OP- I totally get it. You've got several activities you are interested in, but at the same time, you want to maximize your admission to a top MBA program. You don't have time to do all three, but you do want to do that one activity that will provide the most bang for your buck. Clearly, each activity is important to you and no one activity outshines the other. So to help you choose an activity (we're not going to pick one for you), I'll ask several questions:
1) Which activity would you do if you were not applying to MBA programs?
2) Which activity best supports your short and long term goals?
3) Which activity would you enjoy doing the most?
Hopefully, one activity will clearly emerge as the winner. And hopefully, based on the feedback provided by the previous posters, you'll have the confidence to pursue it without regard to what adcoms will think.
Ichinichi wrote:
mbalady wrote:
Hi Ichinichi! I have a question, which will help me answer yours.. Will you be picking up an activity solely to get in to school, or are you looking to do something becuase its meaningful to you as an individual, outside of whether or not you attend business school.
I have three volunteer positions lined up, each of which are immensely important to me personally. These three issues are disparate and broad in scope:
1. the environment
2. helping less fortunate citizens get back on their feet
3. guiding the development of young scientists
But my time is limited. Hence, this thread. Which do I focus on to best compliment my background? For example, I am going back to school after having demonstrated my scientific ability; perhaps adcoms look to my EA as a chance to reflect my interest in non-science - so options 1 and 2 above would demonstrate that I have a broad range of interests outside of science. However, option 3 could be interpreted as my not being really committed to a switch from science because I continue to dedicate my free time to developing future scientists. If this is the case, I would focus on 1 and 2 and step back from 3.
Ultimately, I am not going to save the world and I do not have the time I'd like to give to all these causes that are important to me, so I am trying to leverage my upcoming application to help me decide how to prioritize these three opportunities.