A B-School Application After Action Review (Part I of III)
Congratulations to Tom, recently admitted to Columbia’s Graduate School of Business!! He has also been kind enough to share his advice on successfully navigating the business school applications gauntlet. This is the first of three installments of A B-School Application After Action Review, where Tom gives us his thoughts on everything from essays to recommendations.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Applying to business school can be as much fun as doing a reading & writing assignment for your Battalion Commander. It’s time consuming, never convenient, and always done at the last minute. However, there are ways to make the process less burdensome if done right. The entire process took me over a year and half in three different locations (Iraq, home station in Germany, and my second home station in the US). Now, the application doesn’t require international travel but it is not something that can be whipped out overnight. For those who love to procrastinate: Godspeed and good luck. A business school application is completely different than any other grad school application; each school requires a different set of essays, recommendation questions, and research. Needless to say, don’t procrastinate and commit fully to this process. If all possible, resist the urge to use Ctrl+P and Ctrl+V! I’ve decided to do an After Action Review on my application (in good ‘ol issue-discussion-recommendation format).
Issue: Phase 1 (standardize test)… then Phase 2 (application)
Discussion: Ever try to write a Paragraph III (execution) of an OPORD without writing Paragraph I (situation). What! You have?… Ouch. Yeah, that’s what it feels like writing a business school application while trying to study for the GMAT or GRE. You don’t want to write essays for a school while simultaneously figuring out if you’re even competitive enough for that school. I had a buddy of mine who was planning to apply to Harvard RD1 prior to taking his GMAT. He spent countless hours on his essays. His rationale was RD1 applicants get priority for admissions before the other Rounds so he had to submit the application in early. The GMAT was just an afterthought in his mind since last year Harvard admitted someone with a low 500 GMAT score. This excuse was probably the worst way to rationalize why the importance of studying for the GMAT comes between playing two hours of Modern Warfare 3 and watching Entourage reruns.
Recommendation: The GMAT is an albatross, but conquer it first before focusing completely on your essays. Expect to take the test two, three, or even four times. Remember, schools just want your best score and you can’t take the test back to back since the GMAC requires at least 30 days before taking the test again. Based off this information, look at your timeline and see when your application is due for the round you’re applying to. I don’t care what schools say about test scores… they are important. Not only in terms of assessing your performance in graduate school and school rankings, but also important to a lot of employers such as those who work in the financial services or in consulting (the two areas where most military vets go, post MBA). So just get the GMAT over with and conquer this early. You’ll thank yourself in so many ways. Once the test score burden is off your shoulder, you can clear your mind and write the appropriate essays.
Give yourself about three to four months or so to study for the GMAT (some might need more). Do it on block leave and take a course if you can. It’s fairly different than the ACT or SAT since it’s an adaptive test that gets harder each time you answer a question correct. So no matter who takes it (a former First Captain or ‘the Goat’)—it is equally difficult. Don’t let your previous standardized test score indicate how you’ll do either. I’ve talked to people who barely broke 1100 on their SATs and scored above a 720 on the GMAT and I’ve met people who scored 1400+ on their SATs and couldn’t break 650. There are a ton of military applicants who score above a 700 on the GMAT. This might shock those Type-A officers who feel like they are the “smartest guy they know”. So, unless you want to handicap your position, score high enough to separate yourself from the other military applicants since undoubtedly, you’ll be compared against them.
Courses that I recommend: Manhattan GMAT—This course explains each math concept rather than just cool tricks to beat the system. You can’t fail if you know the mechanics behind the problems. The course is expensive but there’s a cheaper online version that would fit anyone’s schedule. The course is six-weeks long but you have an ungodly amount of homework to accomplish so give yourself another month to finish up on that. Another great course is MasterGMAT which provides all their information and studying online. This is great for the person who doesn’t want to rely on textbooks. Plus, MasterGMAT is an adaptive course so if you’re weak on one area, it will focus on that area until you’re proficient. Either way, both courses take a while to complete and you’ll most likely focus your entire time on getting the GMAT score you want. Bottomline, get this over with before you cross over the Phase II (the application).
Issue: School Fit and School IQ
Discussion: Want to avoid the ‘Kiss of Death’ ding? Then don’t write about how you want to be a part of Columbia’s Cohorts when they call their group’s Clusters. Or avoid talking about how great Kellogg’s finance program is over others (they can smell a Booth essay a mile way). Or even worse, spell Kellogg with only one G. Show the admission’s committee that you’ve done your research and that it’s THEIR school that you really, really want to go to. You can do this by showing them how much inside knowledge you know about the school.
Recommendation: Show business school X your school IQ; clearly let them know you’ve done your due diligence in getting to really understand their school and that you’re not just pasting other essays together. Showing the school your love for them requires more than just simple internet research. You’ll most likely have to visit the campus to gain this type of knowledge. For instance, I remember visiting Georgetown and seeing that their students used some weird Nintendo-Wii remote control to vote on topics in class. I wrote down this unique observation and was planning to reference it either in an essay or in an interview. I read something on NYU Stern’s ‘Opportunity’ newspaper about how it is frustrating to get into the bathrooms during Beer Blast since you had to open the door with an access key. This is great knowledge to write an essay (Essay Three can discuss how you’ll develop a new type of Beer Blast Door). It shows you’ve done the research and you’re well in tune with student campus activity to include manipulating an inside joke towards your advantage.
Another smart technique that shows you know about “X” Business school is to use “X” Business school’s resume format. Every application requires a resume. Take the extra hour or so to redevelop your common resume to fit the school’s standard. You can easily acquire the school’s resume format by contacting the veteran club at that respective school or just doing a Google search. Something this simple shows you’ve done your research and that you’re malleable towards their standards. During my last business school interview, the first thing the interviewer said was, “Thank you for putting it in the ‘X’ school’s format. It makes it a lot easier for me to read.” I can’t definitively say that’s why I got accepted after the interview, but the little things count.
