Writing your MBA ‘story’
What makes a winning application?
If anybody asks me what the single most important element of my MBA application was — it would be my ‘story’.
I used to get borderline frustrated when I heard this word when I was talking to people about starting my MBA application process. I always felt like the importance of the story has been exaggerated but I was wrong. Major fundamental differences exist between how universities select students in India and abroad (read USA).
List of non-negotiables for Indian universities:
Exceptional score in an entrance exam- CAT
(Actually, there’s only one)
Indian universities have academic performance in terms of an entrance test like the level 1 sieve, if you do not have this, you do not qualify for any further step in the process. Once you do, the MBA admission process allows you to showcase your personality and skills, otherwise, your score is the final verdict.
List of non-negotiables for USA’s universities:
Great academic performance — GMAT /GRE score and undergraduate coursework performance (in case of MBAs)
Great professional performance — a couple of promotions, handling meaningful projects at scale, stakeholder & people management.\
Social work — They look for an inclination toward social causes and how these future leaders can transform them.
X-factor — They look at what makes you stand out, this can be from any of the above-mentioned areas. It can be your super early graduation so you’re now a CEO, can be that you are a national-level sports player, can be that you got multiple early promotions, can be your large-scale social impact, etc.
Now you see, US universities don’t have a hard sieve structure that Indian universities almost always do. (I will speak only from an MBA admissions perspective to the top legacy MBA colleges in India (read IIMs), I am not very adept at the efficacy of some of the new-age MBA programs like MESA and Stoa, so I am going to remain stuck to the topic I know of).
Can you get a US admit even if you don’t have good academics?
It's a tricky question, but almost always the answer is YES, with conditions applied. It applied to the other criteria as well. You will be able to get in if you’re able to successfully narrate your story about why you want that degree and how it will help you — if your low academic score and a gap year in employment fit well, you’re good.
But let's talk about the conditions applied — you should be cognizant that there are thousands of students applying and taking support of the admission counselors (you should definitely consider one: here’s why) to draft their stories. And, likely, someone else would also think along the same lines as you about narrating the story, what do you do in such cases to stand out? You work on things at hand. Specifically for academics, I‘ve seen people with even sub-700 GMAT scores getting to HSW. So yes, compensate for your low GPA with a good GMAT score, you can’t change your GPA but you surely can change your GMAT.
In my case, I had the opposite case — great GPA, but less than ideal GMAT. I did not have time left for another attempt at GMAT, so I decided to go with it. I explained it in the additional section of the application as to why I had a low GMAT and what could I put forward for the admissions committee to consider my application — I put forward my grades in some of the tech/maths heavy subjects in my undergrad at IIT Roorkee.
How to go about writing your story?
For simplicity and breaking the long process into easier steps, here is what you should do and what I could have done better:
Phase 1: Clarify the strategy
This is the first step towards your story building where you create the building blocks to use later. You reflect, introspect, and bring out the things from your personal & professional life that were significant for you and had impacted you in some way.
Unpack your ideas into byte-sized content pieces. Think about your goals — not professionally but what you would enjoy doing in life. Write everything down. For example, what impacted you the most as a kid, is there something special about you — if yes then why, etc.
Talk to a few people who have done the same to understand how they did it. The process can be daunting and you can face a lot of roadblocks.
At the end of this phase which can last anywhere between 3 to 5 weeks, you should be ready with your building blocks — short snippets that you would use to knit together the larger story.
Phase 2: Go from narrative to story
Here you start to put together the smaller snippets into a logical sequence to make sense as content that reflects what you are. It should show the admissions committee how valuable you can be as an asset to the MBA class.
Every school has a different essay question and you will have to weave the essay as per the requirement — some of them are very similar as well, so you can reuse them. For example, Wharton and Kellogg have a very similar essay question.
Use your MBA admissions consultant’s help to draft the best version, and take inputs on how your story can be tailored to what that school values. For example, Stanford values entrepreneurship, Harvard values social impact, etc. By the end of phase 2, approx 3–4 weeks, you should have the first drafts of your essay for the schools you intend to apply to. This draft should accommodate all the changes that your consultant has suggested.
Phase 3: Bring the narrative to life.
PS: I did not have the time to do this part of the process, but I would highly recommend doing it.
Identify a few of your college seniors/cousins/relatives who have been to the universities and programs that you’re targeting. Ask them if they would be ok to review your essay for you.
Organise calls with them or take offline inputs. Sometimes the people who’ve been in the system can give out invaluable suggestions for your application.
Talk with your consultant about what suggestions can be incorporated and do that before your final submission.
I could not stress it more: Stroy is the single most important part of your application! (which you have the time and the liberty to change when you apply for your MBA)
Put all the efforts you can into perfecting this, and tailor your essays according to what the school values, small efforts here will go a long way!