Strategies for Applying to Graduate School in Uncertain Times

As I suggested in an earlier blog post, "when you are facing a situation of great unpredictability have multiple winning strategies."  Critical to having an effective strategy for graduate application during these times of great uncertainty is to understand what facts to actually focus on.  While I am concerned with the evolving policies of graduate programs, such as the variable deferment policies coming out of MBA programs (See this excellent P&Q article on that), because it directly impacts my clients who were admitted to programs that commence this year, I am now focused on 2021 admission.  While schools' policies matter, I think a real strategy needs to be formulated based on  the underlying big picture of a global pandemic without a clear solution, the suspension of visa issuance, and massive economic/political/social disruption. The big picture is grim but to think opportunistically requires confronting this reality in order to survive and thrive in it. It means abandoning any assumptions based on a world that ceased to exist a few months ago. 

THE SCHOOLS REALLY DON'T KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN IN THE FALL AND CERTAINLY NOT NEXT YEAR
While keeping abreast of individual policies at top US and International MBA programs is certainly critical and something that P&Q covers rather extensively (As does Inside Higher Ed and the Chronicle for mostly US higher education overall), I want to focus on issues that are much bigger than what policy this or that program focuses on.  The reason is very simple: I don't think we can should consider what an admissions director, dean of a business school, or even president of a university says at the moment to be a particularly good indicator of what they will be saying  in the future.  The situation is too unstable to assume that the stated policies of any program on May 8, 2020 will be the same in a few weeks or months.  Not a single campus-based program can tell students what fall 2020 will be yet.  They are trying to create policies in the light of externalities of public health and visa policies that they have absolutely no control over.  One short article I suggest taking a look at, lays out 15 different scenarios for what fall 2020 might look like at US universities (applicable, no doubt with modification, worldwide).  All of these scenarios reflect the great uncertainty of what will actually happen with Covid-19 in the coming months. It is certainly safe to assume that whatever the new normal for campus life in fall 2020 will be, it is likely change over the course of the coming days, weeks, months, and possibly years. 

STRATEGIC TAKEAWAY 1:  Do not make your plans solely based on what admissions officers or anyone else at a school tells you.  The authorities at any educational institution can be operating in complete good faith, but whatever they say should not be assumed to be tomorrow's reality. They don't have control over the situation but will be altering their policies as they are required to.  As I have written elsewhere create as much optionality for yourself as possible because you cannot assume what was solid and certain today will be that way tomorrow.


2. COVID-19 IS A PROBLEM WITHOUT AN IMMEDIATE SOLUTION BUT WITH CLEAR MITIGATION STRATEGIES
Given that the Coronavirus itself is the primary actor in this situation, it would be wonderful if we could make decisions based on it, not only for admissions strategies but everything else as well.  However, public health experts can only provide  scenarios of how this pandemic may play itself out. For example, CIDRAP's analysis, which is based on comparing COVID-19 to influenza pandemics, lays out three scenarios for how the virus might act between now and 2022.  Their second scenario, which assumes that Covid-19 will actually peak in fall 2020, is particularly bleak and it is the one they recommend planning for. If so, we can assume that just as lockdown measures will have been relaxed in May/June and a new normal will have been established in the summer, we will be back in lockdown in the fall because Covid-19 will be at its devastating peak. In such a scenario, schools that opened their campuses will most likely be shutting them down and just operating online.

We currently have no vaccine or even can assume that herd immunity will work (See here, here, and here). Therefore any application strategy should take account of the fact that the underlying medical cause of this crisis and the means for effectively mitigating it currently consist of testing, lockdowns and social distancing. This a grim scenario but even in that situation, universities can still fulfill the primary function of teaching courses via online instruction and can still grant degrees. For some students that will be enough. Others with expectations related to factors like experiential learning, networking, job placement, and international experience may find that the programs cannot deliver on previously reasonable expectations. Campus life might be non-existent or only a glimmer of itself in 2020, 2021, and even into 2022 but almost any university can fulfill its most basic educational tasks that result in awarding a degree.

STRATEGIC TAKEAWAY 2: Assume the educational experience at any previously campus-based program will be compromised throughout 2020 and at least into 2021 because of the need for COVID-19 mitigation strategies.  How much compromise this might involve is not clear. How long this will last is not clear either.  Therefore build expectations about what you can get out of the degree based on what the worst case scenario  and  hope that you can more than that.


3. INTERNATIONAL VISA ISSUANCE IS SUSPENDED 
For anyone who planned to study abroad in 2020, if they don't have a student visa already and a means of getting to the country which they intend/ed to study in, it is totally unclear when they would be able to get a visa. At the time I am writing this this, the US (See here), France (see here),  Spain (See here) and  UK (see here) have all completely suspended visa issuance.  Only the Swiss, even mention a date, June 15th, for possibly commencing issuing visas again. With the possible exception of Singapore (This would involve a legally binding 14-day quarantine), not a single country that my clients regularly move to to study in is currently issuing visas.

I work mostly with applicants applying to study in other countries.  While some of my clients are US citizens or residents applying to programs in the US, Europeans applying to programs in the EU, UK citizens or residents applying to programs in the UK, etc., most intend to study overseas.  Many international applicants who were admitted for fall 2020 don't have student visas yet.  Unless this situation changes soon their attendance will be cancelled, delayed, deferred, and/or conducted solely online.  In this sense, their situation is actually clear because schools are increasingly providing 2020 admits with clarity about what their options are. However, at this point, we don't know what 2021 will look like. I hope it is a return to normal but we can't count on that.

IMPACT ON MBA PROGRAMS:  Top MBA programs, the kind most of my clients attend, are anywhere from around 30% (Top 10 US schools)  to 97% (INSEAD) international. This P&Q article provides all the data.  These MBA programs have never had to deal with something that so fundamentally undermines their business model.  Even the financial crisis of 2008 was minor by comparison because while it impacted outcomes for some graduates, it did not undermine a large percentage of admits to purchase what was on offer: Get a visa, travel to the school, and experience the program on campus.  Our current situation is completely different. The obvious impact is on international students wanting to get academic and possibly work experience in another country that they cannot, at present, travel to.  The other impact is on all students who anticipated being in a diverse program and having international educational options in terms of exchange programs and global experiential learning, which will be curtailed, made virtual and/or suspended.

STRATEGIC TAKEAWAY 3: For anyone primarily focused on 2021 admission to MBA and other graduate programs outside your home country,  I recommend you select schools in the following ways:

• The traditional way is three-fold based on perceived  difficulty of admission: Reach/Dream, Good Chance, Safety.  For more about my portfolio of risk approach, see here for an old post that is still conceptually valid.
• If applicable, beyond risk above, split programs into two categories:  (1) Programs you would attend even if is offered on a distance or otherwise altered basis and (2) Programs you would attend only if they are on-campus and offered with the full expected experience.  Example for an applicant focused on US Top 10:  You are willing to go to Booth (Good chance program), HBS, Wharton and Stanford (dream schools) not matter how those programs are delivered but would only attend Kellogg or Tuck (good chance) and Ross (safety) if those programs were offered on-campus.
• If possible, consider applying to schools in more than one country to further mitigate the visa issue as well as to account for differences of how functional campus life might be. It might be the case that you can attend INSEAD's Singapore campus in person because you can get a visa and travel there and they have Covid-19 under control, but cannot get a visa or have a very compromised experience if you attend a program in the US.  While I cannot predict the future, my assumption is that the chances for Switzerland (IMD), France (INSEAD, HEC), UK (LBS, Oxford, Cambridge), and/or Spain (IESE) to open before the US are significant.  It might also be worth looking into U. of Toronto Rotman (or other Canadian schools) if  Canada opens before the US. Anyone primarily considering a Masters or PhD in the US, should certainly look at programs in the UK.
•  Even if you are primarily focused on international programs, consider whether any domestic ones offer a viable option.  Examples: For Indian applicants not primarily focused on getting international experience during their MBA and without a primary focus on working in Europe/US after graduating, I would also recommend looking closely at ISB as it might offer a much better risk/return profile under the current circumstances than attending an overseas MBA program. I think Chinese and China-based applicants should consider CEIBS as well as other local options. Anyone in Singapore should consider INSEAD. EU citizens and residents might find it better to stay in the EU than to study in the US.
• Consider distance-based or executive programs. Given the current circumstances, closely assess whether this represents a viable option for you. It might not, but it is at least worth looking into.

4. THIS IS A WORLD HISTORICAL CRISIS
This blog is not the place to discuss such an issue in detail, but the level of total economic, social, and political dislocation that is happening right now seems likely to get much more intense and is something we cannot ignore. Normally, even a recession or localized national problems (Example: A currency crisis or political instability), don't really impact everyone on the planet with respect to graduate school applications or making any other kind of major life decision. Now suddenly it does.  Nothing of this scale of negative disruption has occurred globally since World War Two.  Hopefully it will be short lived but we cannot assume that. If things begin bouncing to normal in terms of economics and government policies then this will indeed be short lived and things will quickly go back to some kind of new normal.  The inherent resistance to systemic change will assert itself and people will want their lives back to normal as quickly as possible.  However,  we cannot assume that Covid-19 and governmental, economic, and social response to it will enable such a return to normal in 2020, 2021, or possibly even 2022.   Therefore it is critical to have strategies for application that account for this:

STRATEGIC TAKEAWAY 4:  Consider your timing. Right now when I conduct initial consultations for prospective clients interested in working with me, I ask them in detail why they want to apply for 2021. I have always asked about why a potential client wants to apply but did not always emphasize the "right now" aspect of the question.  If I took a short-term perspective I would never ask this question because it might undermine someone from buying my services immediately.  However my business is based on helping my clients get into school and then getting referrals from them. Therefore, beyond any ethical considerations, I take a long-term perspective and frequently suggest that waiting one or more years to apply is a perfectly valid strategy when appropriate.  Each person has their own timing for doing things.  The point is make sure that you are not rushing into something because everyone does it this way or had been doing it this way when the situation has changed radically.  Just be aware of your timing.  Ask yourself: Why now?  Why not next year?  If I don't apply now, what will I do instead? What is the cost to applying now instead of applying later?  

STRATEGIC TAKEAWAY 5: Thrive.  Beyond considerations of timing, think about thriving, not just surviving.  Survival is a minimally necessary condition but it is insufficient if one is ambitious. I assume my readers and clients are ambitious.  Hence, whatever you do, whether it is applying for graduate school in  2021 or whenever or never, have a strategy for thriving.  Whatever your constraints, focus on something that will help you thrive. Focus your time and energy on graduate school applications, your career, hobbies, intellectual pursuits, physical fitness, volunteer activities, personal relationships, starting a business, etc.  There is no one way to succeed.  Overcoming constraints imposed by world historical crisis is not something new for humans, just something new for us. Act with sufficient awareness, flexibility, and focus to thrive.  You may ask what that has to do with graduate school application and my answer is simple: Thriving shows growth and growth will get you admitted.  

Finally, I wrote this blog post between May 7th and 8th, 2020 and hope that in the coming months I will look back upon it as outdated and too pessimistic.

The Worst of Times Creates New Options: Applying for MBA and Other Graduate Programs Now

The Coronavirus pandemic  is a pure example of a  VUCA (Volatility Uncertainty Complexity Ambiguity) situation. To get my head around how it would impact MBA students and applicants, I engaged  in some scenario analysis and as the situation develops, so is my thinking. In this post I give some initial suggestions for how to think about making application to MBA and other graduate programs in a VUCA world.

Considering to apply right now is about making a career and education decision in world that has suddenly become much more volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. 
Volatile: For anyone considering the time and money required for a full-time MBA or other graduate program, whether in their home country or overseas, the current situation is extremely volatile in terms of both the pandemic itself and its effects on economy and society.
Uncertainty: It is certainly uncertain because we really have no clear idea how bad things will go for ourselves, our loved ones, our country, and our world.  It is also uncertain because we have no clear sense of how long this will last and what the aftereffects will be.  We can develop scenarios (like I did) to get some kind of perspective on this but these are just possible stories and knowing which scenario to act on is no easy thing.
Complex: It is complex because one needs to consider a greater number of options and outcomes based on either applying now, applying later, or not applying. Will it easier to get in to programs for 2021? If so, will Coronavirus be handled by then?  Should an applicant focus on GMAT, GRE, and/or TOEFL prep now or wait to see how how things shake out? Maybe it is better to wait until 2022? Alternatively for those considering applying to schools in their home country, is it better to apply for entry in 2020 because so much uncertainty is resulting in schools extending deadlines.  For example, for US citizens and residents, there is a good argument to apply right now for fall 2020 entry to MBA programs  if you don't primarily care about scholarships and prioritize getting the degree over the experience if programs stay distance-based in the fall (or even longer).
Ambiguous: It is ambiguous because both  the learning model and the outcome become much less certain. In terms of the learning model, for MBA programs that would be an experiential, group based learning experience with a diverse set of classmates in an intensive community.  This spring is already been totally disrupted into a much more limited distance based model. We cannot be certain that programs will return to normal by the fall. In terms of outcomes, the assumption for MBA and other types of professional graduate programs is that doing the program is a direct gateway to internships and employment but this becomes much less certain for all students if the world economy goes into a deep recession.  There are clear enough signs that the outcome is also in peril as employers are rescinding job and internship offers. For applicants with partners and applicants whose families will be providing financial support, the ambiguity of the return on investment for doing a graduate degree becomes much greater if they factor in what those in the classes of 2020 and 2021 are currently experiencing.  For those who are admitted for fall 2020 and those considering 2021, the question is will things recover fast enough that an MBA from a top school leads to the expected post-degree employment outcomes or does doing such a degree now result in loss of income and assets at the worst possible time?  It is, after all, one thing to graduate during a recovery and another to graduate during a prolonged recession.

How do we react to a VUCA situation?
It is my contention that we can react to such VUCA situations by panic, paralysis, or thoughtful action.

Panic is thoughtless action and results in, at best, lucky outcomes based on bad decision making. As someone who has experienced panic in the past (for example, panic about catching airplane flights), I know that my panic did not help me in the least and sometimes cost me (very expensive taxi rides to make an alternative flight and looking like an idiot). My panic started to go away when I began really thinking about what the worst case scenario was and started to create space for non-reactive thinking.  Attending a masters program in clinical and organizational psychology at INSEAD helped and so did doing mindfulness training. The more I have been able to get away from panic, the better the decisions I have made. I don't think I am unique. I fully expect some admits to graduate programs that commence in fall 2020 are experiencing panic. International students in the US are worried about their visa status.  International student admits for fall 2020 will be worried or already starting to worry about getting visas,  Those graduating in 2020 are worrying about jobs, those others are worried about internships. Those who planned to apply for 2021 admission are worried about everything happening in their daily lives and suddenly planning for the future takes a back seat.   Suddenly ones core life plans seems to be potentially falling apart.  This is an awful thing but also a moment for deeper consideration.

Paralysis only works if the most beneficial course of action is doing nothing and the situation returns to the status quo. There are certainly times when taking no action is actually best. There is a good argument for holding an investment in bad times and taking no action at all if one is playing a long-term game, however that is decision based on a strategy. Paralysis is about being unable to do any thinking about the future but to be so filled with doubt, anxiety, and fear that thinking can't occur. However decisions about your career or educational plans over the short to medium term will require action at a certain point. Hence active thinking and planning are critical.

Thoughtful action when we combine date gathering, deliberation, and reflection with the ability to make a decision. It means being able to create a space to think through an idea, have back-up plans, and remain mentally flexible.  Especially when VUCA is high you need to be able to think well, think often, and change your plans as the situation changes. Therefore, give yourself options: Focus on what Nicolas Nassim Taleb calls optionality from his now increasingly prophetic Antifragile.  A great explanation of the idea can be found here where its author, Taylor Pearson ,summarizes optionality as follows:
At the most basic level, optionality just means having lots of options.
If you develop a skill with many possible job opportunities, you have more optionality than someone who develops a skill that only has one or two job opportunities.
The advantage of optionality is that as the world grows increasingly difficult to predict, you can thrive in spite of not knowing the future.
You simply see what happens and exercise whichever option turns out to be most advantageous.
In other words, when you are facing a situation of great unpredictability have multiple winning strategies. Let's consider what that might be for fall 2020 admits and 2021 applicants.
First, now is stupid time for applying to or attending safety schools.  In uncertain times, the rush to safety seems rational, but going to school that will not give you the expected ROI that you want is not a safe decision, it is a stupid one.  Also the market has shifted from a seller's (school) to buyer's (applicant) market.  What is safety for one candidate is not for another. For  some people, nothing outside of HBS/Stanford/Wharton will make sense while for someone else it might be a top 20 school. Unless you simply must do an MBA, I would make the case that applicants right now for  3rd/4th round fall 2020 and for 2021 should only apply to what ever they would consider to be top schools.  Since the job market and internship opportunities might be limited go with a school less likely to be negatively impacted and with long-term brand value.  If you are going to take 10-24 months out of employment right now and probably go into debt and/or use your own or your family's assets, make the best possible investment you can.  That means if you are fall 2020 admit and don't really like where you have been admitted, wait to see if you can defer and apply to what you consider to be better programs for fall 2021.  To quote myself from a recent article in Poets and Quants: “For a long time, MBA admissions at top programs has been a seller’s (adcom) market but right now it is surely a buyer’s (applicants) market.  Applying now and for fall 2021 will be an immense buying opportunity for anyone who can flexible about what their MBA program will consist of.”

If you are admitted for fall 2020, don't quit your job until you have absolute certainty that you can start in the fall. If you are going to be an international student and dependent on a US, European, Singaporean, etc visa that has yet to be issued, don't quit your job for sure.  If the school gives you a distance option for the fall you may wish to take it while still working. If the school only offers deferral or if you prefer deferral, be in a position to work for the next year.  This gives you at least two winning options. If you want more, see below under "non-degree alternatives."

If you are planning to apply for 2021, I recommend you operate under the assumption that if you apply and are admitted, you may not attend anyway.  The reason for this is that will help to keep you focused on the bigger picture of your non-applicant life. Whether that is focusing on work, volunteer activities, or relationships, don't over-invest in the process because that will shut down your other options.  Depending on how much time and/or money one needs to invest into test preparation, learning about programs, and applications, the application process can be just one thing someone does or an all consuming activity.   I would make the argument that this is not the time to make it all consuming but to define how much effort one is willing to put into it.  If a new client asked right now whether it was better to invest extra time into getting a job promotion or into getting a few more points on the GRE or GMAT right now, my answer would be easy: Focus on the promotion because if the world sinks into an extended recession or depression,  you may decide to put off an MBA for a few years.

You want to make a change in your career and life soon and view doing a graduate degree as the way to do that. Well, consider non-degree alternatives for the next 1-2 years:  Yes, I do give advice that seemingly operates contrary to his own short-term economic interest (having clients this year). That is because I take a long-term perspective on what is in my interest. I am interested in helping clients get into top schools and being able to make the best possible case for themselves. Hence someone who learns a new language, learns how to code, passes CFA, starts volunteering, or gets a new job that adds a new dimension to them becomes a better candidate. And better candidates get into schools, say wonderful things about to potential clients, and keep my business going. When I conduct initial consultations, I have frequently told a prospective client that they could apply now or later because I take a long-term perspective.

Finally, I think you should take a long-term perspective too! That means  thinking deeply on what you want out of life and what point you need to reach certain objectives. Society, family, friends, and yourself will tell you what you should do in the future based on what has happened in the past. If our current crisis is a reminder of anything, it is that past practices are not always appropriate for building a successful future.

Some brief pointers for editing MBA and other graduate school application essays

 Chances are extremely high that when you initially write any application essay and even when you have a good working version of it going, it is likely to be over the word count.  If it is not over the word count, especially at the initial stage that itself is actually a problem.  In another blog post, I will explain why writing to the word count initially is a very bad idea.  In this post, I will assume that you have a good working version of your essay, but it is just too long. 

Here are some suggestions for editing statement of purposes, Why MBA and why this school, leadership/teamwork/values questions, and personal statements down to word or page count: 

1. Is there anything in the essay that repeats what is said in the other essays? If so, you can probably cut it out.  For applications that involve multiple essays or essay-like application form content, part of your job is to fully leverage the entire application. Hence don’t repeat information that can be easily found elsewhere unless it is really useful to do so. You may be using the same data points (facts about yourself) or experiences in multiple parts of the application, but you should be doing so to maximize the value of that information, which is rarely achieved through mere repetition.  With each part of the application, figure out what really needs to be communicated there and look at the application as a whole to make decisions about how to divide your experiences effectively.

2. Do you find yourself needing to explain too much context about your background? If so, consider whether any of it can be explained in the application’s optional essay. If that does not solve the word count issue, consider whether the problem is that you are approaching the story from the wrong angle. Often the problem with context heavy essays is that they don’t tell a story from the right starting point.  In general, defining the right starting point and building content into an action-focused narrative can help.  I know this sounds abstract, but looking at the starting-point often helps clients reframe their stories for both great impact and for purposes of word count.

3. Do you find yourself extensively name dropping? “I met with Anand Kumar (Class of 2006), Sally Johnson (Class of 2009), Taro Suzuki (Class of 2010), Anat Weinstein (Class of 2011), Mohammad Efendi (Class of 2012), and Tom Lee (Class of 2013)…” (Note all these names were made up and any relationship to actual people alumni is merely coincidental). If you do, consider cutting or summarizing it. Also, consider whether such lists can be included in an optional essay. Some schools have a place for including who you met with from the school, so it is not necessary to repeat that in the essay.  On the other, if you are writing a Ph.D. or LL.M. statement of purpose and you want to work with Professor Mada Sukram, you should mention him. In other words, name drop only if doing so is key to argument you are making about why you want to attend a particular program.

4. Do a paragraph by paragraph and then a sentence by sentence search for redundancy. When a client asks for my help in cutting words, which is typically for the last draft, I look for redundancy.

5. Now the really hard part. You have a tight text and it is still over the word count. You have cut something “important.” Prioritize your content and eliminate low priority items. Killing good content is never fun, but sometimes is simply necessary.

Happy Editing!

-Adam Markus

I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.

Short, Medium, and Long-term Planning for Graduate Admission

In this post I discuss graduate degree planning. Whether you are applying for admission to programs with a start this year, next year, in a few years, or maybe in five years or more, having a plan in place increases your chances of success.  While I work mostly with MBA applicants (Clear enough from reviewing my client results), this post is equally applicable to those applying for any sort of graduate program. Beyond MBA (and EMBA), since 2001, my clients have been admitted to a full range of graduate degree programs including Masters of Law (Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Columbia, NYU, Chicago, Northwestern, Berkeley), Public Policy (Harvard Kennedy School of Government), International Relations (Columbia, Fletcher & Georgetown), Finance (London Business School, London School of Economics), Economics (University of Chicago), Engineering (Stanford), Computer Science (Stanford),  Environmental Studies (Yale), and Physics ( Harvard and Stanford). While I work primarily those applying for masters degrees, I have also helped clients gain entry to doctoral programs.  This post draws on the full range of my experience as a graduate admissions consultant.

 Planners and Procrastinators
Let’s start at the end of the process for  submitting applications: Are you a Planner or a Procrastinator? When it comes to applying to graduate school, there are those who plan, are organized, and stick to a timetable that does not involve them pulling an “all nighter”  to get an application in and then there are those who do the opposite and create a situation where they are applying at the last moment. I have worked with both types of clients, though thankfully more of the former than the latter.  When I work with someone who is organized and takes the application seriously enough to give it their best shot, my work is a consultant is at its best because my client has time to implement what I suggest, time to review and rewrite, and even put a draft away and come back to it with fresh eyes. Clients who procrastinate, who must submit first or second drafts, and are more worried about having an answer that is decent rather excellent, are missing the opportunity to submit truly excellent applications.  I am  a results based coach and consultant: I only consider it a win if my client gains admission, not just if I get paid for my work.  The last minute types rarely get results that are as good. I can make fast emergency room type suggestions to make an essay viable, but that is not the way I want to work and it is not the kind of essay I want my clients or anyone applying to graduate school to submit. That is one reason  I think planning is important.

If you are someone who does procrastinate, who tends to submit things at the last moment, and who has gotten away with it, feel free to try your luck again. But sooner or later doing stuff at the last minute will backfire. Especially as you get older, your ability to do  all nighters will decline.  I am 47 and I know this.  If you are trying to produce quality deliverables, working in a panic and with little time to edit will work against you.  Consider the application process an opportunity to alter your behavior so that in whatever career you pursue you don’t find yourself repeatedly in situations where you are doing stuff at the last minute and making careless mistakes. And careless mistakes are so common with hastily prepared applications. As someone who works regularly with reapplicants, one of the most common mistakes I find is an application filled with typos and contradictory information. Such mistakes would have been eliminated had the applicant not been working against the clock.

Make Planning Your Friend
A friend is someone who you like and who supports you. Your plan for graduate school should be like that too.  Don’t make a plan that you can’t keep. You know your own schedule and how much free time you will have for the admissions process. While I don’t have data for non-MBA programs, based on the 2013 AIGAC survey, applicants spent a total of 90-140 hours on their applications including test preparation time, not including any time needed for TOEFL or IELTS preparation.  For those applying to non-MBA graduate programs that require multiple essays such as the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, the total hours would probably be somewhere around 75-125 hours (not including TOEFL or IELTS preparation) because interview preparation is not needed.  For applying to graduate programs that only require a statement of purpose and a GRE or GMAT, the time cou ld be significantly less. Of course, this does not include any time for writing samples or portfolios for programs that require it.

English language preparation can be a significant barrier for some international  applicants, while for others taking TOEFL or IELTS is merely a minor inconvenience.  If you need to further develop your English abilities you should really factor this in to the time you will need. English performance can easily delay the application process by months and in some cases by a year or more.

Being realistic about the time you will likely spend on the process is a core part of coming up with a realistic plan.  Especially for those who are applying in the next admissions cycle, a realistic plan is critical.

In the rest of the post, I will outline short, medium, and long term planning.  In subsequent posts, I will elaborate on the topics mentioned here. Eventually I will hyper link different parts of this post with subsequent and previous posts.

Short Term Planning
If you are less than 12 months away from the deadlines for the school(s) that you will apply to, you will need to engage in short term planning.  A good short term plan typically consists of the following elements:
-Reviewing applications to determine what you need to submit (test scores, transcripts, a resume, recommendations, writing samples,  proof of foreign language proficiency , etc.)
-Planning out a schedule for studying for and taking GRE, GMAT, TOEFL, and/or IELTS as needed.
-Determining whether you need an admissions consultant or otherwise who will review your application content.   Even if you don’t have use an admissions consultant and can’t get anyone with knowledge about the program you are applying to to assist you, have at least someone who you can use for proofreading.
-Determine who you will use as your recommenders.
-Investigate and prepare for any scholarships that might be applicable to you.
-Prepare/update your resume/CV
-Figure out which schools you really want to apply to and investigate them throughly.
-Determine why you need to attend the degree program, why particular programs, and what you intend to do with the degree subsequently (future goals).
-Begin drafting essays once the school releases the essay question(s). For graduate programs other than MBA, you most likely need not wait  because such programs don’t often change their essay content.  It always fine to contact an admissions office to ask if they will be changing their essay question(s).
-Create a schedule with set target dates from completing the above.

In addition, ask yourself what you can do in terms of your professional or extracurricular activities to enhance your candidacy.  If you are only a few months or less from the time of application, it might be hard to start something new that is meaningful, but for those with greater time, it is still possible to add something to your profile. In subsequent posts, I will discuss what might be added even in a limited time frame.

Medium Term Planning
If you are 1-2 years years away from the deadlines for the school(s) that you plan to apply to, you can begin the above short term plan to get an early start.  But given your time frame you can do even more than that. You have time to start new activities to build your experience in order to make you a stronger candidate.  Whether it is taking on leadership roles at work or in extracurricular activities (Good for MBA and MPA applicants especially), conducting research on topic related to the field you want to study, enhancing valuable skills (foreign language skills, quantitative skills, skills related to your future academic and/or professional plans), overcoming a prior weakness in your background (like lack of volunteer or community service), if you are 1-2 years away from applying you have much more of an opportunity to really enhance your candidacy.  Changing jobs might be of immense value for some. For others, it might mean be more aggressive about seeking out leadership opportunities on the job or in extracurricular activities. For others, it might be about getting some international experience.  Whatever the gap or whatever way you wish to enhance your candidacy, you have some time to address it

If you are 1-2 years away from applying, it is really good time to take care of any standardized tests (Just keep the period of validity for the test in mind, so that you make sure your score will be valid when you make application) that you might need to take and also to enhance your foreign language skills if that is needed for the programs you will apply to.

You also have plenty of time to engage in detailed research, including school visits and networking with alumni and/or current students. If you are applying to academic programs for a Masters or Ph.D., you should be reading work by faculty you are interested in studying with.

Long Term Planning
If you are 3 or more years away from applying to graduate school, you really are in a position to do all the things mentioned above, but more than that, you really have the potential to build an extensive track record of activity to enhance your credibility as a candidate.  That is to say, you can really make significant changes to yourself. Do you need to enhance your work experience?  Diversify your experience? Gain new skills?  Develop academic expertise?  Produce high quality writing samples or a portfolio(Typically for creative writing and arts degrees)?  You have the time to do it if you make the effort.

Do you have a general sense that you should pursue a graduate degree, but are unclear about what kind of degree you want?  Now is a good time to begin to figure out what you want. Whether it is through career coaching, degree advising, networking, researching about various options, taking courses in different fields of interest, if you are 3 or more years away from applying, engage in some experimentation and open yourself up to a range of possibilities before narrowing down.

Once you  are certain about what kind of degree you want, ask yourself and others what you can do now to make that degree into a reality.  Getting advice early means that you have the bandwidth to ask a great range of people before reaching any final conclusions. Getting advice early also means you are more likely to be able to act on any advice you decide to follow.

Even if you are three or more years aways from application, set some goals for yourself and break them down sufficiently into a series of steps that are realistic to complete. Don’t overwhelm yourself with goals stated so grandly that you will fail, but also don’t underwhelm yourself. If you are not willing to push yourself now, when will you be ready?

Finally, if you are seeking advice on degree planning, I offer personalized coaching for those in college, recent graduates, and anyone else who is considering an MBA or other graduate degree. To learn more about this service, please see here.

-Adam Markus

I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.

Rule #1: Ask the admissions office!

I frequently get questions from my clients that I can't answer. These are usually not questions about essays, recommendation content, interview preparation, what should go in a resume, or  usually even how usually how to fill out an application form. The questions that I can't answer usually involve the specific administrative policies of schools.  Sometimes I can easily find the answer on a school's website, but sometimes the answer can only be obtained from contacting admissions. While some MBA, LL.M., and other graduate programs provide extensive advice on the website, others simply don't.

When it comes to issues of application requirements, deadlines,  whether the stated GMAT, GRE, and/or TOEFL minimums are strictly enforced, whether a school will take a late official test score report, deferral policies, etc.  I may have an answer or may not.  If I do have an answer to such administrative questions, it is always because I can back it up with an official source. I don't even trust my own past experience in many instances because policies change. This is not just to protect myself from being wrong, but because I know I will best serve my clients sometimes by saying, "I don't know the answer to this question, but admissions will be able to provide to you. Please contact them."

One of the most extreme policy changes that I know of occurred when Oxford Said MBA program changed its TOEFL and IELTS requirement policy for admission in 2010.  The prior English requirement was not stringent or necessarily stringently enforced.  Suddenly for admission for fall 2010 and subsequently, applicants had to have the same high TOEFL or IELTS score required for admission to HBS: 109. Keep in mind that the UK's most prestigious and difficult to enter MBA program, London Business School, regularly admits applicants with a 100 TOEFL. As a result, the number of Japanese admitted to Said dropped significantly.  Here in Japan, Oxford had been a popular 2nd choice school for top European MBA focused applicants and a first choice school for some applicants, suddenly became out of reach.  The amount of misinformation  at the time was significant with one of my own clients even refusing to believe that this policy would be enforced because colleagues from his company in past years had always been admitted and because some Japanese admissions counselor told him it would not be a problem, which it was.
His test score was nowhere near the required level and he went elsewhere. Given that university-wide policies change, that admissions directors change, and that the rules of any organization change, past precedent is not always a sufficient guarantee.

When it is possible to ask admissions, I say ask. Like when buying any expensive thing, you should be an informed customer. After all, a graduate degree is likely to be one of the most expensive things you will ever purchase.


Contacting admissions:  I think if your question is relatively simple and not very specific to you, one of the easiest things to do is call the admissions office.   Sometimes they can provide an immediate answer to your question.  It is also fine to just send an email.  With email, I suggest you keep the email short and to the point and state it in the form of questions. Simple, short, polite, and clear communications are best.  If you have a personal and/or complex issue, you should certainly still try to explain it as clearly and simply as possible.  If you feel like you received a response from someone who did not understand, try to follow-up. It is certainly the case that the first person to respond to an inquiry might be the least qualified person in the office, so you may have to work your way up the organizational pyramid.  It is also a perfectly reasonable thing to ask questions at information sessions, either during the Q&A or privately usually at the end of the event.

Frankly, some admissions offices are friendlier than others. Just as some admissions offices will be better managed than others. School ranking does not necessarily correlate well with the quality and kindness of the response you receive, so don't be surprised if the admissions office at a high ranking school has worse customer service than one a lower ranking program.


Some applicants will no doubt worry about their contact with admissions being tracked or having some sort of bearing on applications. Unless one does something rude, this is nothing to worry about. In fact, it can be helpful to have such interactions, especially with smaller and/or friendlier admissions offices.  Depending on the interactions, just as with campus visits and off-campus information sessions, your questions to admissions may even become a small topic discussion in an essay ("I was really impressed with how Ms. Johnson actively explained your program would...").  The more standard the question, the less likely the admissions office will even consider tracking it.  Some programs do even extensive tracking of all potential applicant interaction, while others don't.  Such tracking does not necessarily correlate well with admission results.

Finally, always keep in mind that admissions officers have two primary functions:
1. They are gatekeepers who select applicants for admission.
2. They are marketers and salespeople of their programs who need to try and make sure that they get the best possible applicants to fill up all the seats in their program.
Applicants have a tendency to focus only on the first function and put admissions officers up on some kind of pedestal as judges.  Knock them off them off the pedestal!  To better understand admissions officers, see here (Though this piece is focused on US admissions officers, it applies more widely). Assume that admissions offices are happy to answer all reasonable questions about their policies because this will help to facilitate the potential admission of qualified candidates to their program.

-Adam Markus

I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.

GRADUATE ADMISSIONS IS A LONELY ZERO SUM GAME

As part of a series of general posts on MBA admissions strategy, I present the following extreme position.  Those looking for a sweet and friendly view of the business school admissions process that emphasizes collaboration will surely be disappointed. Here, I will offer a view of the MBA admissions process that is cynical, aggressive, and, I think, realistic.

GRADUATE ADMISSIONS IS A LONELY ZERO SUM GAME
Blogs, online communities, MBA admissions sites, MBA Tours, your GMAT class, and even your fellow applicants may create the illusion that you are part of a community when you apply. This is a lie. Ultimately you are either admitted or rejected. Every other applicant to a program you are applying to is in competition with you because they all have the possibility to take your potential seat.  There are only winners or losers in this process. Just as with a lifeboat, you either live because you have a seat or you drown. There is no middle ground. At the end of the day, even a waitlist that does not convert into an admit is a loss.  One can't get half admitted. I think keeping this fundamental fact in mind is important, especially when it comes to such issues as time allocation, information gathering, and information sharing.

Beware of "The Noise"
"The Noise" takes many forms.  Sites like GMAT Club, which often contain good information, are also filled with crap: Rumor, the pathetic wailing of losers who submitted bad applications,  shallow articles in newspapers and magazines, unethical and unprofessional applicant profile analysis by admissions consultants having the most scant information about the applicant, and other garbage found online.  The problem with The Noise is that it can become a time suck. Instead of preparing essays, practicing interviews, and/or networking with alumni and students, some applicants get sucked into The Noise.  Another problem with The Noise is that can actually misinform applicants by providing misleading information.  My suggestion is to certainly look at sites like GMAT Club, but be aware of the limitations of such information.

Taking advice from other applicants?
There are many good reasons to take advice from alumni and current students.  They have gone through the admissions process and succeeded.  Whatever they did worked for them, though of course, whether it will work for you is not so obvious. Still, they are not your competitors and probably are acting in good faith in terms of providing you with their best advice.  On the other hand, taking advice from other applicants, whether in the form of taking seriously what some guy has written in an online forum, having your essays reviewed by another applicant, or basing your application related decisions on second-hand information, is potentially a very high risk. Aside from the fact that what might apply to one applicant might not apply to you, I think it would be a mistake to assume that such advice is without vested interest (whether conscious or not).  In other words, other applicants might not really have your best interests at the top of their own agenda.  Be as cooperative as you like with other applicants, but focus on your own interests because this is a process that rewards individuals, not groups.

Other applicants are competitors but not ones you can directly defeat
Unlike most zero sum games where you are directly competing against others, the admissions process is an indirect zero sum game.  You are competing against other applicants, but you can't directly defeat enough of them to guarantee that you are offered admission.  Therefore there is no reason to think about them very specifically.  You can't impact other applicants essays, GMAT scores, backgrounds, interview performance, so there is no point in dwelling on them.  All you can do is submit the best application you can and prepare for an interview as effectively as possible. Some applicants worry about their competition instead of focusing on themselves.  Some even make extremely foolish direct comparisons between themselves and other applicants from their country or industry: "I'm one of the few Japanese applicants who really understands American culture!"  or  "Unlike most financial professionals, I am highly ethical and cooperative." Since you can't really know who your competition is, such comments make the applicant look rude, ignorant, overly agressive, and/or egotistical.  Every year since 2001, I have stopped applicants from making such comments in their essays and during interview preparation.

Share information only if it can't be used against you
I love the admissions reports I can get from Clear Admit, Accepted, and GMAT Club, but I would never advise anyone to submit such a report until after they have been admitted or rejected because it is not in their interest to do so.  I am happy that there are so many kind and generous people who think there is no consequence to providing such information to their competitors, but at least very indirectly there is. And I am not just discussing online reports, but also providing information to your friends who are applying at the same time as you are. Just get into a waitlist situation and you will quickly see that helping one other applicant with her interview is impacting your chance for admission. She may have been your sorority sister and your study partner in economics classes, but now she is a barrier to your admission. I often get interview reports from my clients, but I don't use them until after my clients' admissions results are in. It would unethical to do otherwise. When I do a mock interview, the questions I ask are based on reports that my own clients sent me from prior admissions cycles and the lovely content that naive applicants put up on the internet.  If you are not already familiar with the concept of being a free rider, I suggest you become one until your admissions results are in.  Once you are admitted, feel free to put up all the anonymous interview reports you want and share your experience with applicants.  Winners have earned bragging rights.

-Adam Markus

I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.

The Application You Is Only One Version of You

Now that my attention is beginning to turn to clients at the beginning rather than the end of the admissions process, I have decided to begin a new series of posts covering some core foundational application strategies. I thought I would begin with a seemingly obvious, but often ignored strategic consideration:
YOU ARE NOT SUBMITTING MBA APPLICATIONS FOR ANY OTHER PURPOSE THAN TO GET ADMITTED!
I think applicants often forget this point when writing essays, resumes, or even selecting who they will use for a recommendation.  Some applicants become so carried away with an opportunity to tell their story that they forget to consider that not everything they could say about themselves is worth writing in an application and actually only those things that will get them admitted are worth writing.  One's greatest failure might have involved a love affair at age 15, but this would not make for an effective answer to an MBA program's essay topic related to failure.  Affairs of the heart are best left outside of the admissions process. Similarly getting drunk with clients in order to generate great sales results might be very true, but no sane person would write on their resume, "Engage in heavy social drinking 3-6 times a week in order to generate leads and results that contributed to over $20 million in sales for FY2011."  It might very well be the case such social drinking actually fulfills a core business function, but you simply can't it. Instead the resume will read "Engage in extensive daily discussions with clients and leads resulting in over $20 million in sales for FY2011." The drinking example reveals one very important thing: It is all about the interpretation.

And in fact, the importance of differentiating between the real you and the application you is one of interpretation. NO graduate school application can possibly capture the full real you. An application will only present a slice of you.  Some applications give you the chance to present more slices (More essays, longer resumes, more application form content), others less.  Some applications give you extreme freedom in choosing what to present (More open-ended essay questions), other less so. The point is that regardless of what questions you are asked to answer and/or what information you need are asked to provide, you need to control the interpretation.

Some will consider this an invitation to lie, but that is not what I am suggesting.  The story of one's life is not objective, it is subjective and its meaning is either something you provide to it or one what that your reader (essays) or listener (interviews) will naturally provide. Successful communication always involves controlling the interpretation.  The significance of what you do is something you need to explain, not something you can leave to chance. One set of facts can be presented in a number of ways, but my suggestion is that you look for a way that highlights aspects of yourself that align with the program you are applying to.

Getting the Right Slices: What are MBA Programs Looking for in Applicants?
At the strategic level, I identify four core aspects that MBA programs look for in applicants.  You need to understand this categories in general and also in relationship to the programs you are applying to.  You need to consider how you will demonstrate each of these categories in your applications and interviews.
1. Academic Potential is the applicant's perceived ability to perform well in the academic program. This is measured by GPA, GMAT, difficulty of courses indicated on the transcript, school reputation, demonstrated academic/intellectual accomplishments, analytically challenging work, possibly recommendations, and essay content related to academic/intellectual accomplishments/analytical work/problem solving. Beyond an application, it is surely measured by an applicant's performance in an interview. 
2. Leadership Potential is the applicant's perceived capacity to lead people, organizations, projects, and innovation both during and after the MBA program.  It can be a stand in for the perceived overall effectiveness of the applicant as a manager and businessperson. It is a highly contested category with much more flexibility to it than those who simply perceive leadership as telling others what to do within the context of an organization.  It is measured by your past leadership experiences (Professional, but also academic and extracurricular) as detailed in your resume, application form, essays, and recommendations and as discussed in an interview.  
3. Community Engagement is the applicant's perceived capacity to engage in activities of a voluntary, interpersonal, philanthropic, social, cultural, athletic, political, and/or altruistic nature. This community engagement category can be a way to measure the philanthropic potential, networking skills, uniqueness, perceived ethical/social sensitivity of the applicant.  If one were to be cynical, it could be said that this category favors do-gooders over those with a total focus on their professional careers, but it also measures those who have a  real capacity for working with others from those who prefer to spend their time alone. It is a category that makes some suspect that the admissions criteria for business schools is a bit soft headed, but given the rhetorical importance of companies needing to demonstrate their philanthropic, socially conscious, and or community spirit, it would be reasonable to expect that the future potential leaders of such companies have shown an understanding and capacity for community engagement. It is measured by engagement in activities as detailed in your resume, application form, essays, and recommendations and as discussed in an interview. For some applicants, community engagement is something they seem to have endless supplies of, while for other applicants, they will have very little to discuss. If you are six months or more away from an application due date, it is not too late to add something in this area, but sudden new activities don't impress all that much. Ideally, if you are one year or more from making application, now is a good time to engage in such activities if you have not done so. Remember that community activities can happen inside the office. Volunteering to organize an annual party, leading your department's green initiative, participating in a company sports team are all possible ways to show community engagement.  
4. Personality Qualities and Experiences is at times a stated category. For example, Stanford fits personality into the "Personal Qualities and Contributions" category (See here).  Whereas HBS, does not clearly mention it. (Their categories are "A Habit of Leadership, Capacity for Intellectual Growth, and Engaged Community Citizenship.")  Kellogg includes personality in its criteria through personal character, interpersonal skills, and motivation. Unlike the first three categories, which are covered pretty consistently, the personality category is communicated in many possible ways.  In the case of HBS, it does not come out as a category per se, but is certainly a core consideration:
"The true common characteristics of our students are demonstrated leadership potential and a capacity to thrive in a rigorous academic environment.
Indeed, to create the most stimulating environment possible for all students, we consciously select a diverse student body, one that not only reflects a variety of backgrounds, cultures, and nationalities, but also a wide range of personal interests and professional ambitions."
In order to get that diversity, something all top MBA programs want, each applicant's unique qualities and experiences comes into play.  This category can immensely difficult to pin down, but is it includes so many possible things.  Here is a list, by no means comprehensive, of what fits into this category: 
1. Demonstrated creativity in professional, extracurricular, or academic life. Artists, poets, writers, and inventors all fit into this category
2. Extensive international experience. This involves living, working, traveling and/or studying in more than one country.  It might involve spending a year traveling, being raised in three countries, study abroad, mastery of two or more languages, and working as an expat.
3. Mastery of artistic, athletic, scientific, academic disciplines resulting in outstanding personal accomplishments. Those with patents, professional musicians, captains of winning sports teams, Olympic medal holders, and public poets all fit into this category.
4. Unusual professional experiences that would give the applicant the possibility to make unique contributions in class. Concert violinists who also day trade, working a corporate job and running a start-up on the side, film directors, chefs, actors, and professional athletes all fit into this category.
5. Overcoming extreme personal, professional, academic, economic, political, social and/or physical obstacles.  If you have overcome poverty, personal misfortune,  sexism, homophobia, racism, physical disability, and other obstacles that reveal the strength of your character, they will likely be ways to distinguish yourself in the application process.
6. Being first at something. As long as it is not trivial if you are the founder of something, the youngest at something, the first to do something, it is likely to be a great topic for an essay or at least a bullet point on a resume.
7. Risk taking as demonstrated by professional career choices, personal acts of heroism, and/or participation in high risk sporting activities:  Air Force Rangers, extreme sports enthusiasts, and entrepreneurs all fit into this category.
8. Demonstrated passion and commitment to a cause, an intellectual pursuit, athletics, or hobbies.  If you can made a real commitment to something in terms of your time over multiple years, it is likely to be a good topic.
9. Unusual personal background that makes the applicant standout within a pool where white male American finance professionals, Indian IT guys, and management consultants are typically over-represented.
10. An interesting, engaging, and/or original perspective. Easier said than done.  One needs to distinguish between simply writing an effective set of essays and actually being a highly engaging personality.  Not everyone has the capacity to be such a personality and, in fact, it is not necessary to be a highly engaging  personality to gain admission into a top MBA program.  While applicants should certainly aspire to do this in their essays and interviews, some people are great writers, wonderful story tellers, and super communicators and others are not.  
Assume that you need to cover all four categories above in each application you submit, but the mix will be different depending on the application. The art of putting together a great application is knowing how you can distinguish yourself in relationship to each of these categories, how you can compensate for any weaknesses, and how you can create an effective total portrait of yourself based on these categories.  Don't worry if you are not strong in each of these categories as it is quite possible to be admitted to any top program without being perfect. The point is to provide your readers and interviewer with a clear set of selling points about yourself that fit within their own criteria for why an applicant should be admitted. 

You are more than your application and more than any interview, but it is on the basis of those two things that you will be admitted or rejected.  Great applicants with lousy applications get rejected all the time. I know because I help such applicants then submit great applications!  Applicants with significant problems in the four categories I mentioned above can gain admission to great programs by submitting great applications. I know this too because I help applicants with one or more significant problems in their objective background gain admission to programs where they are statistical outriders.

Some might think that I am suggesting that you present yourself falsely, but that is not at all the case. I recommend that applicants honestly discuss the best part of themselves, honestly addressing any objective problems that they can't avoid mentioning (That low grade in your transcript, the 11 months when you were not working, the reason you quit a job after 3 months, etc.), and not make any deceptive claims. You should  never provide deceptive information that will get your application rejected or your admission revoked.  On the other hand, don't volunteer information that is unnecessary to provide and unhelpful to you. Don't dwell on failures when you are not asked to.  Don't worry about trivial facts that can't be easily checked. Do interprete the past in way that is to your advantage and is believable.  Also, always consider that anything you submit in an application needs to be believable and that if asked about it in any interview you have to sound convincing.

-Adam Markus

I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.

Resume Template for MBA, LL.M., & Other Grad School Applications

You can find my suggested MBA, LL.M., or other graduate school admissions resume template on Google docs here and on Scribd here. Many of my clients have found this  template to be a very effective basis for making a successful graduate school application resume.  It is especially designed for providing a balanced (academic, professional, everything else) perspective on the applicant, which, is especially important in the case of resumes for business school.

-Adam Markus

 アダム　マーカス

I am a graduate admissions consultant based in Tokyo, Japan with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form, which is publicly available on google docs here, and then send your completed form to adammarkus@gmail.com.  You can also send me your resume if it is convenient for you.  Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to.  See here for why.

How to pick a graduate admissions consultant

In the post, I provide some general suggestions for selecting a graduate admissions consultant.  I have previously discussed the whole issue of application advisers in Admissions Advice: Mentor, Consultant, Editor or Ghostwriter?, but I wanted to provide a practical guide for the purpose of admissions counselor, consultant, and/or adviser selection. This post does make use of a part of that earlier post, but I suggest reading both. I hope this post will help applicants find the right consultant for their MBA, LL.M., MPA, MPP, or other graduate school applications.

WHAT IS ADMISSIONS CONSULTING?
The Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants (AIGAC) provides the following excellent summary of what admissions consultants do:

• Guide applicants as they explore professional and educational options
• Teach applicants to prepare applications that fully present their qualifications.
• Serve as mentors through the grueling admissions process.
• Provide the critical, objective, and knowledgeable eye that benefits all writers when submitting important material like application essays, personal statements, and resumes.

I have been a member of AIGAC shortly after its founding in 2007. I support the intent of the organization as well as the above definition of our role.

WHO ARE ADMISSIONS CONSULTANTS?

Admissions consultants are a mixed group. Typical backgrounds for admissions consultants:

1. Former admissions officers

2. Counseling professionals with degrees or certification in career counseling, social work, and/or a related field

3. Professional educators

4. Individuals with a strong academic pedigree who found they are good at helping others with the admissions process

5. Degree holders for the type of program they provide admissions consulting for

SELECTING WHICH CONSULTANTS TO CONTACT

Are you offered a free initial consultation with the consultant you would be working with?

For me, at least, this is the most basic consideration there is.  If you can't have an initial consultation how can you determine who to work with?   No two consultants have the same opinions, bring the same experience, or will give you exactly the same advice.  Even with my colleagues who have worked closely with, we don't agree on everything, our methods, and certainly our personalities and personal perspectives are different.  Actually, for interview preparation, this can allow for a client to get multiple perspectives by having mock interviews with multiple consultants, which clients can us to their advantage.  However, when it comes to essay consulting, ultimately you will likely need to work with one person, at least primarily.   For essays, it is very hard to work effectively with multiple consultants effectively. You will likely spend more time and money with consultant on your essays than on anything else, so you need to make sure that there is a good personal fit between you and the consultant.

HOW LONG IS THIS INITIAL CONSULTATION?

I would consider 30 minutes to be an absolute minimum for you to ask questions about the consultant's services and for the consultant to briefly give you a bit of trial feedback.  I schedule one-hour sessions which frequently last a bit longer than that because I usually provide 30-40 minutes of feedback based on initial questions I ask potential clients.  The amount of time I spend giving feedback is a direct function of how well the potential client has filled out my initial consultation form and the kind of questions they ask.

PROVIDE FULL ANSWERS TO THE INITIAL CONSULTATION FORM

I assume that any counselor will provide you with an initial consultation form for you to complete. Based on what I have seen, my own form (Google Docs version/ Scribed version) is of medium level length.  I try to get potential clients to provide me with the most essential information I need to have an effective initial consultation and also to not overburden potential clients with burdensome documents.   Please complete the form in a reasonable level of detail so that the consultant has sufficient information about you to ask more than basic questions.  If you have not calculated your GPA, do it!   Especially with US schools, I can't effectively advise a client on school selection if I don't know what their GPA is.  Don't just leave answers to big questions. At least indicate that you don't have an answer. For instance,  if you don't have an answer to question like "What are your long term goals?" I suggest you just write down that you need assistance with this issue.

DOES THE CONSULTANT ASK YOU QUESTIONS OR ARE THEY JUST TRYING TO SELL YOU?

 I would personally worry about any consultant who does not ask you many questions because this likely means that they will likely work with anyone because they are simply trying to generate an income and not necessarily a positive admissions result. Popular consultants don't just have to work with anyone. They ask good questions to potential clients and try to engage with them in order to determine whether they want offer their services.

SOME BASIC QUESTIONS TO ASK THE CONSULTANT

Some good questions to ask:

1.   Based on my profile, what is your assessment of my school selection? Do you think there are other schools that I should be considering?

2.  How can you add value to my applications? 

3. If you don't know about the consultants results and experience, you should ask about that. If you have such information, ask for any clarification you require.

3.  What are your methods?

4.  What is your availability?

5.  What is your around time on document review?

6.  Can you give me an idea about how the whole process would work?

7.  What differentiates you from other consultants?

8. What are your criteria for selecting which clients to work with?

9.  For applicants with an international background applying to US schools:  Have you worked with people from my country or part of the world before?  How much experience do you have working with international applicants? 

10.  For reapplicants:  How much experience do you have working with reapplciants? 

11. Whatever burning issues in your own background you really want to discuss. For instance, how to handle a prolonged period of unemployment or low GPA.

WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD AND BAD ADMISSIONS CONSULTANTS?

Good consultants:

1. They will listen to you and provide highly individualized advice.

2. They will understand your strengths and weaknesses as a candidate.

3. They will have a solid set of methods for explaining all aspects of the process to you.

4. They will be honest. (For example, when discussing school selection they will provide you with an honest assessment of how your GMAT, TOEFL, and/or GRE scores will impact your chances for admission to a specific school.)

5. They will become engaged with you and your life.

6. They will refine their advice to you as your sessions proceed.

7. They are great at brainstorming and helping you tell your story.

8. They will push you to revise your essays and, if applicable, push you to practice your interviews.

9. They will let you know when they think an application is done regardless of either your expectations or their financial benefit. That is to say, sometimes they will advise working on something more than you think and sometimes less than you expected.

10. They either have or know how to obtain any admissions information that you will need.

Bad consultants:

1. Don’t listen to you.

2. Their advice lacks any depth or specificity.

3. They lack integrity.

4. They will not push you to work hard.

5. They are basically indifferent to you as a person because they just consider it to be their job to review your application materials or prepare you for an interview, which they will do only formally.

6. They don’t have high standards.

7. You will notice that they quickly fail to learn more about you after the first couple of sessions.

8. They have rigid preconceived ideas that they will foist upon you.

9. They are more likely to act like editors than counselors.

10. They seem to lack key information about the admissions process.

CONSULTANT OR CONSULTING SERVICE?

You will quickly find that admissions consultants are either working as independent service providers or part of a service. The biggest potential differences between hiring an independent service provider and services are as follows:

1. Service structure. Independent consultants, for both good and bad, are not part of larger organizations and hence the level of service you can expect will be personal and will reflect the personality of the consultant. If you are someone who loves rules and regulations, a service is more likely to provide that level of bureaucracy. An independent consultant should be able to provide you with services in a more flexible manner.

2. Changing your consultant. If you eventually discover that you don’t like an independent consultant, there is no company to complain to, and depending on the way you are paying for the service, you may find yourself stuck with the consultant. On the other hand, if you use a consulting service, you will likely have the option of switching to a new consultant.

3. Choosing your consultant. Obviously if you use an independent consultant, you have chosen that person. On the other hand, if you decide to use a consulting service, depending on your contract, they may have the right to switch consultants on you. If you use service and don’t specify the consultant first, you may also find that the consultant you wanted to meet with is too busy to meet with you because they already have too many clients. BEWARE OF SUBSTITUTIONS! Most successful services have at least one well-known consultant, but since such individuals are a finite resource, not everyone gets to work with the star. Some clients get the other consultants. The other consultants can be great. Or the other hand, consultants can be someone the organization needed to fill a seat because of client demand. If you go with service, don't accept substitutions. Furthermore, if the consulting service does not offer a free initial consultation with the consultant that you want to work with, you should really consider other alternatives.

4. Getting multiple perspectives. One advantage some consulting services have over independent consultants is that they offer clients the possibility of getting the viewpoint of more than one counselor. While this can be quite helpful, it also requires managing the perspectives of multiple consultants, which will likely be less efficient, and may prove confusing. It may also be the case that such services will provide you with multiple perspectives, but none of those perspectives will be very deep because each of their consultants does not know you all that well.

While some services will claim that they have an informational advantage over independent consultants or other rivals, I think this is an increasingly difficult argument to make given the accessibility of free or low cost information.

THE BOTTOM LINE

”Does the consultant have expertise?” No matter whether you use an independent consultant or service, you should really consider that it is the consultant who will be impacting you. Regarding expertise, I think it is mistake to assume that you need to see a consultant who has an academic credential in your intended field of study. Just because someone does not have an MBA, LL.M., PhD in Electrical Engineering, a Masters in Art History,etc. is not inherently a problem. Instead you need someone who has expertise in the admissions process, in listening to you, in helping you tell the most effective story you can, and in helping you present yourself at your best.

-Adam Markus

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If you are interested in my overall counseling services and would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form, which is publicly available on Google Docs and Scribed, and then send your completed form to adammarkus@gmail.com.  You can also send me your resume if it is convenient for you.  Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to.  See here for why.

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