Questions from an MBA aspirant planning to apply directly after undergrad

What’s going on, y’all. Since coming back from India, I’ve been trying to get my mental clock back in order, but it sure has been difficult. I’ve usually done OK with recovering from spending a few days in a far-away time zone, but coming back from a nine-day trip is a BEAST!!! Hopefully, I’ll be able to knock out a couple more reader emails this coming weekend as my sleep schedule rights itself.

Anyways, the message below is from a reader who won’t graduate from college until 2010 and plans to apply to business school right out of undergrad. As I’ve written before, this is not an easy thing to do, but I admire anyone who is willing to make a run at doing it. He asked for my read on his chances, but y’all know I have trouble with these kind of questions because I can’t give an Admissions officer’s perspective. I responded with what I could along with some tips on how he could present himself as a strong candidate, so I hope he finds it useful.

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PG wrote:

“Hi Marquis,

New Year Wishes.

I am currently an engineering undergraduate from one of India’s top engineering schools-BITS Pilani and will be graduating in 2010. I want to know my chances of making it to a top tier business school.The following is my brief profile:

1. GPA: 7.23/10.00 (first class honors as per our institute)
2. Interned at IIT Bombay- a top tech school in India, NTPC- India’s largest power producing company for 2 months each. Will be going to Georgia Tech, Atlanta, USA for a 6 months internship on financial assistantship in the EE Dept and after that will be interning in an organization for about 6 months during early 2010.
3. Relevant UG course work in calculus, optimization, operations research, numerical analysis and physics. My grades in these courses have been B’s,C’s and a couple of A’s, while i made a D in optimization.
4. Lot of extarcurriculars in dramas, plays, sports, associations, social organizations and influenced my fellow colleagues , however not in a leadership role.

SGSB does take GRE scores into account ( not alone GMAT) which i haven’t written so far. I want to know my chances of making it to a good B-School program right after undergraduation and i want your suggestions in how should i go about in preparing my essays and make my application more competitve as my undergard grades are not that great either. Pls do visit my personal homepage [LINK REMOVED]. for my detailed profile.Looking forward for your response

Regards
PG”

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My response:

PG,

Thanks for checking out my blog and bringing me your question. I should let you know up front that I have a hard time answering queries like yours because you’re asking for a determination of your chances of admission and I’ve never worked in an Admissions office before. I can give you my own opinion, but you just need to know that what I say won’t necessarily match what the admissions committees will say. For those kinds of insights, I suggest that you attend some business school information session and speak to the admissions representatives running the sessions. That way, you’ll receive a truly informed opinion. Also, it’s nice that you sent along a link to your personal profile, but you DO know that I’m a pretty busy guy, right?…there’s no way that I have time to read through someone’s detailed personal profile to develop a perspective on him, especially when I’m not getting paid a consulting fee for it. hahahahahahaha! OK, now that I’ve got my chuckling out of the way, I’ll move on to your question.

So, you’re looking for my read on your chances of getting into B-school right out of undergrad given the info from your email, right? Before I answer, I remind you that this is only MY opinion and would encourage you to talk to business school admissions people about it too. To be honest, I’m not too optimistic about your profile based on what you’ve told me. It sounds like you have a lot of passion about pursuing an MBA, which is good, but your undergraduate grades, so-so extracurriculars, and light work experience will likely be problematic parts of your application. As I thought about your profile, I couldn’t help but wonder why you feel the need to get an MBA immediately after undergrad. You’ve got a few internships under your belt, but it seems like you’d benefit from some additional work experience. If you truly want to apply to B-school this soon, I’d like to offer the following tips to (hopefully) increase your chances of gaining admission:

– Score very highly on the GMAT (or GRE) –> This is something that everyone tries to do by default, right? Well, in your case, I’d say that it’s imperative for you to get a strong score because of your low work experience and so-so academic performance in undergrad. The GMAT will be your chance to show the schools that you can handle the rigor of their programs and have a legitimate shot at being successful in the classroom. I’m sure you’ve already started studying for the test, so keep on doing that and take as many practice tests as possible to improve your chances of success under such high-stress circumstances.

– Secure some STRONG recommendations –> Often applicants underestimate the impact of recommendations, but, as a young applicant without much work experience, you can’t afford to overlook your recommendations. I’m not sure you plan to ask to write your recommendations, but you’ll want to make sure those people truly know about your qualifications and potential contributions. You should reach out to them as soon as possible to let them know of your intentions and give them time to put thought into what they’ll write. Also, explain your “Why MBA?” story to them (more on this below) to provide context about your application positioning for use in directing the recommendations that they write. For you, those recommendations need to be sparkling and fit well into your overall application strategy.

– Develop a VERY compelling “Why MBA?” story and describe it well in your essays –> Given that you’re trying to jump right into business school, the admissions people will likely wonder why you’re seemingly rushing to do so. You may have some great professional aspirations that can only be achieved with an MBA immediately. Or, perhaps you realized that you chose a direction with your college major that no longer excites you and see the MBA as a way to correct your path. Whatever your reasons, you should put together a compelling story about it to show the admissions folks that you aren’t taking this educational/career step lightly. And, with grades and work experience being weaker areas of your application, you’ll have to write some KNOCK-OUT essays to commuincate that story to the admissions committee. I’ve written a LOT about this topic in the past couple of years, so I’ll leave it to you to search through my blog archives to find my many detailed entries about what you’ll need to focus on here. What I will say here is that you’ll want to be as open and honest as possible when writing your essays to provide the best view into who you are as possible. Don’t try to game the system by writing what you think the admissions people want to see…they’re all really experienced at this and will be able to see right through that.

I hope my assessment of your profile for a straight-from-undergrad admission wasn’t too discouraging. I just wanted to make sure I gave you my honest read on the situation. Good luck on your upcoming internship at Georgia Tech. Just keep yourself focused on your end goal of getting into a top business school and I’m confident that you’ll get there one day. Take care.

-Marquis