My MBA Application Journey: Part One
It can be stressful applying to business school...
This is an account of my experience trying to land a top MBA. I had to choose between writing a small and generic post signed with my name, or writing a useful and detailed article with a pseudonym. I went for the latter.
A bit of background about myself. I work for a multinational company in the high tech domain, I have a technical masters degree, I'm from a South European country, I lived in a few countries, I speak 3 and a half languages and I'm good with numbers. And I'm 34 years old. Bummer.
The MBA idea has been in the back on my mind for a few years now, but I always thought I could do it all by myself. I was wrong. My career has been steadily progressing for many years, gaining more responsibilities and more visibility with customers and in 10 years I
managed to triple my income (albeit from a South-European start). But since I entered the marketing and sales domain I realized that I
wasn't advancing so quickly anymore. I've been in my position for three years now. Enter the MBA.
I thought a new line in my CV (Acme school MBA 2013) would solve all my problems and I decided to go for it in full force. I knew my big handicap was my age, so I said to myself that to have a fighting chance I had to excel in every other aspect of my application.
I started with the GMAT. I did my research and in my city I found two preparation courses: ManhattanGMAT and Kaplan. Based on what I found online, I decided ManhattanGMAT was the best for me. I was aiming for a very high score and I liked the fact that their teachers scored in the 99th percentile. I think it's much easier to learn from smart people. I started my course just after holidays, in mid-September. Every week we had 3 hours of training and on top of that I put 10+ hours of practice.
My first test, after one week, was more or less 550. After 9 intense weeks during which I gave up my social life I was cruising around
720 and that's what I got at the official test (49 V 40 Q). Once I had that in my pocket, I decided I could have a reasonable
aspiration to get into a top school and I started working hard on everything else.
First, I compiled a shortlist of schools I wanted to apply to. For that I created an excel table with all the relevant data for me:
- salary in EUR
- % increase on pre-MBA salary
- average pre-MBA salary
- % graduates in jobs within three months
- average age of students
- average experience of students, months
- tuition in EUR
- duration of the programme, months
- average (mean) GMAT (80% range)
- min TOEFL
Plus the position of each school in the various rankings:
- BW
- Forbes
- FT
- Economist
Quickly I saw three winners: IMD, INSEAD, LBS (in alphabetical order, cause I don't believe one of these schools is better than the others). For various personal reasons I didn't consider the Spanish schools, but I'm sure they are great.
I have a few friends who went to INSEAD and LBS, so I started talking to them and I started to get feedback and suggestions. No need to mention they all advertised their respective school.
Next step, I planned visits. I wanted to have a feeling of the various schools and I wanted to be seen there. I'm really good at networking
and I thought being personally in touch with admission staff would give me an edge, so I organized trips to Fontainebleau, London and
Lausanne.
I also decided it was a smart move to have a plan-B, in case all three schools would reject me and I decided to choose HEC as plan-B.
I hope this summary of MBA application journey has been helpful - please watch out for Part 2 in which I'll reveal the highs and lows from my campus visits, my MBA application forms and admissions essays!
Good luck to all the other MBA applicants out there...
Compare b-school rankings from the FT, BusinessWeek and Economist on the MBA rankings table
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Comments
Wednesday 25th January 2012, 10.00 (UTC)
what happened when you got the schools? dum dum dum! Cannot wait for part 2. I love series^^
Wednesday 25th January 2012, 10.03 (UTC)
Me too. When does part two come out? I'm also curious to find out where you ended up. Sorry to jump the gun but this is quite exciting
Wednesday 25th January 2012, 15.05 (UTC)
Just shows how much work you need to put in to get a good GMAT - for all those out there who think you can wing it!
Thursday 26th January 2012, 14.31 (UTC)
these are the kind of stories I like to read. Thank you MBA applicant. but why do you consider your age to be a handicap? I know many top-tier b schools that offer executive MBAs and 34 really is not bad. Was your age also something that affected your choice of schools?
Thursday 26th January 2012, 14.45 (UTC)
@Rory: you will read the rest in a few days!
@ifeatu: ahah :) I'm also curious to find out where I'll end up. :)
@: Siam: some people might need less time, but this is what happened to me.
@Ned: thank you! I consider my age an handicap because I was told it is by admission staff. A very gentle lady at INSEAD told me: < when I talk to you, I can see you have "something", but to be perfectly frank, given your age and your business title it will be very hard for you to pass the first selection. > If you have other top tier b-schools in mind in Europe, I'd love for you to share their name with me! thanks! Ah, now I read better: "executive MBA". This is totally a different ball game. I want an MBA, not an E-MBA. Good point. Maybe I'll explain why in my next posts.
Thursday 26th January 2012, 15.08 (UTC)
Well Said Business School is pretty up there, although I can understand if someone doesn't want to spend time in Oxford. Did the INSEAD lady explain exactly what she meant? The way you put it, it sounds a bit ageist to me. Did any of the other B-schools you visited pick up on the age issue?
Thursday 26th January 2012, 15.34 (UTC)
The lady said she had younger candidates with a similar job description. But anyway I don't remember the exact words.
I think it's a matter of demand and supply.
Do you think schools are racist to cap the number of Indians applicant? They just want to foster diversity, so they can afford to be more picky with Indian applicants.
Same with me. If they can fill their ranks with candidates with a profile as good as mine without rising their average age, why shouldn't they?
For sure IMD didn't find it an issue (since their average age is much higher) and LBS told me 30% of their students are over 30 yo.
Thursday 26th January 2012, 16.02 (UTC)
playing devils advocate here, but maybe it's best that b-schools have restrictive age ranges...so that someone doesn't get admitted and then feel out of place/find it hard to network with a much older or younger co-hort?
Thursday 26th January 2012, 16.11 (UTC)
B-schools will always find an infinite number of reasons to cap applicants. I won't go into the point on capping Indian applicants as I don't know too much about that but Sian raised a good point which MBA applicant could perhaps address. Do you feel your age is a restricting factor when it comes to networking abilities or 'fitting in'?
Friday 27th January 2012, 09.59 (UTC)
Interesting conversation going on here. Thanks for the comment MBA applicant can't wait. Did you see the BusinessBecause infographic of what makes an MBA applicant tick? Which of the factors applied to you most?
Friday 27th January 2012, 13.43 (UTC)
I really enjoyed reading this blog - thank you Mr (Mrs?) MBA applicant. Also imprssed that you increased your GMAT score from 550 to above 700 - but I guess that is quite common if you put the practice. Good luck with your applications - I'm waiting for the next installment (as someone who's in the US and potentially considering applying to a FT program next year).
Friday 27th January 2012, 17.59 (UTC)
Hi!
I did see "what makes an MBA applicant tick" but I don't remember it by heart.
My reason (I think) it's explained in the text. More responsibilities, a way to keep on growing in my career.
enjoy your weekend! :)