Boning up on 'Admissions Strategy'
What do admissions committees look for? Here are 22 qualities that make a good B-school candidate, as excerpted from the new book, MBA Admissions Strategy
In MBA Admissions Strategy, released in September, 2005, by McGraw-Hill, publisher of BusinessWeek, author A.V. Gordon offers the inside scoop on getting into a top business school. The following is an excerpt that includes the 22 qualities that applicants must demonstrate to the admissions committee if they hope to succeed:
The internal culture of business schools differs widely, and they are popularly understood to seek different types of people. You will hear that, "for Stanford intellectual ability comes first. Northwestern has a greater emphasis on teamwork, Harvard looks for leaders, INSEAD looks for "international people," and so on. This is true. But don't overestimate this stereotyping. School-specific criteria are generally a tiny part of the admissions decision. Mostly, programs all apply very similar, common criteria, asking the same kinds of questions, making the same demands, and competing for candidates with similarly balanced profiles and demonstrated skills.
These are the attributes that all programs look for:
Intellectual ability: A candidate who is smart and easily able to handle the demands of the schoolwork and, ultimately, the business world.
This is assessed by academic record (GPA or equivalent) and GMAT score, although other postgraduate and nondegree results may be considered.
The GPA and GMAT are particularly valuable in that they allow the committee to compare applicants from different backgrounds. Academic results from a previous postgraduate degree may count, but they will count less than your easily compared undergraduate record. The quality of undergraduate institution attended (that is, the competition you beat out to be admitted to college) is also weighed.
Quantitative orientation: A candidate who can "do" numbers.
Business school does not require any advanced maths, but a basic quantitative orientation is important to handle the coursework at a day-to-day level. If you have years of engineering or finance behind you, the committee will ask no more questions. If you are coming from a nonquantitative background, the maths result in your GMAT will be a crucial piece of your application. Any numbers course you have, or can acquire (and get an A in) before applying, will help you.
Most schools run a maths prep module for accepted candidates in the weeks before school starts, but this will not let you off the hook if your quantitative profile is weak.
Analytical mindset: A candidate who is able to think critically and tolerate complex, open-ended problems.
This is different from intellectual ability or quantitative ability in the raw: It is the ability to cut through a mass of data and extract the critical variables, to sort and connect relevant ideas, and to see patterns and develop optimal solutions from them. Not surprisingly, analytical skills are heavily demanded by the case method and are the basis of solving the case 'exams' that consulting and other firms use for recruitment.
Success record: A candidate with a proven run of success.
It matters less what you succeeded at than that you have achieved in the best company (which suggests likely future success in whatever you choose to do). Faced with equivalently good candidates, admissions officers put their faith in the old maxim "success breeds success." This is why top schools routinely select Olympic athletes, Air Force pilots, and prominent young achievers in the arts and sciences.
Your claim to success will be more compelling if it can be verified by awards, trophies, job promotions, and so on. The quality of the challenge also counts: making associate at McKinsey means more than making associate at the local consulting shop.
Maturity and professionalism: A candidate who looks, talks and acts like a grown-up.
Through your essays and interview the committee will get a good sense of whether you have the personal maturity and professional polish necessary to succeed at school, in recruiting, and in life.
Are you poised under pressure? Are you diplomatic under fire? Do you have "senior presence," or do you come across as a brash kid? Immaturity will be signaled by giveaways such as whining about past failure, recriminating about circumstances beyond your control, blaming others for your bad calls, showing an inability to see your own weaknesses, and poor self-restraint, particularly when dealing with others.
Leadership: A candidate who has created value by being at the helm in group-based activities and is comfortable in this role.
Leaders are able to operate both independently and collaboratively as necessary. Their actions demonstrate evidence of insight into people and situations and significant self knowledge.
Beware, management and leadership are often confused, because very often the two functions are present in the same person and the same job. Management refers to the processes of direction and coordination that senior jobs require.
Leadership is something else: It is the unquantifiable mix of stature, assurance, and charisma that evokes greatness and gets the best out of others. It is the mysterious mix of factors that makes up the person that other people will "naturally" follow, and who will "make the difference" between a company's success and failure.
Ambition and motivation: A candidate who is aiming for big things and planning to play in the senior leagues.
It matters less exactly what you plan to do than that you plan to do something grand (but specific), and that you have the will and the focus to achieve it. The MBA career path is not for wallflowers and the faint of heart. It is for those who will search out and seize opportunities and challenges. The committee seeks people with big career dreams and deep resources of motivation and self-reliance to achieve them.
Career potential: A candidate who has what it takes to go to the top.
Ambition is a prerequisite, but the committee will also ask itself whether you have "the right stuff" to actualize your ambition and your potential. Wanting it is one thing, the ability to get it is another. They will look at how you have strategized and built your career so far, and the validity and wisdom of the career goals you desire for yourself. The committee wants to have picked the person who's not just a dreamer, but who is going to make a big impression in the world; whose picture is one day going to be on the cover of Fortune magazine.
Perseverance and mental toughness: A candidate with evidence of the gritty staying power and self-reliance needed to overcome adversity.
Successful managers and leaders are the people who come to the front when times are tough, profits are down and obstacles are seemingly insurmountable. They have the drive to keep going when others fall, take whatever tough decisions are necessary, and bring their companies out ahead no matter what the obstacles. The committee will respond well to evidence of single-minded determination and tenacity in your approach.
A strong, extrovert personality: A candidate who likes people and who is professionally (if not naturally) gregarious.
Being thoughtful and shy isn't a crime, but management often rises or falls on the power of personality: the ability of key people to motivate, to exhort, to mentor, to be visible and vibrant and passionate. The admissions committee will be on the lookout for optimism and enthusiasm and an engaging, "can do" approach. This doesn't mean being a loudmouth, but it does mean having high social self-confidence and strong interpersonal skills.
Active orientation: A candidate with a bias to action and getting things done.
There's nothing wrong with being an observer, thinker, and planner, but there soon comes a time in the life of a successful company when it is necessary to act. The committee looks for people who can make that transition, who know when to measure a risk and when to take the plunge for better or worse. They are looking for people who, after demonstrating the skills of analysis, have the stomach to seize the opportunity boldly and back themselves to win.
The killer instinct: A candidate who is not afraid of winning and seeing others lose.
No matter what they tell you, all business schools are competitive places, as is the business world out there. The admissions committee must select those most ready for competitive situations and competitive careers, who have an affinity for the cut-and-thrust realities of making money and who thrive in high-pressure environments and head-to-head situations.
They will be sifting out those excellent people who are temperamentally better suited to careers in inventing, teaching, caring, or designing.
Personal integrity: A candidate with good interpersonal values and morals. This is back in fashion, since energy companies, auditing firms, and Wall Street brokerages have been among the many that have shamed themselves with out-and-out thievery in the last decade. The admissions office knows that if you go to a top school, very soon you will be in charge of a lot of people, a lot of money, and many powerful technologies.
They will want to know how highly you care about people other than yourself and your immediate circle. Nobody expects you to enter the priesthood, but they want you to play clean with others. They like to think they are choosing people who will do the right thing - even when nobody is looking.
Community orientation: A candidate who demonstrates responsibility to community, society, and the environment, and who has an integrated, sustainable view of the role of companies in the world.
The admissions committee particularly wants to see evidence of involvement in your own community, however you choose to define that, and some active (nonfinancial) contribution to social welfare, suggesting your good intentions. Again, you don't have to be a do-gooder, but a lack of clear willingness to "give back" to the institutions and resources that sustain you will be missed.
Team player: A candidate who works well with others and who operates smoothly and constructively in collaborative situations.
From Day 1 at business school and throughout your business career, you will work on projects that require group-based productivity. Team skills are easy to claim -- who, after all, will say they are not a good team player? (And we all know many who are not.)
So, rather than a self-congratulatory assertion of your faith in teamwork, the committee is looking for evidence of sophistication in your understanding of the dynamics of the groups you have been in, and your own role in them.