The Application Process

Hey. I have been reading the stories on this site and have found them inspiring! I want to share my application story here in real time so that I could possibly give something useful to any of you. Also let me know if you have some information that could help me!

I submitted ten apps for the round 1 deadlines, and am now waiting to hear back from most. So many essays! But they definitely got easier and faster after the first three apps were completed. It's funny, but through the application process and really taking time to answer the essays in a thoughtful and honest way, I was able to more clearly define my career goals and how an MBA was right for me at this time.

I applied to so many schools because I have no idea how my candidacy will be viewed by admissions officers, so I wanted to play it safe with a little extra work in the beginning. I didn't apply to any "safety" schools, instead I just made my list of dream schools and applied to the ones that were the best fit for me in terms of program strengths, reputation, and location. I would be honored to attend any of these schools.


Stanford: waiting
UC-Berkeley: waiting
UCLA: waiting
Chicago Booth: Interview on Friday!
Kellogg: Interview on 12-3
UW Foster: Interviewed last week
Darden: waiting
UC-Irvine: Interview invite
Marshall: waiting
UT-Austin: waiting

This is my profile:

Age: 28
Gender: Male
Current City: Berkeley, CA
Nationality: USA
GMAT: 730 (50Q, 38V 5.0AWA)
GPA: 3.75
Full Time Work Experience: 6 years
4 years Airline Pilot
1 year International Jet Instructor (Montevideo, Uruguay) -Amazing job!
1 year starting and growing a small flight school in San Francisco
Application year: 2010

Activities: Rock and Roll (perform on piano/drums often), sing/rap in a comedy hip-hop group, competitive distance runner in various running clubs, and volunteer for a Uruguayan textile exchange company.

Career Goals: To create a general aviation flight school franchise for business in the US and abroad, specifically Argentina and Chile.

Booth Interview complete!

I interviewed with an alumnus at a coffee shop. It was more like a chat with a friend than an interview. Except one of us was decidedly overdressed.

It was the same content that has been touched on before in these forums: Why did you choose your current position? Why an MBA now? Why Chicago? What do you know about the program? What do you know about the city of Chicago? Which classes would you take? What are your internship plans? Describe your short and long-term post-MBA plans in detail.

It lasted about 45 minutes with the last fifteen for my questioning. I was most impressed by the interviewer who had been a grad for four years and had worked for three different industries and functions. He told me that the Booth reputation and alumni network make it a lot easier to move around when you're in the job search. Awesome! That's why we're all doing this, right?

I just received an interview invite from USC! They sent it as a mass email to about 75 other people and gave us a window from Nov. 30th to Jan 15th to complete it. They are conducted on-campus only so it looks like I'll be making a road trip soon. I'm hoping that UCLA gives me some feedback soon so I can knock out all three SoCal schools with the same trip. Gas is expensive here.

The stats:

Stanford: waiting
UC-Berkeley: waiting
UCLA: waiting
Kellogg: Interview on 12-3
Chicago Booth: Interview complete
UW Foster: Interview complete
USC Marshall: Interview invite
UT-Austin: app incomplete (my transcripts got lost in the mail! resent today)
Darden: waiting
UC-Irvine: Interview invite

This is great, ultraeasy!

Keep posting updates and best of luck to you!

Hi Ultra easy,

Im curious....How did you manage to apply for 10 schools..it takes a lot of effort on ones part but more importantly this means that you got your recommenders to write you 10 seperate letters for ur 10 schools...Did they have to logon to each of their college website and type up the letters? my supervisors are extremely busy so Im not sure on how I will get them to write me for more than a couple of schools

It was simply a lot of work. With the essays, you can rarely copy and paste, say, a career goals essay written for Stanford onto your application for Berkeley. They have slightly different word lengths, and should be tailored to the school's strengths as well. But you can recycle certain sentences and paragraphs that you think sound sharp.

And you are right. My recommenders hated me. They had to login and submit ten separate letters, meeting each deadline just like I had to. But I approached them using the strategy in "How to Get Into the Top MBA Programs" book. The author recommends calling them not to ask for a rec at first, but to schedule a lunch where you could outline your career goals to them. Go to the lunch organized with a list of schools, why you want to apply, and why you need to do this now (basically like the career goals essay). Then ask them if they think that their perspective on you would be a favorable one. If so, show them a sample rec sheet downloaded from one of the school's website. Ask if they are willing to take the time to do that X number of times for you. If they seem hesitant, choose someone else. If they remain enthusiastic, one down, one to go.

And don't worry about their title. Numerous adcoms insist that someone who will take the time to share some good stories about you are far more helpful than something generic written from a CEO.

I choose two people (and got a third for Stanford and UT-Austin) who I knew very well and knew that they would take the time to do a good job on each application. All schools had a posting of the letter that they were going to send to the recommender. So I looked at those and did as much of the work for them as I could. For six of the schools, a generic letter of recommendation could be uploaded and it was over for them. But the others asked specific questions like "Name the candidate's three greatest weaknesses" or "How does the candidate handle conflict?" So I gave them a sheet with every question on it so that they could create all of their content in one sitting and upload whatever the school asked for individually.

Like I said, this has been a tremendous amount of work, but the deadlines were all met, by the recommenders and me, with a few polite reminders to them. They were happy to help and now may be just as anxious as I am to see if the work will pay off with some acceptance letters.

Good luck in your admissions.

Another thought on the cut and pasting of essays is that many of the career goals essays are really three or four part questions. It's easy to forget to answer one of them. It seems simple but I almost submitted an application and realized that my essay was missing a specific leadership experience that was part of the Booth goals question, but no one else's.

Some schools have other tricky things to make sure you can follow instructions. Stanford asks that you upload a "black and white" copy of your transcripts. If you send in your color copy that is on file in your computer, you just showed that you didn't read the instructions well. Other things are formating of the essays. Some want your full name at the top of each page, others want titles and page numbers, others want nothing.

Just take it one app at a time and keep it all straight. I don't know if any of the above errors would make a difference ultimately, but it's better to play it safe. Application fees are expensive. If I'm going to get dinged, it will be from merit or match, NOT a careless effort on my part.

These are great tips that you are sharing, there is a lot of value in your above posts and I definitely found it useful. I probably have to read the MBA admissions book that you talk about. My biggest concern is, other than getting a good GMAT score (applying for 2011), is the recommendation letters section of the application process. I have switched jobs (currently in my 3rd job because of the economy, job satisfaction) and have not been in touch with my previous supervisors who live in other states. My best bet would be to get a rec. from my current supervisor and senior coworker on my team. I should be fine with the general recs but if every school i decide to apply to asks me for a specific tailored rec. i might be in a soup...but thanks for reading..just a lil concerned

Thanks, man. I've just been listening to everyone to try to get the best advice possible. The MBA consultants that offer free mini-evaluations on this and other sites have been very helpful, as well. The MBA book that I used, "How to Get Into the Top MBA Programs" is probably the largest and most thorough one on the market, but other books may be better when it comes to creating your marketing strategy. I just bought an used, and later discovered to be outdated, copy on Amazon for $9 and read the whole book. It goes into detail on every step of the app process.

I'd recommend getting any MBA app book and reading to find the best strategy for your particular work situation. I think it's best when you can tie in your previous experience to your future goals and be lacking in the skills that MBA's have to offer, therefore clearly demonstrating your need for the degree now. One consultant put it like this to me, "Make it sound like your career will end without an MBA right now."

As for recommenders, there are several non-supervisor options. I used a higher-ranked co-worker and my business mentor. You should first start with identifying who could tell the best stories about you. There is plenty of time between now and next year's deadlines.

This just in: interview invite from Darden. This one may be tougher because they require that you go to Charlottesville. I'm considering renting a car and driving from Chicago as long as I'm on this side of the country with my suit. The trip continues!

good luck to you in your app process. normally applying to that many schools is not recommended for many reasons: 1) unless you're super focused, the quality of your essays and apps will deteriorate, 2) if you are applying to so many different schools, it's likely because (as you've admitted) you don't really know which of them is your true #1. it is hard to convey genuine passion for a school in an essay without actually possessing this passion, and 3) remember that someone writing an LOR might be happy to do it once, twice, maybe 3 times. after that, they may write them for you, but will the last few recommendations be as "strong" as the first few they wrote?

these are just some of the things to consider for anyone else considering applying to a large # of schools. if you can do it, great, all the more power to you. but the safer bet would be to really do your homework first, and pick a smaller # of schools that you are definitely excited about, and focus your efforts there.

After going through the application process ten times and, now, trying to coordinate interviews on all sides of the country, I definitely agree with shadowsjc. This has been nearly a full-time job for me it seems, with a lot of travel (and NOT company-paid!). Having a more managable number of schools would make it easier to complete everything and focus your efforts. 6-10 schools is the recommended number according to Richard Montauk, author of How To Get Into the Top Business Schools, and going for the high side will of course create more work.

That being said, applying to ten schools makes it less nerve-racking to wait for deadlines, knowing that I have lots of options. Some of the schools gave me interview invites right away. Others, I'm still waiting for. Had I only applied to Stanford and Berkeley (no word yet from either), I'd be flipping out right now and probably scrambling to meet Round Two deadlines at other schools or questioning my candidancy.

But with every interview, my confidence is growing. I'm now just anxious for the first wave of decisions in a few weeks. And, yes, my recommenders are getting some pretty generous Xmas/Thank You gifts this year for their hard work and commitment to my acceptance to a top business school.

as far as recommendations go, Ultraeasy mentioned that most schools had a genric rec, which means that you get same letter sent to many schools? am i right in that assumption?

Yeah, that's right. They told me that most of them had specific questions to answer, but that they could also accept a general letter, if the recommender preferred. So I'm assuming that if a pre-written letter was acceptable, that's what was submitted. However, not every school gave that as an option and so probably required them to craft additional material, if needed. Check the schools' websites to find out what the questionaire will look like and if a letter is an option if you're curious before you approach recommenders.