I'm currently a student at Kellogg. Before my acceptance, I read a lot of articles about what you should and shouldn't do during your application. Some is useful info, a lot is not worth much. I thought I'd start a post to share with all aspiring applicants a few things about the process:
1. People who attend top programs are NOT superman/superwoman. There's a notion that you must climb Mt. Everest, win an Olympic gold medal, start your own company, save children from a burning school bus, and author a book in order to be considered top 5 material. Not true. Granted, there are going to be some people with superman-like experiences, but the large majority are just smart, hardworking, ambitious people. They don't wear red capes and they can't fly, so don't think you have to go out and do those things in order to be more competitive.
2. You already know about what you need to do. Everyone knows about the application elements but most people think that there's some sort of "secret" element they have to show the admission committee. Not true. GMAT, essays, interview, etc. are your tickets to admission. They aren't overanalyzing how many schools you applied to and trying to psychoananalze what this indicates about you. Just about everyone I met at Kellogg applied to only one school... Kellogg. The myth is that this would tell the admissions committee that they weren't serious about b-school, otherwise they would have applied to more schools. Not true.
3. Diversity is more than just your ethnicity and profession. I see lots of posts where people say, "This is my ethnic culture, this is what my profession is, this is how long I have been working... what are my admission chances?" You are more than the sum of your culture and job. If I am one of your fellow students, how does you being a part of culture X and profession Y add to my experience during school? Do not define yourself solely in the generic culture/profession terms.
4. You must be able to answer the universal question, "Why do you want to go to business school?" There are many variants of this question but they are all aimed at the same thing... they want to know if you have a plan. During one of my management classes the professor discussed this key point:
A. People who have general thoughts and goals in their heads will probably be unfocused and not successful.
B. Some take it a step farther and clearly define those goals and write them down.
C. Some will write those goals down and then come up with a plan of action to accomplish those goals.
D. The more effective people clearly define it, come up with a plan, and then take action
Of these four types of people (A, B, C, or D), you must be person C at a minimum (preferably person D).
Conclusion: These are just my perspectives/opinions from what I've seen. Feel free to discuss or disagree.
1. People who attend top programs are NOT superman/superwoman. There's a notion that you must climb Mt. Everest, win an Olympic gold medal, start your own company, save children from a burning school bus, and author a book in order to be considered top 5 material. Not true. Granted, there are going to be some people with superman-like experiences, but the large majority are just smart, hardworking, ambitious people. They don't wear red capes and they can't fly, so don't think you have to go out and do those things in order to be more competitive.
2. You already know about what you need to do. Everyone knows about the application elements but most people think that there's some sort of "secret" element they have to show the admission committee. Not true. GMAT, essays, interview, etc. are your tickets to admission. They aren't overanalyzing how many schools you applied to and trying to psychoananalze what this indicates about you. Just about everyone I met at Kellogg applied to only one school... Kellogg. The myth is that this would tell the admissions committee that they weren't serious about b-school, otherwise they would have applied to more schools. Not true.
3. Diversity is more than just your ethnicity and profession. I see lots of posts where people say, "This is my ethnic culture, this is what my profession is, this is how long I have been working... what are my admission chances?" You are more than the sum of your culture and job. If I am one of your fellow students, how does you being a part of culture X and profession Y add to my experience during school? Do not define yourself solely in the generic culture/profession terms.
4. You must be able to answer the universal question, "Why do you want to go to business school?" There are many variants of this question but they are all aimed at the same thing... they want to know if you have a plan. During one of my management classes the professor discussed this key point:
A. People who have general thoughts and goals in their heads will probably be unfocused and not successful.
B. Some take it a step farther and clearly define those goals and write them down.
C. Some will write those goals down and then come up with a plan of action to accomplish those goals.
D. The more effective people clearly define it, come up with a plan, and then take action
Of these four types of people (A, B, C, or D), you must be person C at a minimum (preferably person D).
Conclusion: These are just my perspectives/opinions from what I've seen. Feel free to discuss or disagree.
