I have recently been reading the picture book Jumani with my four-year-old. For those of you who haven’t read the book, it is about two children playing a crazy board game in which jungle animals come to life in their living room. One of the critical lessons they learn is the importance of reading the instructions to the game before beginning. While you are not likely to be eaten by a lion while applying to business school, the lesson still applies. There is a lot of important information in our application instructions, but every year I hear from applicants who have missed opportunities or made mistakes that hurt their chances for admission, because they hadn’t read the instructions. For example, some applicants aren’t aware of our open interview policy and don’t realize they can come to campus for an interview until it is too late. Many applicants often miss the deadline to submit our scholarship application because they didn’t read the instructions, and they later find themselves ineligible for a scholarship. Another example is on letters of recommendation: our instructions specifically say we do not find recommendations from professors to be helpful, yet every year applicants submit recommendations from a professor, essentially wasting an opportunity to provide valuable feedback from another source. I could go on, but you get the point. Yes, reading the fine print can be a little tedious, but the 5 minutes it will take you is worth it.
Read the full article: Read the instructions