Why early preparation of your MBA application can be beneficial for you?

Round 1 of MBA application deadlines is in September 2021 which means there is still enough time for aspirants to start preparing their MBA applications. But postponing it is not a solution. Remember, the early bird catches the worm. Similarly, in the case of MBA application, the candidates who start their preparation early have a significant advantage over those who don’t.

Why starting early can be beneficial for you?

There are various advantages of starting your MBA application preparation early, like:

High level of competition

The competition for MBA programs at top universities is tough and even the best candidates miss out on securing a seat in these B-Schools. And now because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the competition has increased even more because many candidates have deferred their admissions as the international borders were closed to prevent the spread of the virus. Even an ideal candidate with a good GMAT score, decent grades, and job experience at a top consulting or finance firm may not surely get a seat in schools such as Harvard, Stanford, INSEAD, Northwestern University, etc. The reason being that there will be many such candidates applying for admission to these schools with excellent academic and professional records. Therefore, even subtle differences in the quality of your MBA application can play an important role and give you the necessary edge over other candidates.

The entire process is time taking

The candidates should start preparing their MBA application as soon as possible because the entire process takes a lot of time. There are numerous tasks that a candidate needs to do in this duration including studying for GMAT which in itself demands proper time. Apart from this, certain other side tasks that need to be done are extensively researching your career goals, meeting the alumni, students, and staff at your target MBA program, participating in extracurricular activities, contacting your recommender, and building a good relationship with them in order to get decent recommendations. All this needs to be done even before starting your first essay.

Since most of the MBA applicants targeting the top B-Schools also have their own professional commitments with jobs that are time demanding and have strict deadlines, it is much better to start the MBA application pre[aration process early because then they can work on it in detail.

Commonly covered topics in MBA application

The MBA application essay questions won’t be released until May or June 2021 but still, there are certain commonly asked topics in MBA application for which the candidates can start preparing such as:

Your personal story

There will surely be essays, the purpose of which would be to know more about your personal identity, certain personal experiences apart from the ones you had in your professional career that shaped you into who you are today. Candidates are advised to mention any experience that was transforming for them or anything that makes them unique in the part of a personal MBA statement, for instance, Fuqua’s 25 things, Kellogg’s “Values” etc.

Your practical career goals

The essays on your career goals and how the MBA program that you are applying for can help you in achieving them are common in almost all top B-Schools. These require extensive research not only on your goal but also on what the MBA program is offering and then combining the two to articulate your essay.

What can you give back to the institute?

This is also a very important aspect that is asked when applying to a top MBA program because they want to know that as a student and a future alum what contributions can you do and how they can play a role in improvising the program.

Apart from starting early preparation for the essays, candidates can also start working early on a lot of other things such as:

GMAT

The GMAT is not an easy test and requires planned preparation based on what score you are targeting. In many cases, students take multiple attempts to get the score that can help them in getting an inch closer to their target MBA program. So starting early preparation for it can be extremely beneficial for you because the GMAT score is equally important as the essays that you will write.

B-School networking and research

The importance of networking in your targeted B-School is undeniable because interacting with students, alums, and staff of the B-School will give you a much better idea of the culture there, how they are unique. If you will have sufficient time in hand you can even plan visits to those B-Schools and get a better understanding of their MBA program. It will also help you while writing the essays.

Develop extracurriculars

When you have enough time, you also get the liberty to work on your extracurriculars, if they do not seem up to the mark to you. You can pursue any activity of your interest. The same work if done just sometime before the deadlines can affect your chances of getting selected as it may seem that you have developed them just for the sake of adding it to your resume.

Start early! There is no better benefit than to start with a team that really understands the process early on. It will give you time to adjust your schedule and approach.

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