A B-School Application After Action Review (Part II of III)

Do you want to get into Columbia’s Graduate School of Business?  How about any top business school?  One of our veteran applicants, recently admitted to Columbia GSB, gives us some solid advice on b school essays and the “other 95%” of your application.  If you missed the first installment, make sure to read it here.  In keeping with military tradition, we have kept the advice in the After Action Review Format.

Issue: Future Goals Essay (in areas other than IB or Consulting)

Discussion: What I’ve noticed time and time again is that most military members are attracted towards investment banking or consulting. Why? Who knows… could be the high pay, the prestige, abundance in networking, or because “what else would a military guy with an MBA would do?” Either way, for those who don’t want to go into those fields, how do you convince business schools that you need an MBA? More importantly, how do you convince those schools that you know enough about that specific industry to land a job there?

Recommendation: Your first step: LinkedIn. It’s the quintessential online networking tool you will use in our media driven world. It also helped me immensely by allowing me to access various individuals in different careers for advice. For instance, I knew I had to clearly state where I wanted to go in my career for my long term/short term goals essays. I wanted to work in industry “X”, however I did not know enough about industry X to write anything substantial. This is where LinkedIn came into the picture. I did a few searches within my groups and found individuals who are currently working in “X” industry. Almost all were very helpful and responded immediately when I reached out to them for advice and inside knowledge. Most often then not, they always had information that benefited some aspect of my application, especially if that individual earned an MBA. Each person also referred me to someone else I could talk to… which continued to build my network and provided additional information to craft a well thought out “Why career X and why an MBA would help me get into career X essay”.

 Issue: The other 95% of the Application

Discussion: GMAT, check. Essays, double check. Time to submit and watch those interview invites populate your inbox, right? Not so fast Recondo. You’re forgetting that the application requires more than your creative writing skills and your test scores. There’s that other 95% of the application you forgot about. When schools say they use a holistic process, they emphasize this by making you fill in about twelve pages of responses, each with it’s own mini-essay type question. I understand that the emphasis on Business School applications are essays and test scores, but don’t neglect the other important stuff in the application. At a recent career fair, I talked to a Wharton admissions representative who stated that she can tell if an application was crafted haphazardly or last minute just by looking at how the application was prepared overall. Translation: It’s easy for us to ding someone when they didn’t put in the time and effort with everything else.

Recommendation: Each application is usually broken down into several parts. Take about 10 to 15 minutes each day to work on a small portion of the application. Or force yourself to complete a specific part of the application before the end of the week. For instance, tell yourself that you will complete the “biographic data” portion of the application by Friday night. After that, try to complete the “Career History” portion of the application by next Friday, and so forth. Setting clear benchmarks and breaking down the application within its parts are helpful methods to consume the overall application without rushing to failure.

Also, when you get into the “discuss your job role and function” portion, please, for the love of God, DON’T copy and paste your job description from your OER. Not only will the wording be beyond esoteric, the description wouldn’t jump out to anyone even if they understood what a “Battalion AS3” means. Use your previous reviews as an outline, however translate it and describe your key accomplishments in normal speech. Helpful hint: If your civilian friend (or parent) can understand your application, than you’re on the right track.

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Thanks again to our veteran network for sharing such wonderful advice on how they won admission.  For other admission advice from vets who have been there and done that, read our 101 Series and make sure to check back for Part III of this great AAR.