Roadmap for Admission into a Top MBA Program (6 of 6)

This is part 6 of our six-part series that talks about the roadmap to an MBA Application and how long you should expect to spend on each category of your MBA application. This post will summarize the different steps that are part of the MBA Application process and the amount of time you should expect to devote to each category:

GMAT Test: 2 months

School Research: 3 months

Resume: 1 month

Storyline: 1 month

Essays: 2 months

Recommendations: 3 months

Miscellaneous Items: 1 month

Interview Preparation: 1 month

Lag before school starts: 3 months

The lag before school starts is something you cannot do away with given the way the admission-acceptance-commencement process is set up. A lot of students effectively use that time in preparing themselves for business school by taking some classes, traveling, taking a couple of business courses such as accounting / statistics. Some other students (especially career changes) use their time by taking up a pre-MBA internship which enables them to position themselves better for a career change post business school.

Even though school research and recommendations can happen simultaneously, you are still looking at more than 1 year to complete your application. This of course is based on the assumption that your profile is suitable for the schools you aspire to gain admission to. Should there be a discrepancy in  the desired attributes required by the school(s) you wish to attend and your current profile, you may need to strengthen your application and apply after a year or more.

My hope through this series is that it should at the least make you understand how each cog of the process fits together to make a complete wheel. It is highly recommended that you start as early as possible and talk to as many people as you can. Should you have any questions about the process or any of our posts, please do feel free to reach out.