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A recent Businessweek article, "How to Sink an MBA Application," presents business school applicants with some cautionary tales. The tips found in this article aren't the sort of tips you want to follow, but the ones you'll want to avoid at all costs.
In other words, if you do any of the following things, you can pretty much guarantee that you will get dinged AKA rejected.
How To Get Rejected Tip #1: Hound the adcom members. Get pushy about face time.
To get accepted: no excessive phone calling or emailing. Always be polite and courteous, and never pushy.
How to Get Rejected Tip #2: If you are allotted face time, make a bad impression.
The BW article quotes Linda Abraham (that's right – Accepted.com's very own) who describes her encounter with a client "whose behavior poisoned his relationship with the admissions team of a top business school." This individual made a formal complaint to the admissions director at a particular school after he got into an argument with one of the school's admissions clerks. The admissions director let him know that he wasn't impressed with the action he had taken. The applicant got rejected from the program, probably because of this particularly negative interaction.
How to Get Rejected Tip #3: Offer a bribe to the adcoms.
The article relates the story of a waitlisted candidate who sent the admissions director bagels and a note saying to think of him during breakfast. Another prospective student, during an interview, offered to pay $100,000 for a spot in the next class. Gifts of any kind (even breakfast) are considered inappropriate.
How to Get Rejected Tip #4: Be rude, arrogant, or condescending.
An applicant to University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management told the director of recruitment and admissions that the people at the school were "unattractive and out of shape," and that he wanted to start a group to help people look more like him. He continued to tell this director that she should watch her portion sizes and get in shape.
How to Get Rejected Tip #5: Divulge too much personal information.
The same applicant above discussed in his essays how he had taken an HIV test, which had come back negative. Another discussed his previous cocaine addiction. TMI.
In short, these blunders leave a bad taste in the adcoms mouths. Adcoms don't want rude, boundary-less students lacking in emotional intelligence and savvy in their classrooms. Keep these gaffes in mind when preparing your applications, visiting schools, and interviewing. Repeat them only if you are seeking rejection.
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