mbaMission hosts a weekly blog series, “MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed,” for our friends at Beat the GMAT. Check out the BTG site for fresh material and our site for “reprints.”
Many MBA candidates believe that admissions committees have narrowed down their criteria for selecting applicants over the years and that each school has one distinct “type” that it is looking for. So, in this world of stereotypes, HBS is looking only for leaders, Kellogg is looking only for marketing students, Chicago is looking only for finance students and, in some extreme cases, people actually believe that MIT is looking only for “eggheads.”Of course, these stereotypes are not accurate. Chicago wants far more than one-dimensional finance students in its class, and it provides far more than just finance to all its MBA students (including, to the surprise of many, an excellent marketing program). HBS is not only a school for Generals; among its 950 students, HBS has all sorts of personalities, including some excellent foot soldiers. So, at mbaMission, we constantly strive to educate MBA candidates in hopes that they will eschew these stereotypes, which can sink applications if applicants pander to them.
By way of example, imagine that you have worked in operations at a widget manufacturer. You have had profound experience managing and motivating dozens of different types of people, at different levels, throughout your career, in both good economic times and bad. Even though you have had minimal exposure to finance, you erroneously determine that you need to be a “finance guy” to get into NYU. So, you tell your best, but nonetheless weak, finance stories, and now you are competing against elite finance candidates who have far more impressive stories in comparison. What if you had told your unique operations/management story instead and stood out from others, rather than trying to compete in the school’s most overrepresented pool?
We think that it is just common sense to attempt to defy stereotypes and truly be yourself—to try to stand out from all others and not be easily categorized. Of course, if you are still not convinced, you might ask Stanford’s Director of Admissions, Derrick Bolton, who wrote on his admissions Web site,“Because we want to discover who you are, resist the urge to ‘package’ yourself in order to come across in a way you think Stanford wants. Such attempts simply blur our understanding of who you are and what you can accomplish. We want to hear your genuine voice throughout the essays that you write and this is the time to think carefully about your values, your passions, your hopes and dreams.”
Kind of makes sense, doesn’t it?
Read the full article: MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: The AdCom Wants a “Type”