Certifications for MBA Admissions

 

­ironman_97
Presenting certifications in your application must have an objective. What is your objective? Do you have a low GMAT/GRE score or low CGPA that you are trying to make up for through showcasing an academically oriented mind? If thats not the case, just from a goals perspective your certificates carry very less meaning. Folks who have CAPM, PMP or Six Sigma dont necessarily make better consultants than those who dont. For those applicants who mention consulting as a post MBA goal, adcoms consider whether their quant and verbal scores are above the 90th percentile and both sections are balanced. Nothing more, nothing less.

best wishes

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Aanchal Sahni (INSEAD alum, former INSEAD admissions interviewer)
Founder, MBAGuideConsulting
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­ironman_97 - I transitioned to management consulting post-MBA, and did no certifications pre/ post MBA - this is also true for most consultants I've known.

While certifications could give you a better understanding of some concepts, practical experiences (e.g. internship, consulting projects: at/ outside work, etc.) would add much more weight. For example, advising your friend or a small business on their strategy/ operations, and having an impact (ideally a success metric) would be great way to demonstrate your on-the-ground learning for consulting.

Needless to say, GMAT/ GRE scores would be higher priority. Other broader angles to building your profile as an MBA applicant are highlighted in this write-up.

Feel free to reach out if you'd like to have a deeper conversation.

Regards,
Arvind
Founder, admitStreet 
W: https://admitstreet.com | LinkedIn | E: consultingteam@admitstreet.com­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

ironman_97:

As noted above by many, these certifications are kind of like additional skills. They're nice to have but far from essential. They will merely speak to your "expertise" in certain functional business areas.

That being said, the MBA admissions committee isn't going to assess whether you are more likely or not to achieve your career goals in consulting in general, and certainly not based on pre-MBA skillsets. That's left up to the consultancies themselves that have their own processes for evaluating candidates (i.e. the case method), but regardless, don't have requisite requirements for breaking into the industry. The AdCom is interested in why you generally want to go into consulting and, if it's a short-term goal, what that you will for you in terms of achieving your long-term goals.

Hope that helps,
Admissionado