The “Ideal” Business School Student

What makes the ideal business school student? Is there even such a thing? Well the folks who bring you the GMAT wanted to find out. The GMAC asked 650 graduate business school programs what make the ideal applicant for their school. Each school listed three adjectives to describe that applicant. Their responses might surprise you.
The most common responses were ‘motivated,’ ‘driven,’ and ‘experienced.’
What do business schools mean when they talk about these qualities? Let’s break down each one.
Motivated – Schools know that business school can be as challenging, or as “easy” as a student wants it to be. This isn’t like undergrad where there is a significant importance placed on grades. Many schools don’t even give out letter grades anymore or ask their students not to disclose their grades to recruiters in the name of collaboration. Therefore, schools know they need students who are able to self-motivate and stay motivated despite the constant sources of distraction.
Driven – Similar to motivated, schools look for students with a serious drive, especially because a large part of the success of a particular business school is tied to the success of its students. Driven students become driven alumni who become successful give back to the school through donations of time or money, by recruiting new graduates and giving other alumni opportunities. They become the school’s best marketing tool.
Experienced – At this point you are probably familiar with the idea of the case method in business schools. Well part of the reason this method is very useful for teaching in business schools is because it relies on the students’ experience to augment and draw real life parallels to the case being discussed. Students with little experience will not be able to contribute as much.
Additionally, full-time programs noted how important the ability to collaborate was. While part-time programs valued work experience and specialized programs such as Masters of Finance or Masters of Accounting look for academic and analytic skills (which makes sense since these programs tend to cater to recent college grads who might not have had a full-time job yet).
What does this mean for applicants? Well, assuming you have some of these qualities, you are in good shape. What you need to do is make sure the fact that you possess these assets comes out clearly in your essays, resume and interviews. Don’t forget to make sure to have examples ready of how you demonstrated them. If you think you don’t have these qualities, now is the time to start beefing up your experience to develop these qualities. Whether it is in your work or in a volunteer role, you will undoubtedly be a better applicant if can prove you are developing. It’s also probably important to think about what makes an unideal business school student. While this is probably a long list, make sure to think of the qualities you should also avoid demonstrating in your application.
What do you think? Does this sound like you? Are you the ideal business school student?