Natural fit: You have this and that interests and you seek those schools with similar interests
Artificial fit: You choose your schools of dreams (a few ones) and try to make yourself fit by swimming down their mainstreams
I love Ross and Tuck, I have scrutinized their faculty profile: They are somehow in line with me. Research Interests like pricing, decision making, advertising. I will focus on producing papers in these fields during this one year I have before application.
Of course I don't mean to fool yourself! They are my real interests, I just concentrate on them with deeper focus and motivation.
It's win-win, isn't it. even if I cant get in there, I still have my papers and there are still near elite schools going along with my interests.
What do you think? Any drawback to this?
And how do you add a merit to your app package after submitting it, e.g when your article gets accepted or you do an outstanding ex-curricular when you have sent your package?