The Definitive Guide to

MBA
APPLICATIONS
Through GMAT
TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 Introduction

2 Pre- Application Process

3 Application Process

4 Post Application Process

5 Recommendation Letters

6 College Transcripts

7 Essays

8 Interviews

9 Bonus Chapter:
Writing MBA Essays
 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION
 Introduction
Welcome to The Definitive Guide to MBA Applications.

This PDF is designed to give you a clear step-by-step process to

familiarize you with the MBA Application Process. The intent of
this e-book is to provide a bird’s eye view of the process so you
can dive deeper into each section later on.

This is a process that takes about 6-8 months, so it is important

that you take it phase-wise.

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 CHAPTER TWO

PRE-APPLICATION
PROCESS
 7 Steps Before Applying
January-May
The pre-application process is nothing but the activities that you
need to do in order to be ready for the actual application.

Following are the 5 things you need to do:

□ Take the GMAT

This is as simple as it can get. You have to take the GMAT to

apply to most top b-schools.

Be sure that you’re ready for the exam. Don’t take the exam 2
weeks before the college application deadline because let’s say,
God forbid, something was to happen, you will not be able to take
the test again for a better score.

Try to take it as early as possible.

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□ Identify your recommenders

Apart from GMAT, you need recommendations. The college

typically asks for letters of recommendation from 2 people who
have worked with you in a professional capacity.

So make sure you’re able to get two such colleagues in place.

Identify, talk to them, tell them that you’re interested in an MBA,
try to get a buy-in from them.

A lot of times, just before the applications, I’ve seen a lot of

applicants running here and there.

In short: Don’t panic!

We will be discussing this in detail in a subsequent chapter titled

“Recommendation Letters”

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□ Get your college transcripts

Transcripts are nothing but mark sheets provided in a single page.

You don’t need to worry about it in the end.

Just apply for it right away – chances are that your undergraduate
institute has an online procedure for requesting transcripts – you
can apply using that.

This will also be discussed in detail in page 13 in this e-book.

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□ Get an idea of the MBA programs you want to apply to

Start reading up about various MBA programs. You can use some
“lists” to get started such as:

1. U.S. News MBA Ranking

2. Bloomberg Business School Ranking

□ Analyze your profile & reasons for an MBA

It is important to have a clear sense of your profile – what are the

areas of strengths, and the areas of improvement.

You need to look at the reasons for doing an MBA and ask
yourself what you seek in a program. This introspection is best
done by talking to your friends and family members.

You may want to read about the common reasons why people do an
MBA.

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 CHAPTER THREE

APPLICATION
PROCESS
 Application process
June-October
In the Application process, the following are the major
checkpoints:

□ Fill in the online application

Go to the college website, create a username and password.

Provide all the details they ask you for- education, experience,
extracurricular and co-curricular activities etc.

□ Send email link to recommenders

There will be a field in the form where you’ll have to give the email
address of your recommenders. The earlier days of giving
hardcopy letters are gone. The entire process is through emails.

The recommenders would have to give their official email

addresses (e.g ravi.j@honeywell.com) which cannot be say, a
Gmail id.

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□ Write your essays

You have to essentially fill in the essays that you’re writing. We

will discuss in detail about the various types of essays in a
separate chapter as well as in the bonus section towards the end.

□ Interview with the schools

If you’re selected after the first initial assessment, you might be

called for an interview which you will need to show up at.

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Note:
Sep-Oct is when the actual deadline starts. Usually there are 2
deadlines.

For example, ISB application deadlines are somewhere around

mid-October and then again in mid-January (the next year). US
schools also follow a similar cycle with the first round being in
September/October, and the second round in January, while
some have it in February.

Important Tip:
Apply well before the deadline. If you already have all the required
data with you by July, apply to a few schools in Sep, a few in Oct
and so on.

Since you will be required to write a couple of essays for each

application, applying to multiple colleges will be time consuming.
To avoid last minute rush, try and start early.

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 CHAPTER FOUR

POST-APPLICATION
PROCESS
Post-application process
From admission to joining
Now, for the post application process:

□ Figure out your Finances

Financial planning is very important to a lot of people, especially for

those who are planning for colleges abroad. We will be discussing
this in detail in a later chapter.

□ Apply for VISA

In case the colleges you have applied for are not in India, you
need to spend time trying to understand the documents required.
For example in the US, you need to apply at least a few months
before your actual date of joining.

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□ Try connecting with people who are joining the same batch

A lot of times you’ll be able to get very valuable information from

them. These are questions such as “What food items do I need to
take? How are you funding your college expenses? Are there any
pre-requisites?”

□ Take pre-MBA courses as required

A lot of times b-schools may look at your transcripts and say,

“Hey, you seem to be a smart guy but we want to make sure that
you are able to do well when you come over here. Why don’t you
take this extra course on accounting or excel?”

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 CHAPTER FIVE

RECOMMENDATION
LETTERS
Recommendation Letters

- Don’t bother too much about the title. Lot of people get fixated
on the fact that they need to get it from a senior VP or MD of a
company. It’s not true. You can get it from a project leader or
project manager, but what is more important is that one can write
well.

- The biggest mistake that people do is they take it from people

who are so high up the hierarchy that they really don’t have the
time to write or they may not know you that well.
So rather than getting a very short piece written from someone
higher, I would rather have a pretty elaborate personal
recommendation coming from someone who has worked with me
professionally.
Some people take it from their immediate reporting managers,
some may even take it from a client. Client recommendation is
also considered to be pretty good.

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- I’ve seen a lot of situations where people have said that the
recommender doesn’t have time and he wants the student to write
something for him.
My advice is please don’t do so. Ethics is obviously one part but
the other part is also you’re really cheating the process- you’re not
being true and if you’re going to get into a b-school without ethics
then it’s probably going to have a large bearing on what you’re
going to do post that.
But even if that is overlooked, if you’re going to write your essays
and if you’re going to write your own recommendations, trust me,
anybody can see through.
With my experience, I can just look at it and say, “Hey, this guy
who wrote the recommendation is the same guy who ended up
writing the essays.”

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- Make sure you “prep” them in advance by providing a copy of
your CV, your application essays, as well as having a
conversation with them around your motivation. Tell them why
you’re looking at a particular b-school and what your opinion is.
Get them involved in the process and get their buy-in for the
whole MBA thing as early as possible.

- It may be a good idea to provide the recommender with some

inputs on your achievement over the period considered. Go with a
sheet of paper with 10 things you did over the last one year so
that they don’t have to rack their brains to think of your
achievements. So you’re basically helping them.

- More importantly, try giving recommenders ample time.

Remember that, you don’t just have to approach them for one
school. You might have their recommendation required for
multiple schools and also remember that they are not giving
recommendations only for you.

They might not tell you on your face but the fact is they have
multiple people who they’re going to be working with.

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 CHAPTER SIX

COLLEGE
TRANSCRIPTS
 College Transcripts
- In the US, the standard GPA is calculated out of 4. However,
this is not true for most Indian schools, so make sure that you do
not try to convert it to a 4-point GPA. Make sure that you are
providing just the numbers that you have with you.

- You will be surprised that a lot of these foreign b-schools have

heard a lot about the Indian schools. They know how hard it is to
get in, what IIT’s are, what NIT’s are, they know how hard it is to
pass certain courses. They know the value of the transcripts. So,
all of it is something you don’t need to worry about.

- Finally, when you’re filling in your application, make sure you

have the transcripts in advance. You have the transcripts and you
know what needs to be done.

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CHAPTER SEVEN

ESSAYS
 Essays
- Each school requires you to fill in an online form which will
contain a lot of detail about who you are- your education,
experience etc.

- Apart from this, you will also be writing various essays, which will
assess your motivation to join a b-school. We will be looking at
each specific essay later on.

- Remember that all essays come with a word limit. It is important

that you stick to the word limit. Sometimes we might have great
stories to narrate but if you cannot do that in 200-300 words then
it is of no use.

- Some of the schools even have a PowerPoint presentation.

Other schools such as Kellogg require even a video essay.
Whatever the format be, the key is to communicate your ideas
clearly and succinctly.

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- Do not repeat information that is found elsewhere in your
application. Lots of people make the mistake of repeating
information which is already there in their resume.

Think about it as valuable real estate. If you have 700 sq. ft. of
land and you’re going to build a house, you’d probably want to
optimize each square feet that you have available.

The same applies for word limit- make sure you’re able to
maximise it.

- Be honest. It should come naturally to you but it’s very hard

since we tend to Google to see what other people have written
and in that course we end up plagiarizing.

Write what you really think is what you want to tell. Don’t write
what you think the AdCom wants to hear.

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 CHAPTER EIGHT

INTERVIEWS
 Interviews
- Most schools these days prefer an interview before they select
you so be prepared for a personal interview.

- They’re usually announced within a month of the application

deadlines. Check your admissions contact person to be updated
on this.

- There are 2 types of interviews-one taken by the admission

committee and the other taken by alumni. When you take it with
the admissions committee, they know your background.

They already have your essays and applications, so they know

what needs to be asked – the questions are very overall in that
sense.

But it could be taken by an alumnus as well. In the case of an

alumni interview, it is usually a blind interview. It means that your
profile is not known to the person who is interviewing you. He
hasn’t gone through your CV or your application, so he’s just
going to meet you like - on a blind date.

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- A lot of interviews are conducted in person, especially for large
schools. For example, if it’s an Indian school, you’d probably go
down to Hyderabad for an ISB interview or Chennai for a Great
Lakes interviews.

But if it is going to be a foreign university, many a times if you

apply well in advance, the admission committee comes down for a
lot of these MBA tours. So during that time, they may end up
interviewing you or if nothing else, they may end up having an
interview over phone or Skype. Skype has come up as a preferred
medium of connectivity.

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- Be prepared to be asked questions outside of your application.

A lot of people tend to think of an interview as a quiz program.

Like the guy is going to ask you 5 things you’ve written in your
application.

It’s not!

It’s usually a very friendly conversation. You’ll be surprised to

know that a lot of times the guy isn’t really checking what you’ve
written.

That’s where the Indian aspect comes in, where we think they are
cross questioning what we want to do. But this person just wants
to assess your personality. He wants to know about your
communication, whether you’ll be able to gel well with a team,
what are your rationale, what you’ve written in your application- is
it a true reflection of who you are or did you just go to this MBA
Application specialist and get your entire application written.

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 BONUS CHAPTER

WRITING MBA
ESSAYS
 Writing MBA Essays
4 Questions to Answer
So each school as I said, may require anywhere between 3-5
essays, and these essays are based on a variety of different things
and schools have their own rationale. Now, what is it that these
schools look for when they look at the essays?

I would put it this way. Think of yourself as a person who is

applying and you have a goal or reach. An MBA is basically a loop
through which you’ll have to pass.

We’re looking at a person who can articulate his goals well.

Where do you want to go and where are you now? It’s very
important that you know your gifts and gaps and how an MBA will
help.

If you’re able to answer the following 4 questions, honestly, the

actual process of “writing” most MBA essays will be a lot easier.

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1. Why MBA?

In other words, what is your short term and long term goals and
explain how an MBA will get you there. So be as specific as
possible, especially with your short term goals. Lot of people tend
to write in generics. They say, “I’m in a technical role and I want to
get into management.” That is not a good enough answer.

For you to make a transition from technical to management, you

can as well take the PMP and become the project manager. MBA
is more than that. So you have to be very specific. You have to tell
what is the job title, what is the industry, what is your domain,
what does a typical day in your life post MBA look like?

You have to be very precise when you’re giving the answer.

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One great resource that you can use is LinkedIn. So if you’re
looking at a b-school, try to see where are the graduates from this
b-schools actually headed to, which industry do they go to. If your
dream company is Procter & Gamble, the question to ask is “Is
P&G actually hiring from these b-schools?” What is the career
state of a person 3 years down the line in P&G after he’s
graduated from this particular b-school?

So these are questions that you need to answer. Alumni can be a

great source. So you reach out, you ask them a nice question,
they’ll be more than happy to answer that for you.

Don’t upsell or undersell. Don’t say you want to be a CEO 2 years

after you graduate. That sounds kind of stupid and don’t say, “I
want to become a project manager- that’s my career goal” That
also sounds crappy because to become a project manager you
don’t have to invest so much of time and money that an MBA
requires you to do.

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I’ve heard a lot of students say, “I don’t have the faintest clue what
I want to do post MBA. What do I do in that case? “My advice is
you still need to know what you want to do- not just for the
b-schools, but for yourself. But to justify the investment of time
and money and energy that’s going to go into a 2 year MBA
program or a one year MBA program, you need to very clear
where it is going to take you. So if you don’t have an idea, no
problem. Sit, think and try to figure out answers to this.

2. Why now?

This is something b-schools ask sometimes in a direct or indirect

way. Why is it so important that you have to apply this year or this
round? Why can’t you wait till next year? Or why didn’t you apply
last year?

You’ll have to show that your career is in a point of inflection- the

trajectory is at that exact precise moment where an MBA is going
to catapult you to a far greater distance where if you had taken at
a different point in your career, it wouldn’t be the same. It’s very
important that you think about this.

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3. Why you?

What is it about you that makes you believe that you are best
suited for an MBA? What is your academic potential? They look at
your undergraduate school, your GPA, your GMAT score.

There is very little that you can change over here, apart from your
GMAT scores, but the fact is if you’re from IIT Delhi, 9.5 GPA,
computer science, obviously it’s going to be a lot better than going
to a mid-tier or a lower rank school in India and scoring 40 or
50%.

But GMAT is definitely a great equalizer. One objective measure

by which all b-schools know who you are and where you stand.
The other thing that b-schools understand is that one or two years
that you actually spend in a b-school does not magically transform
you to a leader. It’s going to make you understand leadership
better. But you have to be a leader within.

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Which is why they look at certain traits of leadership potential. So
they look at your career progression. If you think about it, career
progression is a great way to see if you have the leadership
potential because the organisation that you worked with- they are
the people that see you day in and day out, knowing whether you
are doing well, whether you are lacking in some areas.

They are the ones constantly giving you feedback, seeing if you
have improved and if you have, give you greater roles and
responsibilities which usually lead to larger titles which in turn
leads to promotion.

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A promotion will come only when you have a certain amount of
leadership to take up in the next challenge. The other way in
which they see leadership is also extra-curriculars. So why are
extra-curriculars important for leadership? Because a leader is not
a person who is going to be stuck in a 9-5 job, come back home,
watch TV and go to bed.

A leader is someone who usually has more interests than just

work. It could be anything. As long as you’re able to show that
you’ve been able to constructively utilize your time. That’s all you
need when it comes to extra-curriculars.

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One misconception that students seem to have is the whole deal
about NGO work. The origin of this myth is probably from the US
because in the US, culturally it is accepted that you do NGO work.
It’s a lot easier to do it in the US. So if you’re going to show how I
spent my spare time constructively, a lot of these guys who went
to top b-schools showed NGO work.

However, in India, it’s okay not to show NGO work. It’s okay if
you’re going to say that on weekends you were working on a
start-up idea or you were busy practicing with your band or busy
biking across Nandi hills.

Whatever your passion is, they just look at some way in which you
have constructively channelized your passion. According to them,
that is leadership. It is not necessarily working for an NGO.

27
The third thing they look at is the kind of work that you’ve done –
how much of it is cross cultural, how much of it is cross functional.
So, one misconception that again has come is the fact that if
you’re in IT, you are actually at a disadvantage. There are more
people applying from the IT pool than from probably any other
pool, especially in India. However, within the school also, they
look at the quality of work that you’ve done. So if you’ve worked in
a large company, they want to see if you actually took the initiative
and did something which actually cut across.

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Were you an individual contributor?

Were you a guy who was sitting alone a corner cubicle or were
you a person who actually interacted and knew the functions of
other departments?

Were you a person who groomed this innate managerial

leadership quality within yourself?

Did you work with people outside India?

If you’ve had the opportunity to travel outside India, that is taken

as a big positive because they then know that this person has
cross cultural experiences. He knows how Europeans work or
how Americans work. So that’s seen as a great plus in today’s
global environment.

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Finally, a marketing term, which is called unique selling
proposition.

So all this being equal, what is it that unique quality that you bring
to the table?

This is where students tend to struggle or they’re not able to

articulate their USP. My advice is to go and talk to your friends,
talk to people who know you well and ask them, “What is that one
adjective which really makes me who I am?”

So it could be for example, Arun the helper- a guy who helps

everyone. In which case you need to go back and look at your
profile and say, “Can I bring that as a theme? Can I tie that back
to why I want to do an MBA?’

Or if someone says- Amit the Analytical guy, the guy who can
reduce everything to metrics and numbers.

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These are things which you really need to introspect. These are
not things which will come to you immediately. So you need to put
in a lot of effort, trying to find the answers. But the sooner that you
do it, the easier it will be for you. In fact, my suggestion is to ask
yourself these questions even before you take the GMAT.

4. Why us?

Probably this is one question that you wait for after you take the
GMAT- why do you want to apply to this particular school? What
is your motivation to apply to the school? Again, one mistake that
a lot of students do is they write this clichéd statements saying-
“You have world class infrastructure.”

Frankly, what does world class infrastructure mean? Do you want

to say they have a broadband internet or air conditioned libraries?
Mostly all schools these days have these. So you have to be very
clear because, think about it, what will you say for Stanford that
you cannot say for MIT?

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Whatever statement you can say for Stanford, I can challenge you
that you can probably say that for MIT as well. It’s very hard, but
you have to go in-depth, talk to students, try to gauge what is the
culture and the unique things that the school has to offer. Try to
see if it fits in with your own perspective of what you want out of a
b-school. It’s very important that you do the research and very
important that you articulate it.

There was a question asked in on the Berkeley essays- What

have you done to know more about our school in the past one
year? Frankly, if you’re going to be writing this application 3 week
before the deadline, there’s no way you’re going to escape this
question. What would you say? That you watched YouTube
videos or that you googled for them? Because its asking you what
you did in the whole year. So this is a dead-end question. You
really cannot fake your way through this question.

Other interesting questions from Stanford GSB included- What do

you value most in life and why? This is a long running question
since many years and sometimes it can be very hard to answer it.

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Kellogg asks- Tell us something about you that would surprise us.
The common retort that I have from students is, “I could tell them
stuff that could not surprise, but shock them. I want to surprise
them and not shock them.” The interesting thing is Kellogg asks
you this question after almost 4 or 5 questions when you have
exhausted everything you have to say about yourself.

My advice is think through the b-school application; think through

what you have to offer to b-schools. It’s very important that you
start this process even before you take the GMAT.

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 Summary
I hope this guide to MBA Applications was useful to you. If you
found this useful then please share the love by spreading the
word.

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 About CrackVerbal

Established in 2006 in Bangalore, CrackVerbal has

successfully mentored over hundreds of MBA aspirants.
CrackVerbal comprises of people who are
extremely successful in their fields and who are in this
venture purely out of a love for teaching.