Despite this being an admissions blog, the lion’s share of my posts have focused on my Tuck student experience to the exclusion of my admissions experience. Two years ago this weekend, I was at a bachelor party in Stockholm taking a much needed break from admissions essay writing. For those of you in a similar position, here are some things I learned along the admissions journey that I think would have been useful to know at the start.
1) You are not permitted to use a calculator for the GMAT. For the many people who opt to take preparatory classes for the GMAT, this will be obvious. For those of you who, like me, decided to buy the book, do some practice tests and see how you got on in the test, this vital information is disastrously absent from the book. I found out on the eve of my GMAT when I went to visit the test center that no calculators were permitted. A traumatic experience and a low percentile in my quant section ensued. Thankfully, I made it up with a 99th percentile in the qualitative section and wound up with a 730 overall. The only other person I knew well who had taken the GMAT got a 780 but assured me that anything over 720 was fine to get into the top schools. Another chap I met at an MBA fair in Brussels told me that top schools looked for both quant and qual to be over the 80th percentile hurdle. I didn’t meet that criteria on the quant side (though I do have a quant-focused academic and professional background) and still got a very pleasing rate of admission to top schools.
2) Students are your greatest resource to find out more about the schools you are thinking about applying to or attending. MBA students are busy but almost everyone loves to talk about themselves and their experiences, and to feel helpful. So many of my classmates frequently have conversations with prospective students about life at Tuck, career planning, academics, etc. I pursued the ‘official’ route of visiting campuses (which, by the way, was the single most effective way of determining where I wanted to be) but didn’t make anywhere near as much use of current students, or even alums and faculty, as I should have through informal routes. If you have an idea of what you want to do after school, or what kind of clubs you want to get involved with while you are at business school, get in touch with people at your target schools to discuss their experiences. And feel free to ask them almost any questions, within reason.
3) Take rankings with a pinch of salt. If you are going to focus on any single ranking, I’d recommend Poets & Quants, as it consolidates the others and removes outliers. Ranking methodology is largely questionable, but there are about ten schools in the US that I believe are universally respected by the people who matter and will give you a great business education. Beyond that, fit is more important. Think laterally about your recruiting path: if a school is known as a “Marketing” school, the chances are that more of your classmates will want to go into marketing and therefore jobs may be harder to come by with the big marketing firms; the same goes for finance and banks. Figure out where you want to be, what culture you value, what institution you will be proud to be associated with for life, what students you find most inspiring and similar to you. If you love where you are, you will thrive in that environment and make the most of the many opportunities that will come your way at any top business school. Do not choose a school because you think you should as a result of its reputation or ranking, if it is not where you see yourself being happiest and doing best.
4) There’s room for everyone. The chances are, if you’re applying, you’re probably good enough to get in. When admissions talks about trying to get a diverse class, they mean it. I have classmates with outstanding academic records, enviable professional experience, incredible personal accomplishments. But not everyone has all three. Sure, it’s not ideal to be weak in any individual area, but the part it took me a while to become comfortable with when I was applying is honestly appraising where I lay on each of those continuums and how I could best communicate the story of who I am and why that is compelling. Perhaps it is my British tendency towards understatedness, but it felt unnatural to portray myself as exceptional. The truth of the matter is that we are all exceptional. Being able to articulate why you are exceptional is a skill that can make all the difference in your application.
I should round this off by saying that this is all my personal opinion, having only been through the process once, and may not in any way reflect the views of Tuck admissions. A further caveat: I am writing under the influence of narcotics following my second (and hopefully final) knee surgery after my soccer injury. Nevertheless, I hope this has been useful. Good luck with GMATs and essay writing. It’s a long process, but the introspection can be a lot of fun.
Read the full article: Things I wish I’d known