Winning MBA Admission Tips with Atul Jose

One aspect of the MBA Application that is beyond your control is the recommendation letter.

GMAT/GRE – you can retake and improve the score.

Essays,  you can dramatically improve the quality of the narrative with the support of Admissions Consultants like me. But for managing supervisors who are 3-30 years older than you, it is not a straightforward process.

I have created a 10-step checklist for you

1. Round 1 vs. Round 2 vs. Both

2. Nudge the Supervisor towards a Narrative Direction

3. Persist with Open Communication

4. Coach, when all Fails

5. Professional Relationship vs. Mentorship

6. Vacation and Holidays – Planning Ahead

7. Adjectives – Find the Balance

8. More Examples with Competition in Mind

9. 5 Star Rating by Default

10. Essays and Recommendation Letter – Is it the Same Person Check

Subscribe to F1GMAT's Recommendation Letter Editing Service 

High-stakes problem solving is one of the most common and effective style of narrative. This style is not just limited to MBA essays. Even in movies, the reason why you are not hooked to a narrative is because of the predictability of the ‘high stakes’ problem.

Superhero movies are one such genre that is now getting saturated because it is almost always about the ‘end of the world’. 

Why Applicant’s Essay Don’t Stand Out - Harvard MBA Leadership Essay

For Harvard MBA leadership essay, the reason why the essay is not impactful is because of the applicant’s inability to offer context around the problem. 

The context is not just about the details. It is capturing the scale of the problem. 

Scale: And when I talk about scale to a client, the first thing that they introduce into the essay are multimillion or billion dollar deal size in the narrative. This is a repetition of the resume, which might seem lazy for the admissions team. 

Secondary Impact: If you are in finance, the secondary impact of the deal – either in helping your company’s brand position or growth or impact on a community/industry are much better narrative threads for your leadership essay. And luckily for applicants, the stakes if captured with the right emotion is not dependant on the size of the deal. 

A million dollar deal could mean a lot for a startup, but for an established firm, it might just be a small change. So understanding the size of the company, the size of the team, the deal size in the industry, but most importantly capturing the ‘problem’ that is a direct hindrance from getting a deal through should be the core of the narrative.

Incentives: Some of the best hindrances in a problem that you should capture are around incentives. Why certain stakeholders continue to offer remarkably poor level of service or why the culture perpetuates certain power dynamics. All these insights will elevate your standing in a crowded Harvard MBA application pool.

Dilemma: Another great way to capture the challenges governments face (if you are working with the government through non-profits or directly), is by citing dilemma. And if you are offering advisory service, first capture the dilemmas before you introduce your solution. This way, you won’t trivialize the problem.

For the access to Education in rural south Africa Harvard MBA Essay example that I had captured for F1GMAT’s Harvard MBA Essay Guide, the focus is on capturing ‘why’ children from rural south Africa are behind in educational milestones, the tools that could solve the problem and the stakeholders who are perpetuating status quo. 

I have also captured dilemma the government and stakeholders are facing so that the solution looks truly innovative and not just something that anyone can do it. 

I have shown how to capture the high stakes problem with nuance. You may download it with F1GMAT’s Harvard MBA Essay Guide 

I have advised against using exploration of career through MBA as a narrative. One reason is that schools don’t like applicants who have not dedicated their time in exploring careers or finding a fit in an industry or a function. 

Your due diligence and commitment for career growth will be questioned if you are coming from a traditional background. 

Modern Creative Careers

But in our modern careers - a technology person can very well have a loyal following through YouTube or TikTok, or a travel enthusiast could have 1 million followers and a traditional career.

Not Just Subscription Count

I remember a year ago when a potential client from China reached out and the only thing she shared was her TikTok subscription count. She was breaking down complex finance jargon into bite sized learning videos. It was highly engaging for the audience. Her day job as a banker in a global brand was not remarkable. It had all the traditional career milestones. 
If I had worked with her, the first thing I would have thought about would be to connect these two stories. 

Connecting Creative and Traditional Careers

For the Harvard MBA Career Choice or Business Minded essay, I have shared a narrative of an applicant, who is working in Private Equity. But the path to enter private equity was not straightforward. She shares how even as a kid she was really into rock music and guitars. I really wanted to capture that passion in the opening line itself. Then the build up was all about the dilemma of choosing a career. 

This works because she continues to have over 50,000 patrons supporting her music, downloading her albums or spreading the word about her new releases. You should not use a dilemma narrative if the only metric that you can share is the subscription count. Because as anyone in modern Video streaming platforms would share, you could acquire followers at a faster pace through advertising. Schools know that. But if you say that over the past 5 years, "I recorded let us say 20 songs, and through each song, I built an audience" – that is much more believable. 

For F1GMAT’s Harvard MBA Essay Guide, I have captured a unique story of an applicant facing dilemma of continuing in Private Equity or her music career. And if you are using a similar narrative, you must understand the background of the applicant. She is in the top 1 percentile in Private Equity. 

The dilemma is a dilemma because she is doing incredibly well in Finance and for a one-person band with limited marketing, her music career is also impressive. 

You can’t use such an example if one of your creative, sports or passion career doesn’t have verifiable milestones like awards, recording, albums, and finally subscription or download counts.

For the Haas MBA Feels Alive essay examples in F1GMAT’s Berkeley Haas MBA Essay Guide, I have used five themes.

1)   A Globally Known Challenge

For this strategy, we take the reviewer to a global challenge that was in the news cycle for a prolonged period of time (more than a month). Typically, news with such longevity tends to get rehashed or picked up on social media. The subject also gets broken down into multiple socio-economic angles. When such a wide readership exists for a topic, it becomes much easier for an applicant to connect with the reader. 

Climate Change is the best example of such a cause. 

I have highlighted one such example – the declining coastal line in Fiji from Climate Change in the Haas MBA Feels Alive Essay.

2)    Industry Challenge

The industry challenge example in Haas Feels Alive works for applicants in the Oil and Gas industry or a function that requires regulation (Finance, AI). The challenge to make this example believable for Haas Feels alive essay is in capturing a sincere tone. Many of the manufactured narratives on a person working in high-polluting industry or industry known to have several bad apples feel forced. There are no indications on the person’s thinking beyond the narrow pursuit of a career in the industry.  

Volunteering and examples of serving those affected by climate insecurity or insecurity from a disappearing industry or those left behind by systemic inequity are excellent ways to improve the sincerity of the essay.

Editor’s Tip: Education is a good theme for the Haas Feels Alive Essay that works for applicants working in the Oil and Gas industry or in roles where there are limited opportunities to showcase a ‘caring’ aspect of their personality. 

I have captured an example in Education – a reinvention of curriculum for rural students in Africa, where none of her responsibilities in her day job is mentioned. This presents a holistic perspective on the applicant’s journey instead of her superior technical skills as a remote engineer in the O&G industry.

3)  Random Experience to Professional Experience (Both Similar Feelings)

This MBA Essay Writing strategy depends a lot on the art of segue. Once you know the themes of Segues that are effective in MBA essays, switching from a random experience to a professional pursuit will not look forced. It needs a lot of practice. I have seen applicants wasting hours to get this transition right. A better strategy is to focus on the overall essay and the theme of what makes you feel alive and then work on perfecting the transitions in the 3rd and 4th iterations of the essay.

In this MBA Essay example on a person’s hardship growing up, the experience looks random until the reader reaches the middle of the essay, where the applicant’s passion for serving the beneficiary makes sense. A technological intervention with AI as a tool adds to the theme of the MBA essay, we are likely to see this year. The mention of the technology solutions also dispels the myth around Marketing and Branding persons’ limited quant skills.

4)  Evolution of a Person’s Outlook, a.k.a Growth

A great technique to show vulnerability, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence is through addressing a perspective you had before and comparing it with your perspective now. In one of the Haas Feels Alive Essays, I shared an applicant’s passion for flying, that started with her motivation to master the instrumentation technology. Later when the applicant began working on a Healthcare diagnostic startup, she realized the limitations of just relying on ‘technology as the only solution’. This evolution of her thinking could not have been captured in the Goals or the DEI essay. We strategically used two examples – Flying as an extracurricular and her experience in a startup to demonstrate her growth in outlook. 

Writer’s Tip: You should show care while shortlisting such examples. The growth should not look trivial. It should be genuine and meaningful in how you see the world now. One easy way to understand the evolution of your character is by monitoring your change in hobbies or interest in a topic over the past 5 years. Ask Why? The answer will reveal your changing perspective.

5)  Influence of Mentors/Parents

The experience or extra-curricular that you mention in the Haas MBA Makes you Feel Alive Essay often involve parents or a mentor. 

An example of fly fishing or hunting with parents to being a passionate supporter of preserving wetlands or forests has a logical connection if you carefully reconcile both the narratives. The challenge is not to dwell on one activity and learn to segue at the right moment.

In this series, I will break down 10 easy-to-follow steps that I have used to help clients get into M7 schools and the mistakes many clients confessed they made while tackling the multiple work, life, and admissions priorities.

So the 3rd step is to Go the Extra Mile.

I don’t use Instagram. I tried for F1GMAT but got so distracted by the motivational quotes that I was scrolling through hundreds of them a day.

I am not going to motivate you in this step. But I want you to honestly ask yourself – are you willing to take all the corrective steps, follow all the strategies and next steps that consultants recommend, and sacrifice a lot of your social time for your M7 and T20 MBA application?

This is the only question I want you to answer for yourself. Not for me.

If the answer is “No,” and you have a genuine weakness in your profile – either your undergraduate scores are below par, GMAT/GRE are right at the border, and you have a long way to go before crafting a Winning MBA Essay, or you are from an overrepresented demographic then you must accept the risks of rejection from multiple M7 schools.

You will hear stories of the last-minute applicant and those who didn’t spend a dime on consultants cracking Harvard, Stanford, and Wharton MBA applications. But the reality is that an applicant who has support in editing, branding, and guidance is likely to follow through on corrective steps. 

Most will not.

I had several experiences where the corrective step was just to write a bad draft of an essay.

The overthinking and analyzing – comparing with friends’ essays who got into M7 schools, copying some template, or using Bots to write some openers are all a waste of time.

The admissions team wants to hear your voice.

You are not the same as your friend who got into an M7 school.

Your story is unique and inspiring. But it will not be revealed in the first drafts or second drafts. It will take 5-10 iterations to craft a winning MBA Essay.

If the weakness is in your recommendation letter, you must find good supervisors, motivated to write authentic lines, and offer context about the challenges you overcame in your professional life.

If the weakness is in your test score – you must retake GRE or GMAT and spend at least 60-90 hours preparing and improving your score in a month’s time.

If the weakness is in volunteering, join organizations that are eager to accept your expertise. Understand their funding model and the beneficiaries and see how you can contribute. Then, use those stories in the essays.

There is always a corrective step.

Going the Extra Mile is always about actions and not strategizing or overthinking.

I hope you got value from my advice.

I have shared the F1GMAT premium links to the 10 Steps to Mastering M7 MBA Admissions series.

Read them and take action.

• M7 MBA Admissions Step #1 - Understand Schools
• M7 MBA Admissions Step #2 - Early Pivot from GMAT to GRE
• M7 MBA Admissions Step #3 - Go the Extra Mile
   

Welcome to the 2nd step in F1GMAT’s 10 Steps to Mastering M7 MBA Admissions series. I am Atul Jose. 

In this series, I will break down 10 easy to follow steps that I have used to help clients get into M7 schools and the mistakes many clients confessed they made while tackling the multiple work, life, and admissions priorities.

So the 2nd step is to Start Early with GMAT Prep and Pivot to the GRE after 2nd Attempt.

We used to write tutorials on Mastering the GMAT. We still have a version of Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning Guides in F1GMAT’s Store, but a trend that could be the side-effect of our diminishing attention span across ages is the lack of endurance or attention to sit for 2-3 hours and complete a task. 

GMAC – the organization behind GMAT had to shorten the test to Focus Edition, which is much more manageable in terms of completion rate. 

We often quote studies on the impact of sitting for too long or the diminishing return of working on a task without a break or the 20-minute work, 10 minute break techniques. But the challenge is not the lack of endurance to complete a task. We are surrounded by digital trigger points like emails, tabs in your browser, messaging apps and worse news alerts that has truly diminished our ability to focus.

Now, add to our lack of focus, you put in a test like the GMAT that is not a straightforward problem-solving test, and you are faced with a huge challenge to be at par with peers applying for M7 and T20 schools. And the challenge is not universal. 

I had summarized about the GMAT Scores by Undergraduate degrees – a while back in one of my analyses from a GMAC report. Now GMAC doesn’t reveal such split ups by undergraduate degrees. 

Then, the undergraduate degrees that were consistently scoring at the top of the charts were Physics, Mathematics and Engineering majors and the performers at the bottom of the table were Marketing and Education undergraduates. 

Arts and History undergraduates were also known to underperform. 

Why am I highlighting and shaming my friends from Arts, Marketing, History, or Education? 

It is not shaming. It is reaching the GMAT scoring limits with coaching – one-on-one or online and pivoting quickly to the GRE. 

The GRE test is much easier for those who couldn’t improve their GMAT score by the 2nd attempt. 

The improvement should be at least 20-30 points with each attempt. 

In our estimate close to 30-40% of the test sent in top schools are GRE scores. So if your score doesn’t improve after  the 2nd attempt, switch to GRE. 

A big mistake applicants make is to delay the test date for the GMAT. 

For Round 1 – ideally, the test date should be July 2ndweek. This will give you at least 1 month to pivot to GRE after a 2ndattempt a week or two after the first attempt. 

August could be the month you could tackle GRE Prep and application essays for select schools (1-3) for Round 1 MBA application and the rest for Round 2.  

If you are applying for Round 2, GMAT should be attempted latest by October 2nd week, a retake by last week, and pivot and preparation during the Month of November for the January deadlines. 

To summarize, the #2 Step – To Mastering M7 MBA admissions is to develop a strategy to pivot to the GRE if GMAT Prep doesn’t work out. 

Starting early with a GMAT test date is the way to go. 

• M7 MBA Admissions Step #1 - Understand Schools
• M7 MBA Admissions Step #2 - Early Pivot from GMAT to GRE
• M7 MBA Admissions Step #3 - Go the Extra Mile
   
   

In this series, I will break down ten easy-to-follow steps that I have used to help clients get into M7 schools and the mistakes many clients confessed they made while tackling the multiple work, life, and admissions priorities.

Let us dive into the First Step

Even if you have read F1GMAT’s Essay Guides, I would highly highly recommend that you start following admissions managers, and key persons in the admission team through social media, newsletters, YouTube and school events. 

Not all admissions person writes extensive blogs. 

There are some M7 schools that are notorious for not revealing anything about what the admissions team is expecting while there are other schools like Wharton, and MIT where the expectations on the deliverables in the application is very clear, including the narrative or cover letter structure. 

It is tough to navigate through the application section of many MBA programs. 

Most of them will have an FAQ or commonly asked questions section where you can get a ton of information on common mistakes in an application.

I would recommend that you bookmark the sections and come back to them throughout your admissions season. This will give you an anchor on what needs to be prioritized. 

Another great platform for understanding the admissions team’s thinking is their YouTube channel. 

Again, not all schools are updating with tips every year but if you can watch an application overview video from the admissions team and skip through the general tips and pay attention to specific strategies that inevitably gets revealed in long videos, you will find some gems on the common mistakes applicants make, and at least 1 strategy to stand out from the crowd. 

The best place to understand where you stand in the application hierarchy is through  events – online or offline where you get an opportunity for one-on-one conversations. 

In group conversations or presentations, the problem is that the admissions team is focusing on general advice that has limited value for standing out from the crowd. When you get an opportunity to ask the person one-on-one about your profile weakness or ways to improve your profile, you are likely to get a direction on where you should be heading. 

Of course, all these strategies and advice are available for you with F1GMAT’s Career Planning Service for a very small price. 

You may visit, store.f1gmat.com/career-planning and I will offer feedback on your profile, help you edit your resume and guide you with milestones. 

To summarize, the #1 Step to Mastering M7 MBA Admissions is to Understand the School’s Expectations
 

• M7 MBA Admissions Step #1 - Understand Schools
• M7 MBA Admissions Step #2 - Early Pivot from GMAT to GRE
• M7 MBA Admissions Step #3 - Go the Extra Mile
   

Q) I naively resigned from my job in December anticipating an acceptance offer for Round 2 MBA application. I couldn’t convert the interviews. Now I have a 3-month employment gap. Should I start preparing for Round 1 deadlines without a job offer in hand?

This is a common challenge applicants face post pandemic when the Consulting, and Technology industries couldn’t anticipate customers’ need to move out of their homes and explore activities outside the Technology ecosystem.

Consulting that depends on the Technology industry was the victim of this optimistic forecasting.
 

If you work in Consulting, the entry-level boom that the industry experienced in the past 3 years have come to an end.

Now, if you apply to Round 1 deadlines in September without a job offer in hand, there are two challenges you are likely to face:

1) Lack of Confidence

Even the best clients who had some setbacks in terms of employment gap from the department becoming obsolete or the project or product deprioritized from lack of funding or demand approached the admission process with a lot of skepticism. Such a negative attitude towards completing the deliverables could be noticed in the quality of the output in the essays and even how they coordinated recommendation letters.

One way to immediately build back your confidence from the employment gap is to join a non-profit and fully immerse in helping deliver for the underprivileged or those in the society who needs your expertise the most.

If you are from consulting, think how you can apply your consulting skills to build solutions, support beneficiaries with knowledge transfer and educate your peers about the best way to improve the efficiency of the team.  

Even for the best candidates, it takes at least 2 months to get an offer in a down market that is at par with the previous job offer – in terms of salary package and the job title. This gap is expected. By joining a non-profit and dedicating at least 10 hours a week, you will build you confidence, access influential networks, and most importantly, you will have stories for your MBA application essays.

But the best solution to get back your confidence after an Employment gap is by getting a job offer at par with your previous role. Prioritize job search over Round 1 MBA application. You will have equally good opportunities during Round 2.

2) Recent Experience

The first update waitlisted applicants send to schools is about a recent promotion or an award. This is a big giveaway on what schools value. I had to edit so many essays where the first draft of clients all had mentions of experiences from a year or two year ago. This is a big red flag if you are targeting T10 or T15 schools.

Recent experience is valued over milestones from a year or two years back or even from college unless the milestones are truly in the top 1%.

You should be aware of this preference.

Get a job offer, lean into the onboarding process, and join projects where you can deliver for your new company in the shortest time.

With this strategy, you will have volunteering and impactful recent contributions for your Round 2 MBA application deadlines in January.

If you need help strategizing for your MBA application, finding funds, DING analysis, or choosing an MBA or Master’s program, Subscribe to F1GMAT’s Career Planning Service.

If you need end-to-end support with your Essay Strategy, Writing Tips, Narrative Ideas, and Editing, Subscribe to  F1GMAT’s Essay Review Service

If you are ready with your draft essays but need support with editing, Subscribe to F1GMAT’s Essay Editing Service
 

A reader from LinkedIn reached out to me and asked for help with Round 3 MBA Application Essay Editing. The first concern the person raised was that my former colleagues have all got into M7 school. I also want to get into these schools but don’t want to wait till Round 1.

I looked at the profile – and there it was – an International Entrepreneurial applicant with six months of his own startup experience. But then why can’t a person wait for another six months and improve the odds of success when the number of available seats is not depleted to 10-15% of the total class size?

Here are five scenarios where you should consider Round 3 MBA Application Round

1) US Citizens

Round 1 and Round 2 are bombarded with international applicants who are applying to 5-7 schools. When the competition and unique constraints are much more impressive for an international applicant than an American applicant, the chance to stand out with typical career, extra-curricular, and volunteering milestones also goes down.

Round 3 is not like that. Competition from the international applicant pool is substantially low due to visa restrictions and also from promotions not happening typically in the last quarter of a financial year. There are scenarios where US citizens can stand out.

One is if they were part of a critical project whose timeline coincided with the Round 2 deadlines in December.

March is an excellent time to regroup and apply for Round 3 deadlines in April. Schools won’t find it a challenge to accept a local applicant over an impressive international applicant who is likely to face visa constraints, especially when the economy is not doing great, and there is a surplus of talent in the Consulting, Finance, and Technology industries.

2) Atypical Profile, but there is a caveat

When I talked about the ideal Round 3 profile in a previous podcast, I encouraged Entrepreneurial applicants to apply as they fall under the atypical profile. But there is also a scenario where you are six months into your own startup, and you are already applying to an MBA program. This could be tricky because without completing a year on a new career direction, you are hinting at some setbacks in your entrepreneurial career. Now, if you use a goal where an MBA is mentioned as a tool to access funds or a wider network in the Business School, it won’t look feasible.

A startup takes 1-2 years to gain some momentum. Here, applying without completing that minimum period with a new venture will be seen as a weakness.

This is not the case for someone who transitioned to a new company and the culture didn’t fit with their temperament. Then, applying during Round 3 makes sense. But obviously, you can’t mention this reason. You must find another goal to show motivation.

3) Military, Government, and Non-Profit

There are schools like Darden, Tuck, Haas, Ross and NYU Stern that have more than 12% of the class coming from the Military, Government, and Non-profit. Obviously, all these schools are not accepting atypical profiles during Round 3, but if you are from either of the three industries – Military, government, or non-profit, applying during Round 3 has a lower risk in these schools as long as you focus on the goals and the motivation part of the application essays.

There should be a clear scheduling challenge because you were posted in a different country or a critical responsibility prevented you from applying during Round 2.

Applying during Round 1 and Round 2 is the best way to show motivation.

Still, Round 3 works for Entrepreneurial applicants who have completed at least one year with their own startup, Military/government or Non-profit applicants, and US citizens.

4) Perception Against Reapplication

Each school has its take on Round 3 applicants who reapply in Round 1. The biggest hint of the school’s attitude is in the essays allowed to be submitted. If the school has only one essay for re-applicants, you will be clearly at a disadvantage unless the career progression or uniqueness of your achievement can overcome the limited space available to make your case. Testing it out in Round 3 without the assistance of any consultant and later Round 1 assistance with a consultant is a losing strategy. Better to take all the help. If you need our assistance with Essay Editing service, Subscribe to F1GMAT’s Essay Editing Service

5) Round 1 or Round 2 Acceptance or Interview Invites

This strategy can save you a year. I recently encouraged a client who was content with a scholarship from a tier-2 school and was set on not applying in Round 2. I pushed her to apply to M7 schools, and with our collaborative editing, she got an invite from Booth, which was surprising for her and also me. Because it was not an easy profile to create a coherent goals essay. The contributions were all over the place. There was a mix of skillsets and personal. Volunteering and extra-curricular narratives that I had to choose from to eventually create a strong brand narrative for her essays. 

If you have offers in hand from Round 2 and you are getting interview invites from a few M7 schools, I would target even more M7 schools in Round 3 itself. 

For end-to-end support with your MBA Application, Subscribe to F1GMAT’s MBA Application Review Service.
 

Preparing for MBA Admissions Interviews is not just about the right answer. A big part of our 2nd session in F1GMAT’s Mock Interview Service is about delivery.

There are 3 factors that I keep reiterating to clients for improving their interview performance: Medium, Loud, and Clear.

For help preparing for your MBA Admissions Interview, Subscribe to F1GMAT’s Mock Interview Service