Wrap up your business school readiness journey by learning where to best focus your time.
Thanks for joining us these past four weeks on your journey toward business school readiness. As we wrap up our “Are You Ready” series, we hope you’ve made good progress—or even advanced to the next stage of readiness with the help of the free tips, stats, and tools you unlock when you take our Readiness Quiz.
At the same time, don’t feel rushed. There is no one-size-fits-all pace when it comes to business school readiness. Just by thinking smart and planning out your timeline, you’re doing yourself a favor that will pay off in the very near future. The more confidence and knowledge you build on the path to business school, the more it will show when you apply.
If you haven’t been following along, rest assured, it’s not too late to start. Find out what we’ve been buzzing about over the past month—and get a bunch of free digital tools out of it.
Here’s one major takeaway, for example: 50 percent of admissions officers interviewed by Kaplan in 2014 cited a low test score—GMAT or GRE—as the number-one application killer when considering candidates—meaning that the remaining half cited all other reasons combined.
The next leading factor that caused an application to find its way into the circular file was a low GPA—but even that came in a full 18 percentage points lower, with 32 percent of admissions officers quoting it as the biggest application killer. Minimal relevant work experience factored in at distant third with 9 percent.
Why is this important? Depending on what your area of study emphasizes (i.e., if you’re going into a specialized business school program that places particular importance on work experience), knowing the biggest application killers can help you prioritize where you should focus your efforts in the application process.
Sure, making your application essays sound just right or polishing your resume is important, and you certainly shouldn’t neglect these. But if you’re putting 95 percent of your time into such application requirements, you might want to reprioritize. Depending on your projected GMAT or GRE test score (which you can estimate by taking a free GMAT or GRE practice test), some—if not most—of those precious hours might be better spent studying for the exam, or taking a GMAT or GRE prep course. Just the same, if your GPA is hurting and you’re still in undergrad, taking an extra academic course relevant to your prospective business school program might be the way to go.
Everyone’s situation is different, but we know that life doesn’t stop when you’re applying to business school, and those work, academic, and family obligations still take up space on your schedule. So if your time is at a premium, think of the best ways to divide it.
Remember: there are always things you can do to get more ready for business school, and it’s never too late to start—or continue—that journey. Take our Readiness Quiz now to unlock your digital goodie bag of free stats, downloadables, tips, timelines, and interactive tools—all customized to your specific readiness stage. Then let us know in the comments how your path to business school is shaping up—and thanks for sharing your journey with us.
The post Test Score or GPA: What’s the Biggest Application Killer? appeared first on Business School Insider.
