MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Have a Gap!
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Jeremy is the Founder and President of mbaMission. Click here to learn more about mbaMission's products and services. |
There is no perfect MBA applicant. However, there is a perception of the perfect applicant — an individual who is scaling greater and greater personal, community and professional peaks, day after day, unabated until he/she finally applies. So, those who take time off at any point perceive themselves as disadvantaged. They worry that the admissions committees will see their gaps and dismiss them outright. After all, aren’t there more determined individuals to admit?
It is true that time off can be destructive. If you spend a year on your couch watching reality TV, you are likely in trouble. If you have a strong professional history and spend one month between jobs, sitting on your couch watching reality TV, your record should still speak for itself. But, even if you do take an extended leave, as long as you are productive during this time and you grow personally, you should still be just fine. In fact, an adventure may even add to your story and help you differentiate yourself.
If you spend six months or a year travelling before you start your professional career, you are certainly still eligible for a top-MBA program. If you take a personal leave to care for a family member, do charity work or even pursue a personal passion (an art form, for example), as long as you can show purpose and reveal a broad record of competency, an admissions officer should still see your merits.
Admissions officers are – and this may be surprising to some – human beings. They understand that applicants are not robots and that they have interests, passions and personal lives. If you make good use of your time, they won’t condemn you. They just might envy you…
Read other Admissions Myths Destroyed:
- Admissions Myths Destroyed: Round 1 is Everything
- Admissions Myths Destroyed: I am a Simple Product!
- Admissions Myths Destroyed: Reapplicants Should Not Apply
- Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Am Too Old!
- Admissions Myths Destroyed: The “Right” Path
- Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Should Quit My Job for the GMAT
- Admissions Myths Destroyed: Title Trumps All!
- Admissions Myths Destroyed: Yikes, a Typo; I am Done!
- Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Must Have Gotten It Wrong!
- Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Have No International Experience
5 comments
avinash singh on February 11th, 2010 at 8:52 pm
what is the effect of my degree percentage and high school percentage on my admission.
Rahul Gupta on February 16th, 2010 at 11:10 am
Not much, unless you compensate those with other factors (Like good GMAT, work experience, essays etc.) in your application...
Nipun on September 2nd, 2010 at 7:04 pm
I have been worrying about this thing for some many months now.. I took a few months off from work to take care of my family and was a little worried about the gap in my professional life vis-à-vis my B school applications..
I even happened to ask this question to a top B School admissions officer and was not convinced even though he told me the same deal as here. He said "It does not matter as long as you can tell the B Schools why and it makes for a strong statement. B School admission officers are reasonable. They would not reject someone just because the person is caring enough to take care of a family member in their time of need."
But after reading this post, I think it makes a whole lot of sense of me now.
Thanks to Jeremy for writing this concise article!
Ayan on November 5th, 2010 at 5:36 pm
Thanks Jeremy for writing this insightful article. I had to take a break for the sake of my family and although I have not been super active during this year, I havent spent time on a couch either. But this piece of advice here relieves me (a lot) from my "gap woes".
Thanks once again.
Sumit Shitole on March 19th, 2013 at 8:17 am
Hi
Really help full as even i have an academic gap but i made my carrier out of it