Being a week or so out from many Round 2 MBA application deadlines, we\u2019re fielding a lot of questions from our clients on how to fill out the actual \u2018application\u2019, otherwise known as the application data form. It\u2019s easy to stress that your answers won\u2019t be \u2018right\u2019 or will negatively impact your chances of admission in some way. Rest assured, they most likely won\u2019t. But, to serve as a quick resource as you\u2019re working through your applications, today we’re sharing a list of MBA application FAQs and our thoughts on each.<\/p>\n
In our experience, the top five MBA application FAQs are as follows:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some schools allow you to submit two GMAT or GRE scores from multiple attempts. At the end of the day, they\u2019ll mostly rely on your best score to assess your candidacy. However, in our experience, the adcom likes to see that applicants, particularly those with scores lower than their class average, have attempted the test more than once. So, our advice is to include multiple scores if you are allowed to do so.<\/p>\n
We hear you, copying and pasting from your resume seems both easy and logical. You\u2019ve already spent a lot of time coming up with the perfect wording to describe what you\u2019ve done, right? While not a dealbreaker, to us this comes across as a tad lazy.<\/p>\n
We advise clients to take the descriptions from their resume and adjust them to a more conversational, sentence-based format. Layperson’s terms are key. Think about how you would describe your work to your partner\u2019s parents who are familiar with business in general but not your specific company, industry, function, etc. This is the way you should describe it in your applications. Not only will this help the adcom \u2018get\u2019 what you do, but it also showcases that you can communicate something complex in a clear and simple way.<\/p>\n
As we\u2019re sure you are aware, cultivating a diverse class is top of mind for business schools. This enriches the experience for all and works towards building diversity into the management ranks of post-MBA employers, amongst a number of other equally important reasons. That said, diversity as a concept is much broader than the set of reportable categories you see in MBA class profiles<\/a>.<\/p>\n We would urge you to share something here, as opposed to leaving it blank. If you dig deep enough, virtually everyone has something unique about the way they were raised that has influenced who they are today. Maybe you are a twin, were raised in a family of doctors, or spent your summers traveling to visit family in eastern Europe \u2013 these can all be relevant to the perspective you would bring to campus.<\/p>\n Generally speaking, schools ask this question because they want to see: i) how you spend your time outside of work and ii) how you\u2019ve contributed to communities of which you are a part in the past. At the end of the day, they want their student body to be curious and interesting. Most schools also depend on student-led clubs to enrich the experience of their students, help prepare them for recruiting, etc. Aside from that, err on the side of including organizations where you had a formal or informal leadership role and are somewhat recent. If you want to include something from college, that\u2019s fine but balance it with another activity or two from present day. Same goes for hobbies \u2013 these are great to show you are an interesting person, but balance them with things that require teamwork, collaboration, etc. We\u2019ll address this in two parts \u2013 how to answer why you left past jobs and how to handle this question as it pertains to your current job.<\/p>\n For past jobs, we sometimes see clients focus on the negatives or frustrations they had while at a prior company (toxic work culture, unsupportive management, etc.). While this may be accurate, we suggest you focus on the positives you saw on the horizon at the company you joined upon leaving. This can be a great opportunity to tell more of a story about your career path and share the logic that went into your decision.<\/p>\n For your current role, it seems logical to simply say \u2018N\/A\u2019 since you\u2019re still there, right? Yes, but we\u2019d recommend that, instead, you use this field as a place to reinforce your \u2018why MBA\u2019 messaging. In our opinion, this comes across as more thoughtful and thorough.<\/p>\n We hope you\u2019ve found our answers to these MBA application FAQs helpful! Here are a few other articles that may be of interest as you wrap up your Round 2 MBA applications:<\/p>\n Thanking Your Business School Recommenders – Vantage Point MBA<\/a><\/p>\n How to Tackle Kellogg\u2019s Video Essays – Vantage Point MBA<\/a><\/p>\n MBA Application Checklist | Vantage Point MBA<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The post MBA Application FAQs<\/a> appeared first on Vantage Point MBA<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Being a week or so out from many Round 2 MBA application deadlines, we\u2019re fielding a lot of questions from our clients on how to fill out the actual \u2018application\u2019,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":167,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1955,775,243],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mba","category-vantage-point-mba","category-admission-consultants","category-blog","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56880","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\/167"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56880\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}#4 \u2013 How many \u2018activities\u2019 should I list and what fits the bill here? Relatedly, some applications cap activities at a certain number, how do I prioritize?<\/h4>\n
When choosing what to include here, to a certain extent, we\u2019d recommend you trust your gut. What activities \u2018feel\u2019 most significant or meaningful to you? Oftentimes these also happen to be involvements that are aligned with your personal brand so will help to reinforce the picture you present of yourself elsewhere in the application.<\/p>\n
If the application allows for an open-ended number of activities, our advice is to target three to five unless it would be a stretch to do so or, on the flip side, you really can\u2019t leave out a sixth.<\/p>\n#5 \u2013 How do I answer the \u2018reason for leaving\u2019 questions in the Employment section of the application?<\/h4>\n