Plan Ahead: Prepare Early for Your MBA Application

by Stacy Blackman Consulting, Sep 5, 2010

Planning ahead and preparing for the application process in advance can help make the MBA application process run more smoothly. When it comes to your applications, time is on your side. Smartly investing and budgeting your time is a key to generating the great essays needed to accurately represent your achievements, talents, goals, and potential contributions to a top b-school admissions committee. However, if you neglect tending to your calendar and work schedule, then time will most decidedly not be on your side.

Candidates need to balance the significant time investment spent developing essays with other commitments in their lives. The best way to do this is to start to put together your application calendar and time budget months before the deadlines you are targeting. Candidates need to think about time management from a number of angles:

Finding the HOURS: Enough Time to Grind Out Those Essays

Although the time spent generating applications varies from candidate to candidate, you should basically plan on spending 40 to 60 hours in front of your computer working on your applications. This amount of time generally covers the writing, revising, editing, proofing, formatting, and inputting of essays. In addition to essays, candidates need to set aside the hours necessary to prep recommenders and continue with other activities that enhance their candidacy. And of course, we cant forget the hours spent prepping for the GMAT.

Planning the DAYS: The Best Ways to Structure Your Work Sessions

Different folks have different sorts of work patterns. MBA applicants should be aware of the way thy work the most effectively and efficiently and structure their writing/editing sessions accordingly. I recommend to most of my clients that they allocate two to three hours each time they sit down at their computer to work on their essays. Short sessions dont allow enough time for people to get into a literary groove, and essays composed in pieces often read as disjointed, unpolished tracts. Likewise, applicants should also avoid the marathon session, as it is the rare individual who is as sharp or creative eight hours into a writing and editing session as he was at the beginning.

Budgeting the Weeks: Allow Enough Time for Reflection and Feedback

While some people think that they produce their best work under intense pressure, it is extremely unwise to try to polish off a set of applications in just a week or two. Distributing the work over a sensible period of four to six weeks lets you maintain a steady, but manageable pace. It also makes it easier for friends, family, or colleagues to provide feedback on your essays with plenty of time for them to give you their comments and critiques.