The countdown to Round 2 MBA application deadlines is on\u2026 Harvard, Booth, Kellogg, Columbia, Tuck, Duke, and LBS are all waiting to hear from you by January 4, 2017. If you haven\u2019t begun your application yet, you had better get started. At six months out you had the opportunity to carefully craft your profile, but at about six weeks it\u2019s all about packaging and presenting it.<\/p>\n
First, a reality-check: Your demanding day job, relentless deadlines, personal commitments, community engagements, and unforeseen complications in any of these areas will only be compounded by the fast approaching holiday season. It\u2019s all too common that candidates let these aspects weaken the quality of their final application. The busy season from US Thanksgiving through to New Year\u2019s begins: a festive cocktail of high hopes, stress, and out-of-office messages. The only solution is time and careful planning, and doing everything in your power to create an application that is as amazing as you are. Let alone with the holidays, six weeks is a tight window for applicants just getting serious about their applications. With less time, you\u2019re going to need a well thought out strategy. Take a step back, review the big picture and thoughtfully map out what needs to be done by when. This approach is essential whether you\u2019ve been preparing for ages or are finally prioritizing your application. It\u2019s about recommitting to a process of attentive engagement with a long-term return on investment, not just a brilliant product at deadline. That means looking beyond the deadline to a successful next stage\u2014you\u2019ll want to be a well-prepared candidate during the interview process, and that\u2019s not something you can achieve overnight either.<\/p>\n
Fortuna\u2019s team of former senior admissions staff have put together\u00a0 five tips for prioritizing your remaining time and making the most of your effort.<\/p>\n
1) Envision what success looks like. <\/strong>Develop a clear picture in your mind (or on paper) of your MBA experience and your post MBA plans\u2014the self-awareness and program knowledge required to visualize what this looks like will help set your priorities. What do you need to know about your top schools to see yourself on campus, interacting with professors, industry leaders, and co-students? And what do you need to know about yourself\u2014your values\/what\u2019s important to you, motivations and aspirations, your strengths and talents? Thoughtful introspection is foundational for bringing your best thinking at each touch-point of your application\u2014from researching schools to briefing recommenders, developing essays, and nailing interviews. Visualizing what success looks and feels like will also help you set up a strategy for achieving it that extends beyond the application deadline.<\/p>\n 2) Write your essays, review, edit, then edit some more. <\/strong>Essay questions have been reduced in recent years, which may give an impression they require less work. This is not true\u2014having less room to tell your story requires even more creativity, reflection, and judgement. To paraphrase Mark Twain: “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.” And Twain probably never had to \u201cchoose one song that expresses who you are\u2026\u201d (Haas) or choose from a photo-montage \u201cthe moment that best resonates with you\u2026\u201d (Booth). These questions can feel extremely open-ended, triggering anxiety about what on earth the ad coms want to know. Instead, think of each question as an opportunity to develop a personal response that speaks to your character and what makes you unique. Your strategy-setting introspection is the basis for writing an essay that\u2019s compelling, authentic, and coherent. Consider the following:<\/p>\n – Brainstorm by challenging yourself to go deep and wide before selecting your best ideas<\/p>\n – Create an outline that supports your key points and ensures smooth transitions between each points<\/p>\n – Plan to edit and rewrite multiple times, and don\u2019t overestimate the amount of time you\u2019ll want to spend sitting at your laptop over the holidays<\/p>\n – Build in time to get feedback from at least one person who can give you fresh eyes and honest comments\u2014and be explicit about the input you are looking for. Everyone needs a good editor, even the very best writers<\/p>\n