What Do Admission Committees Look for in MBA Candidates?

If you are planning to go in for an MBA, the biggest hurdle is in convincing the admission committee to select you from among legions of candidates with similar qualifications regarding educational or professional background as also GMAT or GRE scores.

In some instances, going through the class profiles of top B-schools could be intimidating by the number of high achievers on the rolls that could include a few Olympic athletes, NASA scientists or former White House aides. How would you manage to convince the admission committee that you would be a right fit for the class?

Business schools will judge your intellectual aptitude by your GMAT or GRE scores, undergraduate GPA and college major. A 3.2 overall GPA from an economics or chemistry major will weigh more heavily than a 3.8 GPA in the arts or humanities.

Not to worry. Even seemingly ordinary people with the right kind of qualities would be able to make it past any of the hurdles.

The first point that the admission committees take into account is work experience and goals. While most of the schools would want students who have spent three to five years in a profession, they look for quality than quantity.

It means that the way you performed your duties, by way of displaying leadership, bringing innovative ideas to the table and overcoming challenges would be taken into consideration rather than the number of years you spent in a position.

You must, therefore, highlight concrete professional growth, quantifiable achievements and how you were able to use certain challenging situations as opportunities to learn, in your application.

Secondly, you have to spell out your career goals that would be realistic and achievable with MBA qualification. Schools are as much concerned about the employability of the graduates as the applicants themselves. Thus, you should be able to convince the committee of your employment potential.

Now, what happens to those who have not held any managerial position? There is hope for them too. You could still give examples of having come out with ideas that led to positive changes or having led your college hockey team to victory or took your college debating team to grab the honours at a competition.

Such examples should show how you motivated other people and helped them deliver their best. Assisting your team to overcome challenges is favourably viewed by the admission committee than someone who merely collected titles.

The admission committees also look for creativity and intellectual aptitude in the sense of evidence of capacity for innovative or out of the box thinking in solving problems at work or in volunteer activities.

Some business schools use creative MBA essays prompts, such as the airport layover scenario. The admission committee will certainly look for evidence in your essays and interview responses as they search for candidates who have a unique perspective that will add something new to the classroom.

Business schools will judge your intellectual aptitude by your GMAT or GRE scores, undergraduate GPA and college major. A 3.2 overall GPA from an economics or chemistry major will weigh more heavily than a 3.8 GPA in the arts or humanities.

They also take into consideration strong quantitative skills essential to meet the program’s academic rigours. In order to gauge the candidates’ interpersonal skills and fit, several of the schools have video essays, team-based discussions and group interviews at the admission stage.(Image Source:pixabay.com)