Hi
RuthW,
Extracurriculars are quite important, as they show the admissions committee another side of your profile and help highlight what has defined you and why you have made specific choices.
The best way to start boosting your extracurricular profile is to choose areas that you are passionate about and that fit with your story. For example, if you want a career as an educational consultant, consider volunteering in the education industry. If your passion is tennis, give tennis lessons to underprivileged children in your neighborhood. You do not need to pick the most unique or prestigious charity. Instead, do what you love!
They are also a great way to show leadership. While there are countless ways that you can (and should) display leadership throughout your profile, extracurricular activities are one great opportunity to do so. Look for an organization where you can step up, or explore options to expand your role at an existing organization. Take the time to do this now so that you have clear results to share come essay time.
Luckily, since you plan to apply in about 3 years, you have plenty of time to build a strong track record of involvement and add real value.
Personal MBA Coach can help guide you via our
Early MBA Planning services. This includes helping you improve your extracurricular profile so that you can differentiate yourself from the pack. We learn a lot about your personal background, challenges, struggles and current extracurricular involvement and benchmark you against successful applicants to determine necessary improvement. We will then brainstorm options for you to enhance your portfolio in a way that gels with your overall story!
Do not hesitate to reach out to
scott@personalmbacoach.com to learn more. Our early planning clients have stellar acceptance and scholarship success rates!
Best,
Personal MBA Coach RuthW wrote:
Hi all,
I am planning to apply to business school in about 3 years, so it is still relatively early in the process for me. I have a decent GPA and a history of good standardized testing scores (got a 331 total on the GRE, although that score is now expired). I also had fairly decent extracurricular activities when I was in school - mostly undergraduate research and some independent projects I led which earned me some grants/awards, and which I got the chance to present at professional conferences. However, ever since entering the workforce, I have had no meaningful extracurriculars besides miscellaneous hobbies. I see a lot of advice recommending to volunteer with a non-profit, but there aren’t any organizations that really catch my eye at the moment.
Is it a bad thing if I end up applying to business school with no extracurriculars after college? I do have some leadership experience with certain initiatives at my work, but otherwise I don’t really have any non-work related leadership.
Posted from my mobile device
_________________