MBA Application Components
In general, every business school will request the following information in its application:
Data sheets (for your academic, professional, and personal information).
Data sheets are pretty consistent from one application to the next. Each application’s data sheets will typically ask for: Education background. Basic biographical information. Employment history. Extracurricular activities. Awards. Achievements. Contact information.
Transcript:
Give yourself plenty of time to receive your transcript(s) from your school(s). It can take anywhere from one week to a month to get a transcript back from a school (some offer rush processing), and you usually need to have a transcript sent back to you in order to be able to send it off to your target business school. Start sending out requests as far in advance as possible. Some business schools require your college’s registrar to not only sign a transcript but also to fill out a form, while others ask for course descriptions to accompany a transcript.
TOEFL Score: (for international applicants only).
If the GMAT is the mountain that applicants must conquer before receiving admittance into a b-school program, then the TOEFL is generally considered little more than a speed bump. That’s not to say that the TOEFL is wholly insignificant, but an applicant who performs well on the verbal section of the GMAT shouldn’t have any problems with the TOEFL. As the title would suggest, the TOEFL’s function is to measure the English proficiency of people whose native language is not English.
You will receive a separate score for each of the four sections and a total score that represents your performance on the Listening, Structure, and Reading sections. Individual scores for each of these three sections range from 0 to 30, while total scores range from 0 to 300.
GMAT score :
GMAT® stands for the Graduate Management Admission Test and CAT stands for Computer Adaptive Test. Originally, the GMAT® was a paper and pen test, but since 1997, it has been taken in its current CAT format at a computer screen. The test is currently administered by ETS, Educational Testing Services, based in Princeton, New Jersey in the United States, but this could change, with a different administrating body taking over. You can find invaluable information about the GMAT® and register to take the test at http://www.gmat.org.
The stated purpose of the GMAT® is to predict how well you will do in the first year of business school. It attempts to do this by investigating your ability to answer multiple-choice questions in algebra, geometry and arithmetic, the conventions of written English, the comprehension of complex passages and analysis of complex argument. You are also expected to write two essays.
Over half of the institutions worldwide that offer graduate business programs are reported to require a GMAT® score from applicants, especially for a place on the fulltime courses. The test will currently cost about $250. In addition to this, you will have to fund the cost of travel to a test center. There is no reduced fee or waiver for low-income candidates. For many schools you need a good GMAT® score.
Competition for places at the more prestigious business schools is fierce. These are the schools that tend to require you to take the GMAT®, and a high GMAT® score is essential if you are to secure a place in one of these institutions. The score range for the GMAT® is 200–800, but ETS reports that scores above 750 and below 250 are rare. Two-thirds of all candidates score between 400 and 600. The students at a good school will have an average score of over 600. The students at Harvard in 2007 had an average score of 710, around the top 10 percent of all scores. To gain a place at the majority of popular schools you need to be able to score better than two-thirds of all candidates. Then you can be sure that your GMAT® score will support your application.
These averages are based on a very broad range. Some people will get into the school of their choice with lower scores than others. There will not be a minimum GMAT® score that you will have to achieve. The GMAT® is only one of the assessments used to decide if an applicant is to be offered a place.
Interview :
Today, the interview is required or encouraged at many top MBA programs.Michigan and Wharton claim to have interviewed over 90 percent of their entire 2000 applicant pools, and a growing number of schools, including NYU, Chicago, Harvard, and MIT, say that most of the applicants who ended up being accepted did have an interview.
Essays :
In your essays, you hopefully will do a good job of explaining your goals and why business school makes sense for you; now it is just a matter of verbalizing these reasons. Your essays should be the base upon which all other application components are built. You can think of your essays as a platform that can be used to tell your personal and professional story. You have flexibility in terms of tone, so feel free to utilize a professional, informal, or humorous voice in establishing your story.
Recommendations :
Most schools require two to three recommendations, usually from folks whose experience with you has been professional. Approaching a professor who knows you well is also appropriate. Most schools ask for two or three recommendations, with a few asking for just one.
Resume:
Resume summarizes your background into one page. This allows the admissions committee to get a high-level understanding of where you’re coming from and what you’ve accomplished. Secondly, your resume will often be the only reference point that your admissions interviewer has on you. For those two reasons, it’s important that you prepare a resume that reflects your story from both a background and a career goals standpoint.