It is difficult, but definitely possible. The key will be remaining mindful of the non-essay portions of the application (often overlooked by both other consulting firms and anyone applying on their own).

1) Transcripts:

For most MBA programs, you can just upload official copies of your transcripts. You won’t need the originals physically sent to the schools until after you are accepted. That’s simple enough. The part that surprises candidates is that you also usually have to upload the official transcripts from any study abroad programs, even if those courses and grades appear on your primary university transcript. With schools closing for the holidays, you should contact them immediately or get the transcripts as soon as the schools reopen.

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COVID-19 has disrupted essentially every aspect of our lives, so it is inevitable that your MBA studies or application process will be affected as well. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, people are posting their “Goodbye Harvard/GSB/etc.” photos much earlier this year. Online classes are to be expected in the immediate future and graduations canceled. That’s extremely disappointing for people who have worked so hard to reach this amazing milestone. The good news is that they WILL graduate and will get all their coursework in. Their educations will be slightly different, but not diminished. Only the celebration is truly impacted. And most of our clients are taking it quite well, focusing on the positive of an amazing 2 years and amazing career ahead.

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We always recommend not to do so. First, if schools want to offer you money, they will (more on that later). From a strategy perspective, if you ask for money, you’re requesting two things: 1) Let me in, and 2) Give me money. Since getting in is hard enough, it’s best not to ask for the second thing. Yes, they say it will have no impact on your admissions chances. But what they say, and what is reality, don’t always align. And it’s totally reasonable that if they consider you to be exactly equal to an applicant who doesn’t need money, they will choose the “free” option.

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Well that would depend. How fluent are you? Because the answer to the second question is a pretty good answer to the first.

Obviously, your essay should be well written. It should not sound like your Line messages, or even your AWA essay. An admissions essay you spend 6 months working on should clearly be better than one you wrote under timed test conditions. But it should not sound like the queen of England wrote it, which is what a lot of people try for – consultants included.

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Big difference. Plus, there’s substantial variation within those categories as well. Let’s go through them from top to bottom. First, there’s ad com (Harvard, Wharton, Sloan, etc.), alum (Stanford, Kellogg, Booth, Haas, etc.), professor (Oxford), or current student (UCLA, Yale if you do Skype). I won’t list every school here. But they tend to be consistent.

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I missed Round 1 for MBA. Are my chances as high for Round 2?

Absolutely (with a couple of exceptions). But most top programs are now splitting their intake evenly between Round 1 and Round 2. So the old saying “they run out of spots” simply isn’t true anymore (except for Columbia, which is rolling). CBS also has a binding decision (as does Duke) that gives an advantage to those who apply early and are willing to commit. But for every other major program, Round 2 (or R3 for UK programs) is a perfectly reasonable time to apply. Admittedly, while intake and acceptance rate don’t directly equate, for the most part, you can apply in January and have an equally high chance of getting in. That being said, you will want to make the most of your additional time. 

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