Career Protocol. And today I'm talking about how to show schools you're worth investing in.
Show the MBA Admissions Committee Why They Need You
When you're constructing your MBA applications, there are a lot of elements of your candidacy that you're going to have to think about. You've got multiple essays, a resume, recommendations – usually more than one – a bunch of short answers, potentially something creative, like an org chart or even a video. There's a lot that goes into your candidacy to show the admissions committee who you really are. A really important element of great communication is connecting directly with your audience and their needs and concerns. Take a moment and put yourself in the shoes of the admissions committee. Their job is to create an amazing class of students that will have a great experience during business school, go on to become successful alumni, and further increase the value of their MBA program by virtue of their membership in the network. So they're looking for a particular group of people that truly belong at their program.
There are three big things that you can do thematically in your application to show the admissions committee that you are someone who's going to make them proud as an alumni.
#Post-MBAGoals
The first thing is to show them that you have big dreams. This relates to your goals. This is why every school at some point in the process is going to ask you what your goals are. They want to know that you have a plan and more importantly, that you're driven to have an impact. They want to know that you're going to take their MBA and use it to do something meaningful in the world, most importantly, something meaningful to you. This doesn't mean that you have to go into social impact. It doesn't mean that you have to use your Career in sacrifice and service for all of humanity. It's perfectly fine if you just want to continue on your path in corporate finance, but you need to do something with your Career that's genuinely meaningful and inspiring to you. You need to have goals that the admissions committee can be inspired by. But the most important thing is that your Career vision and your dreams are inspiring to you. You're going to be successful in your future if you're doing something that you genuinely love. So take time to do research on your future career goals and present a picture of your future that's inspiring to you. We have a ton of other videos on our channel about this. So look at the description for links to other videos that talk about how to build your Career game plan.
Show the Adcom What You’ve Already Achieved
The second thing you can do in your MBA applications to show the school that you are for them is to show them that you've had already a genuine impact. You've already made change happen in whatever world you're in. If you're in the nonprofit space, if you're an artist or if you're a management consultant or a marketer, it doesn't matter. Show them that in your world you've made a difference and you've had an impact. The primary place you're going to do this is on your resume. Your recommenders, ideally, are also going to speak to this extensively and it will come up in your interviews. It might also surface in your essays. That really depends on the school and their questions. But the bottom line is you want to come into this process being and knowing that you are someone who's already had an impact.
Demonstrate Best Business School Fit
Third thing you can do to earn the trust and love and endorsement of the admissions committee is show them that you genuinely love and are interested in their specific program. This is a school fit. And again, we have a lot of videos about school fit. So check out the links in the description for more videos on how to research schools, get to know them really well and show exceptional school fit in your essays. But the bottom line is, if you wouldn't go to an MBA program, you shouldn't apply. And if you haven't done enough research to know that you'd be genuinely happy at this location with this group of people, with this curriculum for two years, building the next step of your career, then you're not ready to apply to that school because schools are vastly different culturally in terms of their curriculum and in terms of the type of student, the type of person that's going to be in your network. It's very different across the different schools. So take the time yourself to confirm that each of the schools you're applying to is really a school for you. And then be sure to show that in a meaningful and vivid way throughout your applications, wherever you're given the opportunity to do so. Whether that's in the essays or the interviews or both. It also has to do with all the research and networking that you're going to do beforehand, which again, I talk about in a lot of other videos.
So that's it. The three most important ways that you can connect with your audience and MBA applications is to show them that you have inspiring goals, you've already had an impact and you genuinely want to be at their school. I'll see you next week. This is #MBAMonday.
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Angela Guido
Student of Human Nature| Founder and
Chief Education Officer of Career Protocol