GETTING into business school is not a reward for past achievement. You will be admitted because your future looks bright.

The schools look for your potential by assessing attributes in four broad categories: academic; professional; interpersonal; and personal. The key to a good application is to show enough of the necessary attributes across all four dimensions. This will give your profile the required balance.

At the same time as looking at each candidate individually and choosing the best, the committee is required to balance the class, in terms of professional backgrounds, cultures, nationalities, ages, interests, skills and career aspirations — so, they want everything from oil engineers to dance choreographers, with no one profile type over-represented.

To achieve class diversity, schools limit the number of candidates in the oversubscribed categories. The most common professional profiles are usually banking, consulting, IT and engineering. There are also usually more men than women, making it harder on average for men to get in. Given this state of affairs, your strategy is to define yourself, as far as possible, into categories that are less competitive.

When a school has more good candidates than places the admission committee will also have the luxury of selecting those whose profile, contribution and aspirations match the educational offerings and culture of the school.

To show this fit you have to understand the school’s market positioning. Understanding what a school is really about requires a bit of scepticism and some hard-nosed investigation: look at press releases quoting new initiatives, see what type and level of faculty are being hired and fired, what conferences are being held on campus and co-sponsored by the school.

You greatly increase your chances if you apply to programmes with which your profile fits naturally. It’s almost impossible to falsify a fit so don’t bother trying. Instead start with yourself, carefully analyse your own motivations, needs, desires and preferences for getting an MBA and work out clearly what you want from the school you go to. Then search for the right place.


Precis from MBA Admissions Strategy, by A. V. Gordon (£13.99)

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