So, you think a 700+ GMAT is all you need to get into a great business school? Oh, do you have a long, hard road ahead of you. Avoid some speed bumps by following these 10 tips for MBA admissions:

1. On extracurriculars
Extracurriculars are everything you do outside of your job responsibilities, from mentoring a kid to joining your company’s peer-review committee. Extracurriculars should not be a “box” you check off, but an expression of your passions and proof that you act on them as a leader. You don’t even have to leave your desk: One of my candidates pushed uphill to get his finance company to go green by switching to recyclable break-room supplies. Another swamped young candidate rallied all his cousins in the tri-state area to take time out at regular intervals to cook for their sickly grandfather, read to him, and take him to the doctor. Motivating your family? That takes real leadership.

2. On timing
Start boosting your extracurriculars now. Don’t wait until you’ve gotten that GMAT score you need or that project at work is finished. And don’t fall for that oldest excuse, “It’s too late to start now; they’ll know I did it for my MBA app.” As Peter Johnson, Director of Admissions at Berkeley’s MBA program told us, “better late than never.”

3. On recommendations
As Dawna Clarke, Director of Admissions at Tuck, says, “The best recommendations … are the ones that bring your candidacy to life.” This means you need to ask your recommender to provide specific examples to back up her assertions rather than give vague lofty praise. Otherwise the rec may as well be a letter from Mom … praise everyone would take with a grain of salt.

4. On essays in general
No matter what an essay’s topic is, it has to be about you. If they ask what club, activity, or organization you would you start, the essay should not be about the activity, it should be about your approach to that activity, club, or organization, what you’ve done to make it different, and why it is so important to you. It requires a bit of entrepreneurial thinking. How do you go about doing something?

5. On the “career goals” essay
Your goals are the central theme of your candidacy, and until you know what they are, you cannot possibly know why you and the program(s) you are applying to are a fit. Two things: be specific, and make sure it’s about something greater than yourself. For example, it’s not enough to say “I want to be in private equity.” That’s just all about you. Why is private equity the right vehicle for what you want to accomplish? What type of private equity? Once you can answer those questions, you can describe why a certain MBA program is the right fit for you.


6. On leadership
Leadership is the key that opens the door to every great business school. Leaders take on what functionaries just moan about. On the job, they rally co-workers to meet that ridiculous deadline. In their off time, they don’t just write checks, they actually organize a fundraiser. And on a Saturday night, these are the ones who gather their friends together to get their butts across the bridge and through the Tunnel to party at Guesthouse (well, real leaders get them there on a Monday).

7. On the leadership essay
Once you identify how you really lead in your life, write about that—your story doesn’t have to take place in an office. In fact, the dirty little secret is that the best leadership essays often come from outside the workplace. You’re fairly young—no one expects that you will have led a leveraged buyout or an IPO. However, if you took our advice on extracurriculars - you started something, changed something, or formalized something as in a leadership role (whether you have a leadership title or not) - write about that.

8. On interviewing
Be open. Be honest. Be charming. Be prepared to discuss a weakness or failure, and how you’ve turned it around since you made that mistake, not how you saved the day. Occasionally, an interview may seem really antagonistic and aggressive. Be prepared for it. It’s a test to see if you can hack the pressure. Push back. And about that business old suit? Donate it to The Red Cross, and get yourself a nice one. This is the rest of your life. Dress for it.

9. On optional essays
Don’t make an admissions officer do extra work. You better have a really good reason to inundate them with another essay. Unless there’s a really specific reason, don’t write an optional essay because you’re burning to tell them one more thing (particularly an explanation of a low GPA or GMAT).

10. On getting waitlisted
Got waitlisted? That means you’re a serious player. In fact, you may be too good. Like that guy or gal on J-Date, whom no one makes an offer to for fear of being refused (i.e. they either weren’t convinced you’d actually say “yes” if accepted).  Or maybe they’ve already accepted three Round 1 candidates with profiles achingly similar to yours. What to do? Reiterate your commitment in a letter. Visit the school. And if your GMAT was low, retake it and submit the new score. Lastly, remember, even if you don’t get accepted, this will make you an even stronger, more memorable candidate should you decide to reapply next year.

By Evan Forster & David Thomas
Forster-Thomas, Inc.
For more insight into MBA Admissions, check out: http://www.thembarealitycheck.com/