Roadmap for Admission into an MBA Program (5 of 6)

Welcome back to our Roadmap Series. This is part 5 of our 6 part series. In our first, second, third and fourth posts, we discussed four of the eight steps to completing the MBA Application Process i.e. GMAT, School Research, Resume, Storyline, Recommendations and Essays. Today, we will talk about Miscellaneous Items and Interviews.

Miscellaneous Items

There are some tasks which are mandatory to completing your MBA application but which often get ignored owing to our focus on some other steps such as GMAT, Essays which may consume all our time. While these steps are fairly straight forward, it is good to get them out of the way early enough that you don’t have to stress about them at the last minute. I recommend keeping 1 month for these tasks to ensure your application flows smoothly without any hiccups. To give an example, some such tasks include:

• Sending transcripts
• Different schools have different guidelines on how they like to receive your transcripts. Some prefer to receive it directly from the institution whereas others have customized forms as part of your application that you have to fill out in a prescribed format. It is highly recommended to be aware of the practice at all schools you are planning to apply to so that you can accommodate accordingly
• Sending GMAT scores
• When you take the GMAT, you get to send your score reports to some schools selected by you at the time of taking the test. That being said, you may end up applying to schools which may be different from the ones you enlisted while taking your GMAT. Make sure you have the score reports sent directly from GMAC to all schools you are applying to
• Completing Online Application
• Online applications can take up time and sometimes may contain questions that you may not readily have answers to. Therefore, it is highly recommended that you fill out the form ahead of time in order to ensure you understand all questions and have the information needed when needed
• Contingency Buffer Time
  
• We recommend allocating a minimum of two days for contingencies such as technical errors or traffic overload on the application portal. These are more common than one would expect. We also recommend looking at the day the application is due. If it is due on a weekend, you could consider setting your own deadline prior to that, on a weekday, so you have access to Adcom if you have any questions.

Interviews

Most schools conduct Interviews before granting admission to their program. The format of interview varies from school to school. Interviews can be conducted by a member of the Admissions Committee, a Current Student, Alumni depending on school, your location and other factors determined by the school. In addition, there are two types of interviews – (1) blind, (2) not blind. As the name suggests, a blind interview is one wherein the Interviewer has not seen your application and the interview is solely based on your Resume. As an example, Wharton conducts blind interviews. On the other hand, a non-blind interview is one wherein the Interviewer has read your application. HBS conducts non-blind interviews. Interviewing successfully is an art and you can make yourself more comfortable with the process of Interviewing by scheduling mock interviews with friends, family, colleague, consultants, etc. ahead of time. Typically, there would be a lag of 6-8 weeks from the time you applied to the time you would interview. We recommend you give yourself 1 month of preparation time even before receiving an interview invite as you would typically have a short lead time to interview once you receive the invite.

Conclusion

In today’s post, we learnt how to go about your Miscellaneous Items and Interviews. In our next post, we will recap the Roadmap and crystallize our learnings in the roadmap series. Keep reading and slowly and steadily, we will keep moving towards our goal i.e. to Crack The MBA.