I\u2019m also a business owner who has, for 15 years, helped MBA applicants take an important step forward in their careers by earning admission into the school of their dreams<\/a>. Before the crisis hit, we at Gurufi \/ FourthWrite had scripted out a video series, hired production crews, and were prepared to film a multi-part YouTube series on MBA personal statement writing. Shelter-in-place has made that impossible, but in this hard time, I still wanted to say a few words to people who are at various stages of applying to business schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\nHere are three\nthoughts:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n1. Uncertainty rules.<\/strong> For both students who have been accepted into business\nschools and people who intend to apply in the coming year, we just don\u2019t know\nwhat will happen. I will try to give my best guess as to what I think, but the\nfact is we don\u2019t know if schools will start on time in the fall, if the timing\nof the admissions season will be altered, and if schools do open if a second\nwave of COVID-19 in the fall\/winter will again grind the global system to a\nhalt, including universities. The short answer is to \u201cwhat will happen?\u201d is,\nunfortunately, \u201cwait and see.\u201d Schools are planning for multiple contingencies,\nranging from altered calendars, to exclusive online learning, to cancelation,\nto back-to-normal.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThings can induce as much anxiety as\nuncertainty, but the one thing that gives me some comfort is that everyone\nappreciates the scope of the crisis and most people and institutions will take\na proactive, flexible, and humane approach to making sure every applicant and\nstudent is treated as best and as fairly as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. What if I\u2019m\napplying to business school in the next year?<\/strong> Though\nthere is conflicting opinion on this, but I think that business school\napplications are about to become more competitive. Business school applications\nhave declined the last several years, meaning that the intense fight for slots\nat select schools was even tougher. I think that this trend will reverse, in\nlarge part because during economic downturns many people will view graduate and\nprofessional schools as a good place to wait out the storm and acquire new\nskills until the economy rebounds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s not a perfect analogy, but in 2007\napplications to business school and law schools had been declining for several\nyears, but from 2008-2010 they skyrocketed as the economy tanked. Then, as the\neconomy stabilized, the numbers of applicants to business and law schools began\na decline that lasted several years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This economic disruption likely means fewer\nlucrative job offers for early-stage professionals, fewer promotions and\nraises, etc. This means that people who want to continue their professional\nascent will need to augment their skill set by earning graduate degrees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. If you\u2019re under\nstay-at-home orders, now is a great time to do some initial work\u2026 with an\nimportant caveat<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThere are two schools of thought for how to\ndeal with the stay-at-home isolation that has with the coronavirus outbreak,\neither of which can be completely acceptable, depending on the person. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Approach One: You\u2019re forced to be indoors, so\nyou use the time to be productive. If this is something you can<\/strong> do,\nthen do it. Use the time to better yourself, prepare your application\nmaterials, investigate schools for fit and likelihood of admission, and study\nfor your GMAT if you need to. This way, you\u2019ll emerge from this crisis prepared\nto move assertively on your applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\nApproach Two: If you\u2019re finding this period\nhighly stressful or if the realities of your life (kids, job, parents,\nfinances, etc.) make it impossible to do the kind of work that an application\nrequires, then focus on your health and wellness and worry about applications\nlater. These \u201cif you don\u2019t come out of this crisis with X, it\u2019s not because you\ndidn\u2019t have time, it\u2019s because you didn\u2019t have the will\u201d memes are wrong and,\nfrankly, cruel to people for whom this crisis has placed extraordinary burdens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you do have the bandwidth to work on your\napplication, here are my suggestions<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Work on tasks that don\u2019t necessarily require a lot of\n mental engagement. Everyone is distracted and drained, so do things like\n read about various programs, make lists prioritizing what you want in a\n business school, or make detailed timelines for yourself so that you\n spread the work out over time. <\/li>
- Brainstorming is a fantastic way to generate content\n for your eventual personal statement AND to de-stress. There are lots of\n ways to brainstorm, but my favorite is the 12-minute timed write. It works\n like this: 1) clear a comfortable place for yourself to write. Ideally, it\n should be quiet and distraction-free. If you like writing with snacks or\n music, then, by all means, have those things. 2) Get a notebook if you\n can. There are some good studies talking about how handwriting -as opposed\n to typing- is better for spurring creativity. 3) Set a timer for 12\n minutes. 4) The rules are: no matter what, you keep writing. If you feel a\n pause coming, have a phrase or mantra that you write over and over so that\n your hands don\u2019t stop. Some people like affirmations like \u201cI have an\n interesting story to tell!\u201d and others like \u201cA quick brown fox jumped over\n the lazy dog\u201d because it uses every letter in the alphabet. But whatever\n your fallback phrase is, try to get back to writing relevant content\n quickly. Importantly, do NOT JUDGE what you\u2019re writing, erase or scribble\n anything out. The purpose of brainstorming isn\u2019t to generate refined\n elegant prose that is tightly organized and ready to present; it\u2019s to\n start generating ideas and content, and to explore your thinking on a topic.\n 5) Commit to doing 3 days of brainstorming. Each day, select a different\n one of these topics:<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- Why am I a great candidate?<\/li>
- What will my life be life after business school?<\/li>
- What moments am I most proud of?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
By committing just 12 minutes per day for 3 days,\nyou will create many pages of content that you can use as the \u201cbricks\u201d for the\nbuilding you intend to create.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In future posts, I\u2019ll have some additional\nsteps that you can take to maximize your time in social isolation. The most\nimportant \u201ctip,\u201d though is obviously to take care of yourself, focus on your\nhealth and wellness, and find ways to demonstrate appreciation to loved ones,\nparticularly people who may be physically isolated or alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brian Fobi is the CEO\nof FourthWrite \/ Gurufi. Gurufi and FourthWrite offer admissions writing\nconsulting. If you have a draft that you're not sure about, have our experts revise\nand advise by going to Gurufi.com. If you don't have a draft or if you need\nmore comprehensive services, check us out at FourthWrite.com\/graduate<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nIf you have questions,\ncontact Brian at fobi@fourthwrite.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No matter how this crisis ends, it\u2019s safe to say that COVID-19 has produced one of the most profound tragedies and transformational events in our lifetimes. As the husband and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48261","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\/191"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48261"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48262,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48261\/revisions\/48262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}