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Admissions Directors from Chicago Booth, Stanford GSB, INSEAD and other top programs get candid about your spike factor, unicorns and top qualities they\u2019re looking for in MBA candidates. <\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want unicorns,\u201d says Kristen Moss, Stanford GSB Assistant Dean and Director of MBA Admissions. \u201cLeadership doesn\u2019t come from a socio-economic status, it doesn\u2019t come from being a Harvard undergrad or an institution, it doesn\u2019t come from the fact you were in private equity\u2026 Your job is to show me how you are a leader and is defined precisely by the impact that you have had on your community. If you can tell me that then we\u2019re both going to be aligned because that\u2019s what I\u2019ll be looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n Moss\u2019s comments on what she\u2019s looking for among Stanford GSB candidates were among the gems that surfaced during the 2017 CentreCourt MBA Festival, which took place in London, New York and San Francisco. Among the festival highlights in each city were panel discussions with Admissions Directors and Deans from the world\u2019s top business schools, including INSEAD, Stanford GSB, Chicago Booth, Berkeley Haas, Kellogg and others. I had the honor of moderating these discussions, probing for industry trends and insights that would support candidates in the MBA application process. Several themes arose between cities and conversations, which I\u2019ve culled into a short \u201cround-up\u201d series.<\/p>\n Direct from MBA Admissions Directors, here are nine top tips on what they\u2019re looking for:<\/p>\n \u00a01.\u00a0 Beware the tyranny<\/strong> of the Incoming Class Profile.<\/strong><\/p>\n Don\u2019t be misled by the incoming class profile, which can discourage or mislead applicants from picturing themselves at their dream school. Says Niki da Silva, Managing Director of the Rotman Full-Time MBA, \u201cThis is one of the worst things I think applicants do, they anchor on these profiles and say \u2018ah, I\u2019m not this person, I\u2019m not good enough to get into this school.\u2019 The challenge with these aggregate profiles is there is no perfect person that is that data point in the class.\u201d<\/p>\n Da Silva explains Rotman\u2019s practice of publishing the range of GMAT scores achieved by 100% of its incoming class, and then \u2013 as is more commonly practiced among schools \u2013 showing the score range attained by the mid 80% range of candidates, which gives applicants a sense of where admissions sets the bar. De Silva describes the method as a helpful way for applicants discern areas they may need to convey in their application given any potential gaps or gauge their competitiveness. \u201cI think it\u2019s a great tool, and we disclose that because we want to showcase the diversity.\u201d<\/p>\n 2.\u00a0 Release perfection and show you\u2019ve recovered from failure. <\/strong><\/p>\n Conrad Chua, Cambridge Judge head of MBA admissions, looks for evidence of introspection, and, particularly, where students have failed and emerged with lessons learned. \u201cWe want to see how you\u2019ve bounced back from failure because when you\u2019re on the MBA it\u2019s going to be tough,\u201d says Chua. \u201cAnd that\u2019s becoming quite difficult to see because a lot of the younger generation really seem to have this drive towards being perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n Kurt Ahlm, Chicago Booth Associate Dean of Admissions, echoes the mistaken notion of trying to present yourself as a perfect candidate. \u201cSome applicants are trying to show they\u2019ve got no weakness, or almost too narrow a focus into a career,\u201d says Ahlm. \u201cDon\u2019t try to out-game the system, just give what is specific to you.\u201d<\/p>\n 3.\u00a0 Be authentic.<\/strong><\/p>\n Another pitfall under the mantle of perfection is straining to project someone you\u2019re not. \u201cBe yourself is my best advice,\u201d reiterates INSEAD Director of MBA Recruitment and Admissions, Virginie Fougea. \u201cWhere is the person behind these essays? Make them true, genuine, honest. We read thousands of essays so just talk about you and that will be interesting enough.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe are really trying to get at authenticity,\u201d says Ahlm of Chicago Booth. \u201cUltimately it comes down to this pretty simple answer of why you want to go through this two-year experience in a place like Booth? A lot of the application is designed to get at those authentic responses, our processes are designed to really get at that authentic sense of self.\u201d<\/p>\n 4.\u00a0 Balance self- awareness and self-confidence. <\/strong><\/p>\n Booth\u2019s Ahlm underscores the importance of authenticity by distinguishing between self-awareness and self-confidence. \u201cIf you don\u2019t have self-awareness you can\u2019t fake it in an application process. If you are naturally very high on self-confidence \u2013 to the point where you\u2019re very cocky and arrogant \u2013 that\u2019s going to come through in some way,\u201d he says. \u201cSelf-awareness is a lot about, \u2018when do I advocate speaking up in a way that shows that I\u2019m making contributions to my organizations and impacting my people?\u2019 \u2026part of that balance of self-awareness is really understanding when am I appropriately telling a story in a correct way and using \u2018I\u2019 in my contributions versus the \u2018we\u2019. There is no formulaic answer.\u201d<\/p>\n 5.\u00a0 Thoughtfully imagine and convey your fit with the culture. 6.\u00a0 Showcase your leadership potential and intellectual vitality.<\/strong><\/p>\n Stanford GSB\u2019s Moss wants to know how you\u2019ve touched people\u2019s lives and if you\u2019re a curious learner. \u201cAt the end of the day \u2013 and this is for Stanford but I bet some of this is shared \u2013 number one is intellectual vitality. And what does that mean? It means your curiosity,\u201d she says. \u201cSure, I\u2019ll see your transcript and what you studied, but that\u2019s not really telling me whether you\u2019ll be an energizer in the classroom who is really here to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n Emphasizing the importance of leadership, Moss reminds that \u201cone of the things that has been proven over and over in research is that highly inspirational leaders who get the highest level of performance from their organizations really know what drives them, and they are thinking beyond themselves to the problems they can change and have an impact on. So in our application one of our key questions is \u2018what matters most and why?\u2019, and it has been an iconic question for a long time. Taking the time to understand what matters to you will be your true north as a leader no matter what school you go to in the rest of your life\u2026 You will be one step ahead of the game in terms of being able to motivate others.\u201d<\/p>\n 7.\u00a0 Be strategic across your application to avoid redundancies.<\/strong><\/p>\n Booth\u2019s Ahlm cites the importance of storytelling strategically across the MBA application. \u201cThere\u2019s fixed real estate for you to be able to tell these authentic stories, and share who you are, and that takes some time and it takes a level of strategic thinking that I think is often missed,\u201d says Ahlm. \u201cPeople go through and they fill out the materials and they get the application form, and oftentimes because they do that there are redundancies that naturally come up. You lose space because you\u2019ve said the same thing multiple times. You forget that the resume itself tells a story. So, I think you have to be smart about the exercise itself as an exercise about how you strategically think and oftentimes that\u2019s missed. It\u2019s one thing to know your story and what it is you want to convey, it\u2019s another to be able to do it effectively in the applications that you\u2019ll be filling out, and there are differences.\u201d<\/p>\n 8.\u00a0 Shine your uniqueness. <\/strong><\/p>\n UT Rotman\u2019s da Silva shared her program\u2019s insider language for sniffing out distinction in its diversity of forms. \u201cWe call it the \u2018spike factor.\u2019 \u2014 it\u2019s what else do you do?\u201d says da Silva. \u201cSo maybe a software engineer from India might have started a not-for-profit in their hometown; we have a student who started the largest podcast in India. It\u2019s what else do you do that makes you interesting and unique that isn\u2019t traditional and isn\u2019t what you do for your 9-to-5, but that\u2019s actually going to bring you as a person to life.\u201d<\/p>\n 9.\u00a0 It\u2019s all about you.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cAttend events like [CentreCourt] to see what we say about business school,\u201d says Assistant Dean at UT Austin McCombs, Tina Mabley,. \u201cThe reality is, this is all about you. And the time that you take and the introspection that you do \u2013 a wonderful application will fall out of [it], and so the important work is now.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking to discernment and self-awareness, Mabley says, \u201cYou have to do the tough work of self-reflection and figuring out what matters to you, and not what matters to you to sound good to get into school, but what really<\/em> matters to you and why do you want to go to business school? We have read a lot of applications and yet, still, every application is a story. And what really works is someone who knows who they are, knows what they want to do, knows what they don\u2019t know \u2013 you\u2019re coming to business school for a reason \u2013 and puts that together in a coherent fashion. Part of what we review is your judgement, and your judgement about what you put in\u2026 You can absolutely see that personality in an application.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\nGiven the intimidating pool of worthy candidates, Ahlm says that sometimes a ding is less of a judgement on you than a case of poor fit with the program. \u201cWe spend a lot of time trying to assess a sense of fit with our culture and we look for people who are really strong thinkers, they apply a very analytical approach to how they make decisions, how they think through problems,\u201d says Ahlm. \u201cYou could be a better fit in another school. An MBA is not the be all and end all: there\u2019s quite a wide range of top schools. I think it\u2019s a great point \u2013 that people think about what is the right fit for them in terms of who they are, what kind of experience they want, and what they want to get out of it. So if you can convey that in an application, in the interview, I think you will go far.\u201d<\/p>\n