4 What goes on after you hand in
through the application. However, most commonly, the reader will take the following route:
1. A survey of your basic information
The following information can be gleaned from the answers you provide to questions on the application form: age; nationality; profession; amount, nature of and place of work experience; languages; special competencies, cer- tifications, awards and promotions. This quick tour through your biographical and employment history will provide a snapshot of the main coordinates of your candidacy.
Candidates with biographical success and decorations will start to distinguish themselves, even at this first stage. The most common way candi- dates fail at this point is if they are too young (not enough work experience) or too old (better suited to an executive MBA), or if they don’t have a primary college degree or some other basic requirement.
2. Academic assessment
The reader will then review your academic claim to a place, including GPA achieved, college attended, courses and course loads undertaken, graduate degrees or diplomas if applicable, and Gmat score. A weak academic profile or any hint that you will not cope intellectually will result in rejection. The reader may massage your GPA up a bit to compensate for harder college courses, a prior second degree or any explanatory factors that you have mentioned. He or she may even view a low GPA with some leniency if grades were on a solid upward trend, or shrug off a few B’s and C’s in the light of significant extramural activities and successes. Of course, a subsequent reader may view your extenuating circumstances differently and apply a different personal judgement.
Readers will definitely check for evidence of quantitative or business- related courses, and look for weakness in this area. Poor grades here are a serious handicap, probably worse even than being completely untested in this area – where at least you would retain the benefit of the doubt. The flip side is that post-college remedial courses in quantitative subjects will be considered very favourably, particularly if you do well. If you have excelled on quantitative courses at college or afterwards, you may be excused a shaky grade or two in the humanities.
3. Assessment of personal statement
The readers will then read your essays. They will get an impression on two levels. First, they want to see that the essays have been done competently and AFTER YOU HAND IN YOUR APPLICATION 39
diligently and that the questions have been answered. If you are just waffling, they might try to determine whether this is simply due to poor communica- tions skills or whether it is something more nefarious, such as lifting from another essay set. They will want to see that points are clearly made and well organized. They will notice how thorough you have been – spelling, punctuation or typographic mistakes will cost you dearly. Adcom’s favourite mistake is catching the name of a rival school in the essay set. Any lurking feeling that the application is not conscientiously done will provide them with a reason to reject it.
Readers will also judge the vision, argument, motivation and passion in your essays. They will be looking for clear, appropriate and well-thought-out short- and long-term goals, and a workable strategy to achieve those goals – a strategy that includes needing what the specific business school offers. They will evaluate the benefits you claim to be bringing to the program and the relevancy of those benefits. Readers also look for leadership potential, as well as maturity, independence, professionalism and the other attributes that were mentioned in Chapter 2.
4. Third-party assessment
Once the reader has a picture of your profile, experience and intentions, she will turn to the judgements others have made about you – the letters of reference and the interview report, if available. She will look for independent corroboration of the professional merits you claim and of the judgements she has made while reading the file. If the referees do not endorse your potential and unequivocally support your candidacy, then you will be in trouble. If significant and credible people stand up for you, and if their assessment chimes with your application message and the reader’s own positive impres- sion of you, your application will go forward.
5. The committee meeting
If the application fails at the reading stage, it is cut. There may be cases where a number of people read the file, are unsure, and then a senior admissions officer looks at the file and decides to reject it. Files that make it past these hurdles move forward to the committee stage. (Some schools interview only at this point.) The committee, which includes a quorum of admissions staff, some- times including faculty representation, will usually review each case again in full, plus the interview report, and decide whether to make an offer, waitlist or reject. Different committees each have their own preferred method: a common one is to get the chief reader proposing the candidate (the ‘sponsor’ or ‘cham- pion’) to go through the candidate’s profile and to explain its merits and drawbacks. The others will then agree or not, and a group decision will be made.
40 STRATEGY FOR THE ADMISSIONS PROCESS