Behind the scenes - a case study of a successful MBA candidacy

Seeing my MBA candidates triumphantly joyful when they receive admission to their dream school never gets old. This spring, as schools such as Wharton and HBS released decisions and I started getting calls and texts, my pride and joy soared too.?

The reason I do what I do is that no one should feel their MBA dream is impossible to pursue.?MBA admissions is what I know best and love most. I founded my admissions consulting firm, My MBA Path, because I wanted to liberally and generously share my MBA admissions knowledge with as many candidates as I can possibly reach, even the ones who will never purchase any of my services.?

A curious thing happens when I work with MBA candidates. They always, always love hearing stories of?the other?candidates I am working with. They get inspired by the success of those who came before them. They get encouraged when they hear how others overcame weak spots in their application (and let me tell you – every candidate has both strong and weak spots; no one is ever perfect – and you don’t need to be in order to get admitted).?

So today I want to share with you a case study that takes you behind the scenes of how compelling MBA stories are built.?

Let’s dig in.?

I’ve talked a lot about the importance of soul-searching, using?the seven essential questions. The answers to these questions will flow into the four essential stories every candidate applying to business school will need to create. These four stories are narratives about?leadership, accomplishment, challenge, and growth.

Let’s take a look at how this framework fits into the admissions criteria of top MBA programs. Many programs will tell you plainly and clearly who they are looking for. Two such examples are the?Stanford GSB?and?Harvard Business School.?

One of the most insightful descriptions of?what kind of students Stanford’s admissions team seeks?can be found in this excerpt, coming directly from the school:

“We seek the most promising students in terms of intellectual vitality, demonstrated leadership potential, and personal qualities and contributions.”

They also tell you where they will be looking for evidence of these qualities – “your background, experiences, perspectives, aspirations, values, and accomplishments”.

So how do you demonstrate intellectual vitality? If you think it equates a 780 GMAT score, I’m afraid you will be wrong. While a very strong GMAT test score is certainly an asset and even necessity for most MBA hopefuls applying to the GSB, intellectual vitality is a much more complex notion.

The Stanford admissions officers helpfully tell you what it encompasses:?“seeking new knowledge or expertise; your willingness to test and challenge assumptions; and your ability to develop new ideas or perspectives”.?

But how does this work in practice??

Let me show you an example from work I did with an MBA candidate.

The candidate:?A software engineer who worked for a large fashion start up.

The challenge:?How to frame this candidate’s work experience in a way that demonstrates the qualities the GSB is looking for.

The solution:?We spent a lot of time talking through how this candidate did her work, how she made decisions, how she helped her team move forward when they hit obstacles, and what were some patterns in the way she achieved results.?

We discovered that we can use her work on conceptualizing, developing, and launching a multi-warehouse sourcing system that completely overhauled the company’s business model as an example.?

In her MBA story, she talked about how she approached this challenging task as an intellectual puzzle.?

She included details about what her philosophy in approaching a new business challenge was.?

She described how she treated the learnings that were needed at the onset of such projects and how she used them to generate new ideas and ensure buy in from the team.

The key was to go far beyond presenting this accomplishment as a technical task and adding the nuances that helped others see it as an intellectual endeavor that resulted in a technological advancement.

Can you use this framework as a primer to start curating the building blocks of your four MBA stories??

There are two things the MBA candidates who work with me value most highly – my deep MBA admissions expertise that comes from experience as a Dean of MBA Admissions and my passion for seeing them succeed.?

In their own words:

“Petia’s experience as a former dean of admissions gives her a unique perspective that would be tough to rival.”

“What I appreciated the most was Petia’s passion for her applicants, which resonated throughout the application process. I felt that she truly saw and understood me as a person, and worked with me to present the best version of myself in my application. She gave me the boost of confidence and guidance I needed to get through the stress and ambiguity of the MBA application. I couldn’t recommend a consultant more – Petia is a true champion and friend to her applicants!”

If you’re committed to making this year the year you get admitted to a top MBA program, let's talk. I can’t wait to slash that learning curve and help you get there faster and easier.?

Onwards and upwards,

Petia