7 steps to ensure your selection in top business schools
To get admission into a top B-school, you need to ensure that you are well-prepared and equipped with the necessary prerequisite skills and scores. These skills and endeavors are what defines whether your strengths are in sync with the school’s demands. Since thousands of applicants apply to these schools each year, you need to make sure that you are in the front line of the race. Considering these, below mentioned are the seven steps you need to take to ensure that you receive a successful admit to one of the top B-schools across the world.
Conduct in-depth research on the B-schools you are targeting.
The first step you need to take when it comes to your decision to prepare for higher education in one of the top B-schools is to list all the schools. Following this, you need to perform in-depth research of the schools by browsing extensively through their official websites. You need to read through all the necessary details mentioned on the respective school’s site related to the application, eligibility, qualifications, exam score requirements, tuition fees, scholarships, program structure, and the other documents that you would be required to submit. Moreover, you should always drop a query mail to the school if any eligibility criteria or requirement is not explicitly stated.
Aim for a good GMAT score.
If you are preparing to get into a business school, the requirement to submit your GMAT or GRE score is a mandatory clause in the admission procedure at most of the top B-schools. When it comes to your GMAT exam, you need to ensure that you dedicate at least two to three months to prepare for the exam to secure a good score. For top ranking B-schools, your GMAT score should be competitive enough to increase your chances of admission. Though an excellent GMAT score will not guarantee your admission, a low GMAT score will completely discard your candidature in many cases. The ideal score that one can aim for is 680 or above as most top B-schools prefer applicants who fall in this range.
Enhance your profile if you have extra time on hand.
Now, this step applies to only those people who still have maybe 6 months or so left in their hand before they apply to their choice of B-schools. Thus, if you lack some extracurricular activities or practical experience, you can maybe utilize this time to gain experience in your college’s club or society. You can even take up any certifications in the niche you want to build your career in. If you are a working professional, you can get yourself enrolled in any volunteering activity or your company’s CSR activities.
Write an impactful resume.
After you have gained sufficient experience and well equipped with all the necessary prerequisites, you can start working on your resume. Your resume is what will define your capabilities. Moreover, you need to write your resume in a much more detailed and comprehensive manner. Your resume should highlight your accomplishments in the academic, extracurricular, and professional set up. You need to present your endeavors by focusing on the impacts they created. Your resume will set the groundwork for increasing your chances of securing admission.
Get a compelling letter of recommendation.
Your letter of recommendation is another crucial part of your application that needs to be presented in a way that justifies your skills mentioned in your resume and essays. Therefore, the person who writes your letter of recommendation is a crucial part of your application and admission process. Most people believe that getting a recommendation from a person with a good brand name or position would attract the admission committee’s attention. However, this is not precisely the case, since your recommender has to be someone who has witnessed your endeavors first-hand and who have observed an upward growth trajectory in your skills.
Craft a compelling essay.
Now, this might be one of the make-or-break situations for you. Your essay and statement of purpose is one of the core parts of your application process. Hence, it would help if you crafted a unique story surrounding your endeavors and future goals to convince your candidature and potential admission committees as a future leader. You should firstly, outline the significant parts of your academic and professional journey followed by the turning points that changed your professional life for the best. Secondly, you need to draft a rough essay surrounding these themes, and finally, you need to finalize your essay after multiple edits and corrections. Your final essay should entail your journey in a way that enthralls and takes the person reading it along with them.
Apply in the first round.
One of the most critical factors in maximizing your chances of acceptance in a top B-school is when you apply at the time of round 1. The number of applications is few in comparison to subsequent rounds which automatically leads to less competition. You need to ensure that your application is at par with the other applications to receive an admit since admission in these top schools will be highly competitive.
One most important step that universally applies to any competitive setup is to be confident, motivated, and continually striving towards self-growth and development. Thus, these are the most crucial steps that you need to follow to ensure that you get selected in your top target business school with success.
Author Bio: Abhyank Srinet is a passionate digital entrepreneur who holds a Masters in Management degree from ESCP Europe. He started his first company while he was still studying at ESCP, and managed to scale it up by 400% in just 2 years.
Being a B-School Alumni, he recognized the need for a one-stop solution for B-School to get in touch with schools and get their application queries resolved. This prompted him to create MiM-Essay, a one-of-a-kind portal with cutting edge profile evaluation and school selection algorithms, along with several avenues to stay informed about the latest B-School Updates