{"id":26376,"date":"2014-11-18T13:00:02","date_gmt":"2014-11-18T20:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/2014\/11\/how-to-get-into-business-school-admissions-expert-edition\/"},"modified":"2014-11-18T13:00:02","modified_gmt":"2014-11-18T20:00:02","slug":"how-to-get-into-business-school-admissions-expert-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/how-to-get-into-business-school-admissions-expert-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Get Into Business School: Admissions Expert Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Victory<\/p>\n

How to get into business school and achieve your goals– straight from the mouth of admissions officers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

There are a lot of obvious tips out there about how to get into business school. \u00a0You probably know to tirelessly study for the GMAT<\/a>, court old bosses for glowing recommendations<\/a>, dazzle your interviewer and write arguably the best essays<\/a> in the history of b-school.\u00a0 Sign, seal, and deliver to the schools of your choice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What happens next can seem like the proverbial black box.\u00a0 We went behind the scenes with two admissions directors\u2013Sara Neher at University of Virginia Darden School of Business<\/a> and John Roeder at Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management<\/a> to hear what takes place around the conference room table.<\/p>\n

What is the number one mistake applicants make?<\/em><\/p>\n

JR:\u00a0One of the biggest mistakes is on letters of recommendation.\u00a0 Applicants think we will be impressed by a recommendation from a CEO or senator.\u00a0 The best letters of recommendation<\/a> are always from someone who knows you well.<\/p>\n

SN:\u00a0Inconsistency.\u00a0 People will answer different sections at different times and never read through the entire application for consistency<\/a>.\u00a0 For example, one applicant said they did not have time to volunteer because of their hours as an investment banker.\u00a0 However, under hobbies, they talked about playing golf every weekend.\u00a0 If you can play golf every weekend, you can volunteer\u2013even if you are teaching people how to play golf.<\/p>\n

How important are recommendations?\u00a0 What\u2019s the most important thing you want to hear from a reference?
\n<\/em>
\nJR:\u00a0Letters of recommendation are a critical part of the application.\u00a0 I advise students to spend time with the person writing the recommendation\u2013tell them why you want to get your MBA and what you are looking for in your career path<\/a>.\u00a0 Having a recommendation from an MBA is always good.\u00a0 If it happens to be a graduate of Owen, that certainly can help as well.<\/p>\n

SN:\u00a0I am looking for a person\u2019s leadership potential because potential is hard for us to get from a static paper.\u00a0 So it is not just about the recommender describing accomplishments but also commenting on potential.\u00a0 You can coach your recommenders to talk about that.<\/p>\n

What advice can you give applicants when it comes to essays?<\/em><\/p>\n

JR:\u00a0The best advice is to answer the question as asked<\/a>.\u00a0 Too often students try to utilize one essay for multiple schools and it doesn\u2019t work.\u00a0 A good gauge is to have someone read through your essay and see if they can guess the question.\u00a0 If they can, you have successfully answered the question.\u00a0 Also, proofread.\u00a0 Every school receives at least one essay a year with the wrong school name.<\/p>\n

SN:\u00a0An essay should be a description of a moment, a project, or an incident\u2013not a list of your accomplishments.\u00a0 Also, always answer the question.\u00a0 Each business school is different<\/a> and we ask specific things for specific reasons.\u00a0 If you try to make one essay work a lot of schools you are probably going to be out of luck.<\/p>\n

What are you looking for when conducting an interview?<\/em><\/p>\n

JR:\u00a0How a candidate interviews is a strong reflection<\/a> of how they might interview with a corporate recruiter on the back-end.\u00a0 Dress professionally, be prepared, and ask intelligent questions.\u00a0 It does not look good for a candidate to ask something that can be answered on the front page of our website.<\/p>\n

SN:\u00a0The interviews vary a lot by school so research the school\u2019s interview process<\/a>.\u00a0 Our interviews are blind, meaning the person interviewing you doesn\u2019t know anything about you.\u00a0 If an applicant doesn\u2019t know that coming in, they can be really thrown off.<\/p>\n

What is the best way to get off the waitlist?<\/em><\/p>\n

JR:\u00a0Any student on our waitlist<\/a> will get feedback on how they can improve.\u00a0 So the best way to get off is to do what we ask you to do.\u00a0 That could be providing clarification of career goals, retaking the GMAT<\/a>, or taking a finance class.<\/p>\n

SN:\u00a0Reach out to the school and stay in touch<\/a>.\u00a0 Express a willingness to take classes or re-take tests if that is an area of weakness.\u00a0 Sometimes expressing the willingness to do those things is as important as actually doing them.\u00a0 Then again, if we ask you to follow through you probably won\u2019t get in unless you do.\u00a0 It is also nice to submit one additional letter of recommendation.<\/p>\n

The post How to Get Into Business School: Admissions Expert Edition<\/a> appeared first on Kaplan GMAT Blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How to get into business school and achieve your goals– straight from the mouth of admissions officers. There are a lot of obvious tips out there about how to get…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,558,243,940],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gmat","category-kaplan-blog","category-blog","category-gmat-prep-gmat","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26376\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}