MBA Application without many extracurricular activities

[gaurav.aggarwal21]

Hi,

Throughout my life, i have had excellent grades - in high school as well as college. In my job as well, i have excelled, getting frequent promotions, raises and awards. However, i don't have much in the way of extracurricular activities - especially during school and college. In my job however, i do head one committee - which organizes events (both internal as well as external), and am part of various other committees (magazines, innovative projects which are not part of the day job).

How big of a disadvantage is it to not have many extracurricular activities during college and school. And where do extracurricular activities stand in the pecking order of,say, GMAT score, work ex, grades, professional achievements etc.

Thanks,
Gaurav

[Jon@Admissionado]

Guarav,
It's a minus. But less of a minus than having a bad GMAT or low grades. Every single applicant in the world has their weaknesses and the important thing is to first recognize them and then address them. So yours is lack of extracurriculars. Good that you know it. So how do you deal with it? Well, the first thing I would do is DIG. You may not have lots of "official" extracurriculars, but maybe you have less obvious things??? For example maybe you helped out in a family business? Or perhaps you participated in religious activities? Or later at work, organized parties and other social activities?

So I would start there. And even if that is very thin, it can be enough. And otherwise you can make sure that all your work essays are very strong.

[PrepMBA.AlexLeventhal]

In my view, extracurriculars are not as critical as GMAT/GPA/Recs..., particularly post college when MBA types are logging incredibly long hours. However, a solid activity, which has a managerial nature (like managing volunteers vs simply volunteering) can be a great application hook. If you don't have them, this should not discourage your targeting, but I would see, as Jon suggests, what you may have and might overlook.

Also, don't fall into the trap of starting a "hail mary" extracurricular three months before your apps are submitted, as the admissions folks are going to be skeptical of this type of activity.

[gaurav.aggarwal21]

Thanks for the answers.

I am a regular contributor for 2 magazines in my workplace. I organize official team events and smaller fun activities which are held in the workplace. I am leading an initiative in which we are porting our application that we support onto various mobile platforms. I regularly conduct training and knowledge exchange sessions for various other teams as well as for members within my own team. I am also part of a team that prepares business models and estimations for different clients. All this is separate from my regular day job.

The worry i have is that all these extracurriculars look like they are part of my day job. None of them consist of anything that is radically different - like being part of a band, or volunteering at an old age home or something.

How big of a disadvantage is this? Will the admissions committees recognize the extracurricular activities that i have posted above as genuine extracurriculars or will they look at it as more of a day job activity.

[Jon@Admissionado]

Aha! So you see, you have TONS of stuff. It's not really correct to say "they look like part of my day job". They only look like part of your day job is that's HOW you make them look.

YOU are in control of your narrative. If you highlight these items and show that you are taking charge where others are not, then you have good diverse stories. How you present yourself in your applications is your choice and under your control (within the limits of what you have actually done, of course).

[gaurav.aggarwal21]

Thanks a lot Jon. This makes me feel more at peace. I can now concentrate on getting a good GMAT score and worry about the rest later.

Thanks a ton

[PrepMBA.AlexLeventhal]

These workplace activities, given they are NOT part of your job responsibilities, will be viewed positively as extracurriculars. My advice is to get one of your work recommenders, if possible, to cover off on some of these activities to give them affirmation and weight.

Even references can be coordinated and tie into the points you are trying to make in your essays.

Good Luck!