Tips for Applying to Top Business Schools source : www.businesinsider.in
About 1 in 10 applicants was accepted last year at the Harvard Business School, the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Wharton, all of them are the top ranked Business Schools in the world. What really distinguishes that one candidate who was accepted from the rest? Can we get sureshot ways of knowing the parameter used in judging candidates during interviews? Maybe not. But we can definitely get closer to perfection if we get an insider’s perspective, basically get to know about the kind of people who study at, let’s say, HBS, their qualities, their background and their personality. So we collated answers from the posts of several Quora users and spoke to some of them, all of whom also happen to be studying or are graduates of HBS, and produced a list of what could help you get into the world’s top B-school.
Here are some key points: Apply by your mid 20’s HBS students are actually younger than the students at the other Top 10 MBA colleges. Richard Ludlow, who started studying at HBS early last year says: “Bulk of students are 24-26 years old and 3-4 years out of school. The sweet spot for applying is when you have around 3 years of experience after graduating. Consulting is the clearest path here McKinsey Business Analysts have a 92% success rate in getting into HBS and Stanford GSB. Richard wrote in his Quora post: “People will tell you that consultants are a dime a dozen and you’re much better off doing something more interesting, but the fact of the matter is 1 in 4 students in the entering class had worked at McKinsey, Bain or BCG.” Write that essay with a lot of love Ben Schumacher, another HBS graduate, keeps it short and simple – Love your essays. “Each essay needs to be a gem that unfolds a new layer about you, further differentiating you from the crowd. Also, if you’re from a traditional background, lean more towards writing about activities outside of work than you initially think.”
