Last week, I did over 20 1-1 sessions with folks who couldn’t make it to their target B-schools in the last admissions cycle. Few recurring themes across schools such as NUS, ISB, Rotman, Ross, etc.
- Sense of regret: this hurts me the most. When you feel you could’ve given it your best but somehow you (our your Consultant) didn’t
- No focus on the application form: The notion that the B-school applications are all about essays is deeply flawed. If you get the essays written by someone else and that someone else doesn’t review your application form (job achievements, responsibilities, etc), then it sends a clear signal to the adcom that these two parts of the application are done by two different people.
No matter how good your profile is, if you couldn’t be bothered to know what’s there in your essays or even attempt to write them, then frankly you shouldn’t be at a B-school
- Lack of goal clarity: You put a goal that sounds cool wrt the school but your past experience AND motivations are totally misaligned with it. This shows in the interview and hence, the ding!!
- Lack of fitment: With a 309 on GRE and a tech-focused profile, there is an almost zero chance you’d make it to the likes of ISB, especially in R3. Profile evaluations with 2-3 folks BEFORE you pay are key!
I’ll be having these 1-1 discussions again (for FREE of course!) starting Sunday through the week. Sign-up if you’re interested.
https://calendly.com/manan-s4g/ding-ana ... th=2022-05