{"id":4570,"date":"2014-04-10T14:33:14","date_gmt":"2014-04-10T21:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/?p=4570"},"modified":"2014-04-10T15:49:56","modified_gmt":"2014-04-10T22:49:56","slug":"three-surprising-application-mistakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/three-surprising-application-mistakes\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Surprising Application Mistakes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b><i>You may think you\u2019re doing everything right, but you could be making one of these big mistakes. Today, our friends at <\/i><\/b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.stacyblackman.com\/\"><b><i>Stacy Blackman<\/i><\/b><\/a><b><i> are here to get your b-school applications on the right track.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p>When it comes to making mistakes on a business school application, there are so many places where candidates can run afoul and ruin their chances at admission. From writing the wrong school name or otherwise failing to proofread, having generic essays designed to impress rather than reveal, or choosing a recommender based on title not relationship, the road to an MBA contains countless potential pitfalls. However, today I\u2019d like to talk about some of the more process-oriented mistakes you might make, and provide tips on how to avoid them.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Reality Check: Unrealistic school selection<\/h2>\n<p>With all of the hype around the top b-school brands, it\u2019s no wonder most applicants dream of earning their MBA at Harvard or Stanford. The cold, hard truth, however, is that these schools <a href=\"http:\/\/poetsandquants.com\/2013\/10\/28\/the-b-school-class-of-2015-by-the-numbers\/3\/\">admit a tiny fraction of applicants<\/a> each cycle. Harvard Business School admitted just 12% of applicants to the class of 2015, while Stanford offered a seat to a mere 8%. Programs like those at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business or MIT Sloan School of Management are only a tad less competitive, with acceptance rates of about 14% and 15%, respectively.<\/p>\n<p>This doesn\u2019t mean you should abandon all hope of attending one of the world\u2019s best business schools, especially if your stats are strong and your extracurriculars and leadership examples varied. But, should you happen to fall in the camp of the other 85% of applicants\u2014that is, the vast majority\u2014then the subject of having appropriate back-up schools comes into play.<\/p>\n<p>Not all programs are the same, so I suggest applicants do a lot of research as well as soul-searching prior to the school selection process. Being realistic about your profile and aligning yourself with programs that mesh with your particular academic and professional background is the surest recipe for success.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Reality Check: Scores affect selection<\/h2>\n<p>As we\u2019ve talked about in this space before, preparing early and adequately for the entrance exam is critical. You can\u2019t be stressing about studying for the GMAT or GRE when you should be focused on drafting compelling application essays or cultivating additional leadership opportunities. Truth is, the school selection process will be greatly influenced by your GMAT score. \u00a0While each year we hear of that \u201cmiracle case\u201d where someone gets into Harvard with a 550, it\u2019s likely that person\u2019s profile was so extraordinary in every other way that it offset the low score.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, it would be foolhardy to believe you too have a decent chance simply because a handful of people out of 10,000 applicants made it in with a score nearly 100 points below the median. Use your GMAT or GRE score as a barometer to determine a comfortable range of schools to target. If you do decide to go for the \u201creach school\u201d as well despite a middling test score, make sure you incorporate the fact that you have a low score into your overall strategy.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Reality Check: You\u2019re not ready for B-school\u2014yet<\/h2>\n<p>A huge mistake, and one that\u2019s more common that you\u2019d think, is applying to business school before you are really ready. It is true MBA programs are skewing younger these days, accepting applicants with five or fewer years of work experience rather than the typical seven of the past, but that just means candidates need to be even more amazing in less time.<\/p>\n<p>Ask yourself: Have you had enough life experiences to provide an interesting prospective to a class? Will your potential recommenders act as champions for your cause, or is your relationship with a supervisor still new and untested? Can you devote time to improving your test score in order to expand your portfolio of program options? Would taking another year to strengthen your profile make more sense and yield better results?<\/p>\n<p>Making 100% sure that an MBA is the right step at this time is a crucial part of the soul-searching I mentioned above, and once you can answer in the affirmative, you can embark on the challenging but rewarding journey toward an MBA.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This post originally appeared on Stacy\u2019s \u201cStrictly Business\u201d MBA Blog on U.S.News.com.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You may think you\u2019re doing everything right, but you could be making one of these big mistakes. Today, our friends at Stacy Blackman are here to get your b-school applications on the right track. When it comes to making mistakes on a business school application, there are so many places where candidates can run afoul [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[198],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[13215],"class_list":["post-4570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mba"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.7 (Yoast SEO v21.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Three Surprising Application Mistakes - Magoosh Blog \u2014 GMAT\u00ae Exam<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/three-surprising-application-mistakes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Three Surprising Application Mistakes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You may think you\u2019re doing everything right, but you could be making one of these big mistakes. 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Blackman has degrees from both the Wharton School and the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, and is the author of The MBA Application Roadmap: The Essential Guide to Getting Into a Business School. She has also published a series of online guides which contain in depth guidance on how to develop essays for top business schools. Read reviews of Stacy Blackman Consulting services.","url":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/author\/stacyblackman\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":13215,"user_id":64,"is_guest":0,"slug":"stacyblackman","display_name":"Stacy Blackman","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/49974c3bc7d329e21faa8f46ce2d48408f583c4e0a5dc6073456311d407c7db3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","user_url":"","last_name":"Blackman","first_name":"Stacy","description":"<a href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/109137330418796678313?rel=author\">Stacy Sukov Blackman<\/a> launched her <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stacyblackman.com\/\">MBA admissions consulting company<\/a> in 2001 and has since helped thousands of clients gain admission to the most selective business schools in the world, many with merit scholarships. Blackman has degrees from both the Wharton School and the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, and is the author of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/The-MBA-Application-Roadmap-Essential\/dp\/0912301899\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338483700&sr=8-1\">The MBA Application Roadmap: The Essential Guide to Getting Into a Business School<\/a>. She has also published a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stacyblackman.com\/store\/\">series of online guides<\/a> which contain in depth guidance on how to develop essays for top business schools. Read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stacyblackman.com\/testimonials\/\">reviews of Stacy Blackman Consulting<\/a> services."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4570\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4570"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=4570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}