Boning up on '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...

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