Organizing Your MBA Admissions Calendar

by Stacy Blackman Consulting, Dec 14, 2011

After going through the MBA admissions process hundreds of times with clients, I have some strong beliefs about how to approach your admissions calendar. Although each persons strategy will differ slightly, here is an overview of what has worked well for my clients.

1) Approach one school at a time: I recommend almost finishing one application before moving on to the following one. The reason is that if you start working on multiple applications at the same time, you will often end up repeating work. If, for example, you make a change to one essay, you will need to go back and make that change to all of the essays. In the end, you will save time if you finish one application before starting on the next.

2) Recycle, Recycle, Recycle: As a preface, you dont want to recycle everything. Each essay needs to be completely personalized to the MBA program you are applying to and to the question being asked. However, if you are asked why you want your MBA multiple times, there is no reason why you should have to change your answer significantly. As an example, your essay about the nonprofit organization you founded can be applied to several questions across programs. It is important to remember that one schools leadership essay can be repositioned as another schools what are you most passionate about? essay.

3) View your application in its entirety: You should not spend too much time agonizing over each essay until you can view it in the context of your entire application. You may have some very good essays by themselves, but your total story may be incomplete. We recommend outlining the subjects of all essays for a given school before you start writing the first essay. Once you have laid out your topics, you can confirm that all important stories are being told and that the set of essays presents the full picture of you and tells your entire story.

4) Dont be afraid of later rounds: Depending on the number of schools you are applying to, planning to have all of your applications submitted in one round may be incredibly ambitious. Remember that quality is more important than timing.

5) Be ready to work:. The essay portion of your application is challenging and will take a lot of effort. Take your time and be prepared to go through several drafts. It is a very rare individual who does not struggle with this process.

For more robust guidance on your MBA application essays, check out the Stacy Blackman Consulting Essay Guide Series school specific guides with essay tips, sample essays, information on what your target schools value and more. Visit http://www.stacyblackman.com/essay-guides/ to learn more.