Make Your MBA Application Shine
By Emerald Morrow
You’ve weighed the costs against the benefits and decided that an MBA is the tool you need to help you achieve your career goals. But before you dive head-first into the application process, consider the following advice from Steven Rogers about how to stand out as a candidate for admission.
Show evidence of leadership on the job and in your life.
A key to making your application shine is having a great track record on the job, according to Rogers. This means your performance reviews are stellar, you’ve been promoted, and you most likely have held a leadership position.
“The top business schools want leaders,” says Rogers. “Just saying you led a project is not enough. Have you been the leader of people? Were you in charge of a department at work? Were you in charge of something outside of work?”
Study what you love, and make academic excellence a priority.
Your undergraduate grades are a big part of your ticket into an MBA program. A 2005 report from the Graduate Management Admissions Council® shows African-Americans as having the lowest undergraduate GPAs when compared to whites, Asian-Americans and Hispanics. Forty-five percent of African-American GMAT® test takers report GPAs of 2.9 or lower.
Many times, students squander future opportunities by making bad academic choices during their college years. They may think that grades no longer matter once they’ve gotten into college. Not true, says Rogers, adding that the best way to prepare for business school is to get the highest grades you can as an undergraduate.
And remember, your major doesn’t matter. “The top business schools are not looking for students who majored in business in undergraduate school,” Rogers notes. “We don’t care what your major was. What you really need to be endowed with is the capacity and the willingness to learn. We most importantly want people who are intellectually brilliant. So get the best grades that you can get while you are in college. Your major is irrelevant.”
Enlist outside help to boost your GMAT score.
According to the Graduate Management Admissions Council®, African-Americans placed last in GMAT® score ranges in 2003-2004: Seventy-three percent of African-American test-takers scored less than 500 out of a possible 800. That’s in contrast to 34 percent of Asian-Americans, 37 percent of whites and 60 percent of Hispanics who scored less than 500. In the 2003-2004 study, only 1 percent of blacks scored 700 or higher.
Rogers urges applicants to sign up for GMAT® preparation classes and get a personal tutor, if possible. Companies like Kaplan (www.kaptest.com) and The Princeton Review (www.princetonreview.com) offer a range of services from classroom courses and online sessions to one-on-one instruction. “We need more African-American students in the best business schools in the country,” says Rogers. “And in order to do that, they have to have the best grades in college and high GMAT® scores.”
Pricey test-prep courses might deter prospective students from enrolling, but Rogers says the additional tutoring is worth the investment.