Receiving a application invitation from school

dhonu121,

Their invitation to apply indicates that your current profile suggests that you fit the school well. However, you'll notice that when you follow the application process that the school will judge you upon more than what they know about you at the time of sending you an invite.

This will vary from school to school, but I believe the essay(s) you hand in can make or break your application. I applied in April to a okay school that I was more than qualified for. I received warm recommendations from my referees, but I wrote the admission essay in a non-convincing way. I wasn't accepted.

Later on I applied to three schools. All three of them performs significantly better on the rankings in general. I used the same referees, but I handed in their standardized essays, written on the paper of my university rather than the university I applied to. The references were not that persuasive either.
One of the schools demanded three essays, and the two others demanded one but asked too different questions, so I had to construct 5 essays in total. I spent a lot of time writing these essays, and the work certainly paid off. I was accepted from all three schools. I expected to get one yes at max.

Getting an invite from a school you would like to apply to is great, but you have to keep in mind that there is a lot of work left. The competition for a spot at the best business school is big enough for the schools to toss your profile if you show that you take their yes for granted, and they have no moral incentives for accepting you based solely on their invitation. If you keep that in mind while completing your application, and I am confident that you will pursue your academical work at a school that suits your work this far and what you will do after your academical career.

Best of luck to you,
Erlend

So, overall it would be right to say that applying to such schools, which invite you via an e-mail, is safer that applying to those schools, which haven't done any such communication as mentioned above.

dhonu121 wrote:So, overall it would be right to say that applying to such schools, which invite you via an e-mail, is safer that applying to those schools, which haven't done any such communication as mentioned above.

I don't think that's right. I think that these schools, who would likely not be in the top 10 rankings, approach potential candidates directly through GMAC information, as they think based on their submitted profiles that they would be a good fit. It's only meant to raise awareness of their programs to the candidates and invite them to learn more, and if interested, apply.