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.

Wharton MBA Essay Questions for Class of 2018

In this post, I analyze the essay questions for Wharton for Fall 2016 admission. You can find testimonials from my clients admitted to Wharton in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 here.

While Wharton has not changed their website yet to indicate that the application essays from 2015 have not changed, John Bryne, at Poets & Quants, was told by a Wharton spokesman “that it plans to repeat last year's essay questions and expects its online application to go live in early August.”  Therefore I am going ahead with this post now.  If there are any modifications when the questions are officially published by Wharton admissions, I will alter this post.

For my most recent post on Wharton interviews, please see Preparing for Wharton Interviews for the Class of 2016.

Wharton has decided to go minimal with an essay topic that takes more thought about what you want from Wharton MBA. It is basically a very typical statement of degree purpose type question with the only twist being that you need to state personal and professional reasons for pursuing the degree. It is a future focused statement about what you want from the program and why.

“ (Required) What do you hope to gain both personally and professionally from the Wharton MBA? (500 words)“

An excellent answer to the Wharton essay question would identify those specific aspects of Wharton that you will most benefit from. A general characterization of Wharton- data driven, but also a place with a commitment to experiential learning, East Coast focused but with a San Francisco campus that is now become integrated into the MBA program, highly international, highly flexible with strengths in a large number of areas, including healthcare, finance, real estate, and marketing- is  helpful to keep in mind when writing this essay. Wharton has a lot to offer and, while  some have characterized it as a CFO school, a finance school, a Wall Street school, all too some extent true, this is not so helpful when you consider that, for example, Sundar Pichai, Google’s guy in charge of Chrome, Android, and Google Apps, is a Wharton alumnus. Wharton is a huge program with so many strengths that the point is not to think about some big overall image of the school, but to focus on what you want to get out of it. Which specific resources you want to use and why. Keep in mind that Wharton is much bigger than HBS because of the undergraduate program. The range of courses, research, and opportunities is huge. The point is to provide a specific game plan on how you will use Wharton for your professional and personal growth.

I think an effective essay here will do the following:

1.  Provide both personal and professional content. Personal content can be expressed in academic, personal, extracurricular, and even professional contexts. Personal means giving insight into who you are as person and not just what you know or what you can do.  Professional means providing Wharton with a clear understanding about your capabilities in a professional context, about your ability to work with others, show leadership, overcome challenges, and/or accomplish something.
2.  Be analytical, not merely descriptive. It is very important that you engage in a sufficient amount of interpretation of your actions and not merely a description of what you do.  Given the length, you really don’t have much space for highly descriptive writing or big stories told in significant detail. Your objective is to efficiently guide your reader’s interpretation of what you write, so that they perceive you in the way that you intend.

3. Think widely about what you want from a Wharton MBA.  The point is to give Wharton a sense of the best of who you are so don’t limit yourself too narrowly, but if you try to cover too much, you will end up not covering anything effectively.  Really consider what is best about you and is relevant to answering this question.

4.  Make sure you are stating things as briefly and effectively as possible.  Don’t waste your words. Use them carefully.

Think about the rest of the application when writing your essays.  The application form, your resume, and recommendations are other ways that your strengths as an applicant will be conveyed. Where possible, make sure that what admissions reads in your essays is both distinct from and complementary to what they read in the rest of your application.

If you are having difficulty determining what your goals are and/or why you need an MBA in general, please see my analysis of Stanford Essay B or Columbia Business School Essay 1. In that post I provide a detailed method for thinking about goals and need for an MBA.



Make the assumption that an MBA from Wharton will be a transformative experience for you.  If you don’t make this assumption, you will likely find it particularly hard to explain what you want from the experience personally and will also probably come across as rather dull.  Your job is to engage the admissions reader so that they understand what you want from Wharton for your future.

What are your aspirations?  You need to give Wharton admissions a very clear image of personal and professional objectives for attending the MBA program.  You might include a clear post-MBA career goal and a longer term vision/goal, but depending on how you answer the question, you might express what you want from Wharton more in terms of the kind of person and kind of professional you want to become. You might express it in terms of your present situation and how you hope to be transformed by your Wharton experience.  A purely abstract dream or visionary statement could easily come across as unrealistic or ungrounded if not handled carefully, so be careful to connect your aspirations to  your past actions and/or clearly defined goals. Career changers (those planning on  changing industry and/or function after MBA) should explain why they want to change their careers and how Wharton will enable that. Career enhancers should explain how an MBA will en hance their careers to continue along the pathway that thy are already on.

While you should be explaining why you need a Wharton MBA in  particular. You should  learn about the curriculum, clusters / cohorts/ learning teams, Learning @ Wharton, community involvement, clubs, and WGA in order to determine what aspects of Wharton really relate to your professional objectives. You need not mention the names of particular courses as long as it would be clear to your reader that your aspirations align well with Wharton’s offerings. For example, it is really a waste of word count to mention the names of particular finance courses if the main point you are simply trying to make is that you want to enhance your finance skills. Every admissions officer at Wharton is well aware of the programs major offerings.  If you have a particular interest in a more specialized course or studying with a particular professor, it might be worth mentioning it as long as it is an explanation of why you want to study the subject and not based on circular reasoning.
An example of circular (tautological) reasoning:  ”I want to take Advanced Corporate Finance because I am interested in developing advanced corporate finance skills.” This kind of bad circular reasoning is so common in early drafts I see from my clients and in the failed essays of reapplicants that I am asked to review. Usually it takes place within a paragraph consisting of many such sentences. These sentences actually convey nothing about the applicant. The admissions reader wants to learn about you, not about their own program. If you don’t explain what you need and why, you are not actually answering the question, you are just writing something dull, surface level, and without positive impact.

An example of an actual explanation:  ”While I have been exposed to finance through my work at MegaBank, I presently lack the kind of comprehensive understanding of corporate finance that I want to master at Wharton to succeed as a future leader of cross-border M&A.” By focusing on very specific learning needs and explaining those needs in relationship to one’s goals and/or past experience, admissions will be learning about you and really be able to understand what you need from Wharton. Mentioning a course name is not important if the learning need is already something obviously obtainable at Wharton. A more complete explanation would include additional details about the kind of issues that the applicant is interested in learning about and/or specific ways the applicant intended to apply what he or she would learn at Wharton.

Finally, remember that if you have something that you really want to discuss about what you contribute to Wharton or wish to mention particular classes, clubs, and events at Wharton that you could not fit into the essay, you can always discuss that in the optional essay.

IMPORTANT NOTE: WHARTON HAS TWO OPTIONAL ESSAYS. THE FIRST ONE IS FOR THE GOOD STUFF, THE SECOND ONE IS FOR ANY ISSUES OF CONCERN AND/OR REAPPLICANTS.  For 2015 entry applicants this was confusing. Actually I was confused too!  Maybe the new application for 2016 entry will do a better job of eliminating that confusion.  We will start with the Optional good stuff essay and then discuss the other one.

“(Optional): Please use the space below to highlight any additional information that you would like the Admissions Committee to know about your candidacy (400 words).”
From my perspective and I think that of my clients who applied for 2015 admission, this question was really helpful and not necessarily so hard to answer.  Given the deadlines for top schools, most applicants will not be writing Wharton first and I would not advise doing that because this is a really easy application to handle if you have a couple of other schools done first.  Especially in regards to this Optional Question, you may easily have content from schools like CBS, HBS, MIT,  and MIT that can be repurposed here, but make sure it does not look like you are answering a question for another school.

Given the completely open ended nature of this question, I think the important thing to really consider first is what you think they need to know about you.  Again don’t write a career goals essay or an essay totally focused on why you want to go to MIT Sloan.  Instead tell them more about you in whatever format you want.


Some Questions to get you brainstorming:
1. What do you want  Wharton Admissions to know about you that would positively impact your chances for admission?

2. What major positive aspects of who you are have not been effectively INTERPRETED or presented  to the admissions committee in other parts of the application?

3. Beyond what you have discussed in the Required Essay, what would you tell someone about yourself to create a strong first impression?
4. If there was one story about yourself that you think would really help admissions understand you and
want to admit you, what is it?


5.  Is there some aspect of Wharton that itself really relates to you and is different from what you might have mentioned in the Required Essay?

6. Is there a particular contribution you want to focus on?

Given the open-ended nature of the question, I am sure my questions above don’t cover all possibilities, but I hope they are a good start to getting you thinking.

Optional Essay: This is the essay for those with concerns and for reapplicants. 

“First-time applicants can use this essay if you feel there are extenuating circumstances of which the Committee should be aware (e.g., unexplained gaps in work experience, choice of recommenders, inconsistent or questionable academic performance, significant weaknesses in your application). (250 words)
All re-applicants (those who applied for Fall 2014 or 2013) are also required to complete the Optional Essay. Please use this space to explain how you have reflected on the previous decision on your application and to discuss any updates on your candidacy (e.g., changes in your professional life, additional coursework, extra curricular/volunteer engagements). You may also use this section to address any extenuating circumstances. (250 words)”

First for reapplicants, an effective answer here will do the following:

1. Showcase what has changed since your last application that now makes you a better candidate.

2. Refine your goals. I think it is reasonable that they may have altered since your last application, but if the change is extreme, you had better explain why.

3. Make a better case for why Wharton is right for you.

For more about reapplication, please see “A guide to my resources for reapplicants.”

Second, for addressing any extenuating circumstances: As with the school’s other optional question, do not put an obvious essay for another school here. If you read the above, it should be clear enough that this is the place to explain anything negative or potentially negative in your background. If you have no explanation for something negative, don’t bother writing about it. For example if your GPA is 2.9 and you have no good explanation for why it is 2.9, don’t bother writing something that looks like a lame excuse. This is more likely to hurt than help you. In the same vein, don’t waste the committee’s time telling them that your GMAT is a much better indicator than your GPA (the opposite is also true). They have heard it before and they will look at both scores and can draw their own conclusions without you stating the obvious. That said, if you have a good explanation for a bad GPA, you should most certainly write about it. In addition to GMAT/GRE, TOEFL, and GPA problems, other possible topics include issues related to recommendations, serious gaps in your resume, concerns related to a near total lack of extracurricular activities, and  major issues in your personal/professional life that you really think the admissions office needs to know about.

Best of luck with your Wharton application!

-Adam Markus

-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.

Beating the Competition, Gaining MBA Admission: Averages & the 80% Range

 This is the second post in a series. In the first post, I looked at competition from the macro-level of Acceptance Rates, Number of Applicants, Number of Enrolled, and Yield.

Given the global nature of my client base and my experience over the past twelve and half years, I am able to assess the competition amongst applicants from a variety of perspectives.   In this series of posts, I will discuss some of the ways to assess your competition and beat your competition.

In this post, I look at some of the key data points that each applicant needs to consider when determining how competitive he or she is compared to other applicants.  Two of these data points are academic indicators, GMAT and GPA. The other two, age and months of work experience relate to a program’s minimums and maximums when it comes to age and experience.  


Who gets 80% of the seats?
Depending on where you apply, your competition might be extreme, possibly overwhelming to the point that your chance of admission is zero, or alternatively, relatively moderate or even possibly non-existent.  To assess where you stand when applying to a particular school, look at its admissions data.  This is consistently easy with US schools which report their data to publications such as US News and World Report and BusinessWeek, but less consistently possible with European and other non-US programs which vary from complete transparency to stated score minimums/ age ranges/ work experience requirements to near complete secrecy.

Numbers are not everything, but the numbers do matter.  The numbers I will be looking at are ones that indicate characteristics of applicants who get in in.  Numbers don’t tell the whole story and can be confusing.  Being in the 80% range in one category does not necessarily mean an admit was within the 80% range for all the categories that I will be considering. In fact, based on my experience those getting admitted with a GPA or GMAT in the lower 10% or are in the upper 10% for work experience (older candidates), usually only deviate from the 80% range in one category.  For example, in past years, I have had clients admitted to Wharton and Yale with low GMATs (600 and 580 respectively), but their GPAs and ages were well within the 80% range.  Generally, unless, there are some strong additional factors at work, things really start to get difficult when an applicant’s GPA and GMAT both fall outside the bottom of the 80% range.  Beyond the 80% range, the remaining 20% consist of those who are 10% below that range and those that are 10% above. In some cases, only average data is available and not 80% range data, so the following tables lists both 80% range and average data and, for consistency and general data availability,  are listed in terms of averages. Just as in my prior post, I am looking at the Top 20 MBA Programs reported in US News & World Report, but I’m also supplementing that table data with additional information in my written analysis.

Table 1: Rank Does Not Tell All
 US News & World Report Top 20 US MBA Programs in Rank Order: GMAT, GPA, Age/Work Experience

School Name	US News & World Report Rank	Acceptance Rate	Average GMAT	GMAT Range (10%-90%)	Average GPA	GPA Range (10%-90%)	Average age of new entrants	Average work experience (months)
HBS	#1	11.3%	727	N/A	3.7	N/A	27	49
Stanford GSB	#1	6.8%	732	690-770	3.73	3.43-3.97	N/A	49
Wharton	#1	18.7%	725	N/A	3.6	N/A	28	60
Chicago Booth	#4	21.0%	723	680-760	3.58	3.24-3.91	28	57
MIT Sloan	#5	13.1%	713	670-760	3.58	3.21-3.88	28	60
Northwestern Kellogg	#6	21.6%	713	660-760	3.54	3.19-3.87	28	62
University of California—​Berkeley (Haas)	#7	14.3%	714	680-750	3.6	3.34-3.82	29	62
Columbia Business School	#8	18.1%	716	680-760	3.5	3.1-3.8	28	57
Dartmouth Tuck	#9	20.8%	718	680-760	3.53	3.24-3.85	28	63
New York University Stern	#10	16.0%	721	680-760	3.51	3.14-3.84	27	58
University of Michigan—​Ann Arbor Ross	#11	33.7%	704	650-750	3.4	2.9-3.8	28	65
University of Virginia Darden	#11	25.1%	706	650-760	3.51	3.08-3.84	27	57
Yale SOM	#13	21.3%	714	660-760	3.57	3.2-3.85	28	67
Duke Fuqua	#14	26.5%	694	640-750	3.42	3-3.83	29	66
University of Texas—​Austin McCombs	#15	32.6%	690	640-740	3.39	2.85-3.79	28	59
UCLA Anderson	#16	22.3%	706	660-750	3.47	3.14-3.8	29	63
Cornell University Johnson	#17	22.1%	691	640-740	3.32	2.9-3.78	28	57
Carnegie Mellon Tepper	#18	32.0%	691	620-750	3.28	2.78-3.85	28	50
UNC Chapel Hill Kenan-​Flagler	#19	43.8%	683	620-740	3.33	2.92-3.76	28	62
Emory University Goizueta	#20	31.2%	681	620-730	3.34	2.79-3.76	29	65

 There are many ways to look at a table of school rankings in order to determine what is actually going on, but School Rankings (US News or otherwise) are not a consistently accurate way to measure the actual difficulty of admission.  A higher ranking program is not always a harder program to enter:  For example, It is easier to get into Wharton than NYU,  Yale is harder to enter than Kellogg.  Each program has its own unique characteristics that might make admission easier or more difficult and these characteristics are not always the same. Let’s dig into this date by breaking this table down and focusing on each major factor. The point is to look at the competitive landscape from multiple perspectives.

Table 2: Top 20 US Programs in GMAT Average Order

School Name	US News & World Report Rank	Acceptance Rate	Average GMAT	GMAT Range (10%-90%)
Stanford GSB	#1	6.8%	732	690-770
HBS	#1	11.3%	727	N/A
Wharton	#1	18.7%	725	N/A
Chicago Booth	#4	21.0%	723	680-760
New York University (Stern)	#10	16.0%	721	680-760
Dartmouth Tuck	#9	20.8%	718	680-760
Columbia Business School	#8	18.1%	716	680-760
University of California—​Berkeley (Haas)	#7	14.3%	714	680-750
Yale SOM	#13	21.3%	714	660-760
MIT Sloan	#5	13.1%	713	670-760
Northwestern Kellogg	#6	21.6%	713	660-760
University of Virginia Darden	#11	25.1%	706	650-760
UCLA Anderson	#16	22.3%	706	660-750
University of Michigan—​Ann Arbor Ross	#11	33.7%	704	650-750
Duke Fuqua	#14	26.5%	694	640-750
Cornell University Johnson	#17	22.1%	691	640-740
Carnegie Mellon University Tepper	#18	32.0%	691	620-750
University of Texas—​Austin McCombs	#15	32.6%	690	640-740
UNC Chapel Hill Kenan-​Flagler	#19	43.8%	683	620-740
Emory University Goizueta	#20	31.2%	681	620-730

The first thing you will see from this table is that there is actually quite a bit of inconsistency between ranking and average GMAT scores once you get beyond the top four programs.  The next thing you will notice is that there is an inconsistent relationship between average GMAT scores and acceptance rates: Take a look at Booth, MIT and NYU if you don’t immediately understand that this inconsistency.  If one were looking for proof that GMAT is not the sole factor in determining admission, the inconsistency between acceptance rates and GMAT scores here would be sufficient evidence that other factors are at play.


For GMAT, the question many applicants ask is how low do they go?  After all 10% are getting below the range. HBS, always the leader when it comes data transparency, actually indicates that in the Class of 2015, the GMAT range (100% range, not 80% range) was from 550-780. At Stanford GSB, the 100% range was 550-790. Based on my experience, I have worked with clients who entered Stanford with a score in the low 600s and another who was  invited to an interview with 580 (That person was rejected from Stanford, but admitted to other top programs).  I have had clients enter Wharton and Columbia with 600. Based on those experiences, I would caution readers to understand that highly unusual candidates are gaining admission with very low GMAT score s.  By unusual, I am someone who is highly accomplished and strong in other respects, but weak at GMAT. This person might be extremely impressive in terms of their professional background. They might be company-sponsored and come from a company with influence at the school. They might come from a prestigious background and have institutional influence.  For the right candidate, applying with low GMAT can be fine, but if you think you are not exceptional, don’t count on being the statistical outrider who enters HBS with a 550.  In general, if you are 10-50 points outside the bottom of the 80% range, you might still have a shot. If you are 60 or more points below the bottom of the 80% range, you best be exceptional.


Table 3: Rank and Average GPA in the Age of American Undergraduate Grade Inflation
 Top 20 US Programs in GPA Average Order

School Name	US News & World Report Rank	Acceptance Rate	Average GPA	GPA Range (10%-90%)
Stanford GSB	#1	6.8%	3.73	3.43-3.97
HBS	#1	11.3%	3.7	N/A
Wharton	#1	18.7%	3.6	N/A
University of California—​Berkeley (Haas)	#7	14.3%	3.6	3.34-3.82
Chicago Booth	#4	21.0%	3.58	3.24-3.91
MIT Sloan	#5	13.1%	3.58	3.21-3.88
Yale SOM	#13	21.3%	3.57	3.2-3.85
Northwestern Kellogg	#6	21.6%	3.54	3.19-3.87
Dartmouth Tuck	#9	20.8%	3.53	3.24-3.85
New York University Stern	#10	16.0%	3.51	3.14-3.84
University of Virginia Darden	#11	25.1%	3.51	3.08-3.84
Columbia Business School	#8	18.1%	3.5	3.1-3.8
UCLA Anderson	#16	22.3%	3.47	3.14-3.8
Duke Fuqua	#14	26.5%	3.42	3-3.83
University of Michigan—​Ann Arbor Ross	#11	33.7%	3.4	2.9-3.8
University of Texas—​Austin McCombs	#15	32.6%	3.39	2.85-3.79
Emory University Goizueta	#20	31.2%	3.34	2.79-3.76
UNC Chapel Hill Kenan-​Flagler	#19	43.8%	3.33	2.92-3.76
Cornell University Johnson	#17	22.1%	3.32	2.9-3.78
Carnegie Mellon Tepper	#18	32.0%	3.28	2.78-3.85

As many applicants soon realize when they start looking into US MBA programs, American B-schools seem to really place a high degree of importance on GPA. The absurdity of GPA is painful because Grade inflation is extreme at many US schools, so anyone going to a school (American or otherwise) where the grades were not inflated is at an apparent disadvantage.  For the record, "The median grade in Harvard College is indeed an A-. The most frequently awarded grade in Harvard College is actually a straight A." No forced curves there.  Harvard College is not alone in the US:

About 1.8 million students will graduate from college this year [2013], according to the National Center for Education Statistics. At least one-third of them will graduate with honors. In some colleges, about half will be honor graduates.

It's not that the current crop is that bright, it's that honors is determined by grade point average. Because of runaway grade inflation, the average grade in college is now an "A." About 43 percent of all college grades are "A"s, according to a recent study by Stuart Rojstaczer and Christopher Healy, and published in the prestigious Teachers College Record.  About three-fourths of all grades are "A"s or "B"s.

Everyone applying to top US MBA programs is applying to programs  where the majority of students (including many of the international students) have undergraduate degrees from the US.  To a certain extent you will be compared to those students, especially if your application is initially being read by an admissions reader who is not completely sensitive to the distinctions between the school you attended and US schools.  Given that in any particular year about 65%-75% of my clients have undergraduate degrees from outside the US, I  have become an expert in analyzing what their GPA means and helping them explain it to an admissions committee. Fortunately, at least based on my interactions with admissions officers and experience with clients, differences in grading systems are accounted for. To be on the safe side, if one of my clients has a substandard or substandard appearing  GPA, I have them address it in the optional essay. If you look at these GPA ranges and start to feel doomed, ask yourself the following:
-Was my GPA on a forced curve?  Can I document that? If so, what is my adjusted GPA when that forced curve is taken into consideration? If the school compares my GPA to that of other graduates of my school does my GPA look average or even good?
-Did I have a problem in a specific course that is lowering my GPA? If so, can I explain this?
-Did my GPA increase over the length of the program?
-Do I have provable extenuating circumstances why my GPA is low?
-If you did graduate from a US university and your GPA appears relatively low is there any way to show that the grading in your program or at your school was actually strict.
If you can answer “Yes!” to any of the above, there is still hope. You simply can’t rely on the intelligence, attention span, and capability of your reader. You need to control what you communicate.  While I know the admissions director will account for differences between educational systems, I would not leave that to chance with the other readers: The optional essay is your friend.

As far as how low of GPA they will go, this is often difficult to determine with precision because finding any data for the lower 10% is quite hard.  While both HBS and Stanford provide 100% range data for GMAT neither provide that data for GPA. However if we look at the Top 20 list as a whole, it is pretty clear that applicants applying to Top 20 programs with less than 2.9 are going to begin to have a hard time, those with a 2.7-2.5 are going to have an even harder time, and those with less than a 2.5 are going to be really challenged. Given that schools do put significant emphasis on demonstrated academic potential, in my experience those with GPAs below the bottom of the 80% range and with GMATs in the 80% range have a much easier time gaining admission.

Table 4:  Age 30 OK, but by Age 35? Well…
 Top 20 US Programs in Average Age of Entrant Order 
(Stanford does not provide Average Age Data, )

School Name	US News & World Report Rank	Acceptance Rate	Average age of new entrants	Average work experience (months)
Stanford GSB	1	6.8%	N/A	49
HBS	1	11.3%	27	49
New York University Stern	10	16.0%	27	58
University of Virginia Darden	11	25.1%	27	57
Wharton	1	18.7%	28	60
Chicago Booth	4	21.0%	28	57
MIT Sloan	5	13.1%	28	60
Northwestern Kellogg	6	21.6%	28	62
Columbia Business School	8	18.1%	28	57
Dartmouth Tuck	9	20.8%	28	63
University of Michigan—​Ann Arbor Ross	11	33.7%	28	65
Yale SOM	13	21.3%	28	67
University of Texas—​Austin McCombs	15	32.6%	28	59
Cornell University Johnson	17	22.1%	28	57
Carnegie Mellon Tepper	18	32.0%	28	50
UNC Chapel Hill Kenan-​Flagler	19	43.8%	28	62
University of California—​Berkeley (Haas)	7	14.3%	29	62
Duke Fuqua	14	26.5%	29	66
UCLA Anderson	16	22.3%	29	63
Emory University Goizueta	20	31.2%	29	65

If you are planning on entering an MBA program  between the ages of 24 and 30 and have from 24-96 months of work experience, age is probably not really something you need to worry very much about. If you are a college student applying to a program with differed admission (HBS, Stanford) and/or a policy of taking recent grads or those with limited work experience (Check with each program to determine that), again, no problem.  What makes the age issue such a sensitive one for schools is that they clearly don’t want to be accused of age discrimination while simultaneously they feel an institutional need to discriminate based on age to make certain that all the participants fit within the program.  However, for those who age is above the 80% range, the question becomes how old do they go?  The Average Age data above tells us that paranoid talk to the contrary, schools are admitting plenty of people in their early 30s.  Since most of these schools have an average age of between 28 and 29, clearly they have plenty of entrants in their 30s. The Average Months of Work Experience also indicates this.  At all of these institutions, entrants have an average of between 4 and 5.5 years of experience by the time they enter.  While manyentrants began their full-time employment  at age 21- 23, many pursue graduate education (Most likely 1-6 years beyond an undergraduate degree), may take a gap year before/during/after college or between jobs, many graduate in 5 years,  many have experienced unemployment etc.

The  admissions picture becomes significantly less positive when applicants are planning to enter at age 34 or older, but not necessarily impossible.  This is true even at Stanford, the B-school with the biggest reputation for preferring younger applicants. Stanford’s  Class of 2015′s work experience range was from 0-12 years, so unless the oldest admit or admits started working much before the age of 22, they entered Stanford at 34-35 years old. Still, given Stanford’s average of 4 years of work experience, they can’t be taking many older candidates.  I think the fact that their MsX program admits those with eight or more years of experience, is a good indication that Stanford’s MBA program is primarily focused on those with up to eight years of work experience, but does not exclude exceptional candidates with up to 12 years of experience.  Also, consider that since MsX is a full-time management program, it  provides a program specifically designed to meet the needs of “more experienced managers.” This is a major externality that the above data cannot account for because except for MIT, none of the rest of these schools has a full-time graduate degree in management for this specific demographic. Most have EMBAs and/or part-time programs, but this is not the same.

How many older applicants are actually getting in?  HBS is the only program that systematically accounts for age distribution. HBS does this based on years since undergraduate graduation. The following is taken from a July 24, 2013 post of  From The Admissions Director:

“This histogram shows the “number of years since graduation from undergraduate school” for the classes of 2013 – 2015.”

Keeping in mind that HBS has both a low average age and low number of months of work experience, we can assume that the distributions are more favorable to older candidates at schools with higher average ages and months of work experience because HBS gets the most applications and is the second most difficult program to enter. What we can see from the HBS numbers distribution is that about 100 or more of the HBS Class of 2015 must have been around age 30 or more at the time of entering the program.  My oldest admitted client so far was 32, but somebody is getting into HBS who must be a bit older than that, but just a bit.   Based on the available data and the admissions outcomes I have seen,  it is pretty clear that age 35 represents the typical high end for admission though exceptions can be found with candidates getting admitted to about age 40.

If you have from 7 to 10 years of work experience and are age 30-32 at the time of matriculation,  my advice would be to simply apply where you really want to go, but to make sure that you are applying to at least one school with a relatively higher age and/work experience range to better hedge on this.  To be even safer, apply to more schools with higher age and work experience averages.

If you are over age 32 and have over 10 years of work experience, in addition to applying to programs that have high average ages and work experience numbers, I would really recommend that you look at the full-time residential programs at Stanford, MIT, USC, and LBS designed for mid-career managers as well as EMBA programs.

Finally, I just want to emphasize again that while the numbers considered in this blog post do matter, they don’t tell the whole picture and are far from the only factors you need to look at in order to understand and beat your competition. 

In the next post in this series, I will be looking at demographics.

-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.

Beating the Competition, Gaining MBA Admission: Macro-Numbers

Clients frequently ask me to assess their chances for MBA admission.  They want to know how they compare with their competition. They want to know how to beat their competition.  This is an extremely reasonable request.  After all, admission to top MBA programs or other competitive graduate programs is a zero sum game: You get admitted and win or don't get admitted and lose.  I will not sugarcoat loss by suggesting that somehow the act of applying is such an enriching experience that competing is its own reward. Some people might get such a benefit as a by-product of a process that requires introspection, but the primary benefit in making an application is to get admitted. The time and energy required are often great. Greater, in fact, then many realize when they begin the process.  So, it is perfectly natural that clients want to know how they stand against the competition.

Given the global nature of my client base and my experience over the past twelve and half years, I am able to assess the competition from a variety of perspectives.   In this series of posts, I will discuss some of the ways to assess your competition and beat your competition. 

In this first post, I look at Competition from the macro-level of Acceptance Rates, Number of Applicants, Number of Enrolled, and Yield. It is important to learn how to assess your chances for MBA admission in terms of publicly available data rather than what your friends say,  ranking lists, where your parents want you to go, or vague feelings.  My data is from US News & World Report for Fall 2013 entrance. I have calculated all Yield rates, which are rounded up.  I could taken data from other sources and this is in no way outright endorsement of the US News & World Report rankings.

My goal in this post  is that you gain insight into macro-level data reveals about top MBA programs and how such insights can be used to help develop a school selection strategy.  Future posts in this series will address other ways to understand and beat your competition.

1. Begin by looking at the popularity of the program.  In general,  after taking account of the number of available seats, the more popular the program, the more difficult it will be to enter. Popularity is always relative, that is, you must compare programs to determine their relative popularity. Popularity is measured in two ways:

Number of Applicants: While some programs may indeed be self-selecting (based on factors like curriculum, program length, and location) because of the uniqueness of the program, the absolute measure of popularity is the number of applicants to a program.  HBS is the most popular US MBA program because it receives the most applications (9315). Stanford is second most popular program because it receives the second largest number of applications (7108).  Wharton is the third most popular, etc.

Yield is the number of applicants enrolled divided by the number admitted.  Yield reveals the popularity of a program amongst  MBA admits to that school.  Yield is the number that tells that on the whole, more of those that get admitted to HBS  would rather go there than do anything else (Go to another school, stay in the workforce,  travel the world, etc).  If you compare the yield between schools that admit similar types of applicants, it is a good bet that you can predict what an applicant will do when faced with choosing between schools.


Comparing Yield

Business School	HBS	Stanford	Booth	Ross
Number of Applicants	9315	7108	4300	2647
Yield (Enrolled÷ Accepted)	89% (932 enrolled/1050 accepted)	84% (406 enrolled/483 accepted)	63% (581 enrolled /929 accepted)	51%  (455 enrolled /893 accepted)

I have had never had a client who was admitted to HBS and Booth or to Stanford and Booth,  and went to Booth.  Maybe such a person exists, but a comparison of the yields tells us that this is unlikely.  Yield also tells us Michigan is likely to be a safety school for many who apply there because so many admits go somewhere else.

A high yield indicates that early round application is critical because those that are admitted are more likely to attend, creating less available seats in subsequent rounds.  A low yield program is one where last round admission is much more likely because the program needs every round to fill build their class. This is why I have had many clients admitted to Ross in Round Three,  a fair number admitted to Booth in Round Three, and very few admitted to HBS or Stanford in Round Three.  So, if you are applying for a late round and want a better shot at admission, apply to some schools with relatively low yields (around 50% or less).

2. Next, look at the Acceptance Rate.  While the acceptance rate is surely the absolutely most important number to know, it only tells part of the story.  If you don’t know a school’s yield and number of applicants you will lack the full context for making sense of the acceptance rate.

Comparing  Acceptance Rate to Yield and Number of Applications Based on US News & World Reports Top 20 US MBA Programs.  Listed in Acceptance Rate Order.

B-School	Acceptance Rate	Number of Applicants	Number Enrolled	Number Accepted	Yield (Enrolled÷ Accepted)	US News Rank
Stanford GSB	6.8%	7108	406	483	84%	1
Harvard Business School	11.3%	9315	932	1050	89%	1
Sloan School of Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology	13.1%	4529	406	593	69%	5
Haas School of Business at University of California–Berkeley	14.3%	3422	251	488	51%	7
Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University	16%	3661	313	587	53%	10
Columbia Business School	18.1%	5765	749	1044	72%	8
Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania	18.7%	6498	837	1217	69%	1
Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College	20.8%	2680	277	588	47%	9
Booth School of Business at University of Chicago	21%	4430	581	929	63%	4
School of Management at Yale University	21.3%	2826	291	601	48%	13
Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University	21.6%	5453	646	1177	55%	6
Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University	22.1%	2356	289	521	56%	17
Anderson School of Management at University of California–Los Angeles	22.3%	3124	356	697	51%	16
Darden School of Business at University of Virginia	25.1%	2721	316	682	46%	11
Fuqua School of Business at Duke University	26.5%	3150	433	834	52%	14
Goizueta Business School at Emory University	31.2%	1168	157	364	43%	20
Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University	32%	1411	201	451	45%	18
McCombs School of Business at University of Texas–Austin	32.6%	1951	275	637	43%	15
Stephen M. Ross School of Business at University of Michigan–Ann Arbor	33.7%	2647	455	893	51%	11
Kenan-Flagler Business School at University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill	43.8%	1494	278	655	42%	19

Note:  I am using the US News & World Report data and rankings as an example.  Other publications rankings could have been used and other schools could have been included, but for purposes of understanding how to analyze the difficulty of admission, this data set is sufficient for my purposes. While I wish that I could cover European programs here, given that many of them don’t provide the same or even similar data as US B-schools, I  thought it best to put them to the side for the moment. 

Look at Acceptance Rates in Context. If you just look at acceptance rates, you will see that they are a relatively poor predicator of a school’s US News ranking, which is one reason why rankings should never be taken at face value.  But, then again, acceptance rates cannot be understood without greater context:

Size Matters: Stanford GBS is the most difficult MBA program to get accepted to, but it is less popular than HBS both in terms of total number of applicants and yield.   It is also a much smaller program in terms of number of enrolled, which is one critical reason why the acceptance rate at Stanford is so small compared to HBS. The other top big programs (Over 500 students in each year’s class), Wharton, Columbia, Kellogg, and Booth like HBS, have higher acceptance rates than top smaller programs.   Size also matters at the lower end as well,  a program with a relatively small number of applicants and large number of seats is easier to get into.

Popularity with Admits Matters:  Just because the acceptance rate and number enrolled is low does not necessarily mean a school has limited capacity to take students in late rounds. Applicants sometimes assume that a school’s acceptance rate is also an indication of the difficulty of gaining admission in 2nd, 3rd or subsequent rounds.   Haas with a 14.3% acceptance rate (Forth highest) and a small enrollment (251) and 51% yield  has the same yield as Ross where the acceptance rate is 33.7%.  In other words, while Haas is difficult to enter, it tends to be a second choice school for many who are admitted there and a relatively good school for gaining R3 admission.  Amongst the Top 10, Tuck is the least popular with those admitted there and therefore another good late round option.  Kenan-Flagler UNC is both the easiest school on the table above to get admitted to and the least popular.  They have four application rounds and you be sure that the y need to accept applicants in four rounds to fill their class.

Different scenarios justify different school selection approaches in order to beat the competition:

-If you want to maximize your chance of admission to a Top 10 MBA program, the best thing to do is focus on Wharton, Columbia, Kellogg, Tuck and Booth and be very cautious about applying to HBS, Stanford, MIT, Haas, and NYU.   Tuck is the only small Top 10 MBA program with an acceptance similar to a bigger program, so it is a much better bet than the other smaller top programs.

-Applying only to Stanford GSB and HBS is a very high risk strategy.  Even adding a few additional schools (especially Tuck, Wharton, Columbia, Kellogg, and/or Booth) is a great way to hedge the risk in a Top 10 only selection strategy.

-If you are willing to consider programs ranked 11-20, Michigan is the absolute bargain because of its high acceptance rate and ranking.

-If you are applying in late application rounds, go for schools with low yields (around 50% or less)  and high acceptance rates (25% or more) to increase your chances for admission.

 -If you prefer or at least willing to live in small towns or less popular localities, you will find it easier to get admitted.  Simply avoid New York City (CBS, NYU), Philadelphia (Wharton, an easy train ride to NYC!),  the Silicon Valley/Bay Area (Stanford and Berkeley), and Cambridge (HBS and MIT). Chicago (Booth and Kellogg)  and Los Angeles (UCLA) could be the most popular cities you focus on, but if you really want to increase your chances focus on Southern Schools plus McCombs and Ross.

-The highest risk strategy is to apply in last rounds to schools with high yields and low acceptance rates.  While I have had clients succeed at R3 round strategy to HBS, Stanford, Columbia, Wharton, etc., I always make it clear from the outset that the chances are poor even if both the applicant and application are strong in all respects. And unfortunately more often than not, they lose.

-Don’t underestimate the difficulty of gaining admission to Wharton or Columbia. Both schools have relatively high rates of acceptance, but this can be very deceiving.  If you are applying in R2 and especially R3 at Wharton, you will be faced with the fact that while Wharton is the second largest program, it also has a relatively high yield (Only HBS, Stanford, and Columbia have a higher yield. It ties with MIT).  That is why R2 and R3 waitlisting is common enough there.  Also, the acceptance rate numbers are impacted by the Lauder Program, which is a highly self-selecting program, so it can be assumed that proportionally more Lauder applicants are admitted than regular Wharton admits, meaning that the actual rate for gaining admission into the two-year non-Lauder track is actually harder that the overall acceptance rate.   Columbia is even more complicated because of Early Decision.  ED boosts Columbia’s yield because most of those accept ed to it will not abandon their $6000 deposit, which would be paid prior to other school’s R2 results coming out.  While I have no data, I can say, based on extensive experience for over a decade, that ED is easier to get into, so the Regular Decision acceptance rate is much worse.  In addition, applying to Columbia after the January Fellowship Deadline (What I think of as the actual R2 deadline there) really reduces an applicants chances. Since Columbia has a rolling admissions process,  you can assume that the chances for RD admission decline constantly.


Looking at other data will generate other conclusions.  Different rankings would alter your perception of acceptance rates.  Putting these schools in order of post-MBA starting salary  (Something I have done elsewhere) might also alter your perceptions.  My hope is that you have seen how such data can be used to analyze potential school selection choices in order to develop a winning strategy.

Finally, Getting the Interview 
One very interesting function of  a school’s  acceptance rate is that it is a good indicator of what percentage of applicants will get invited to invitation only interviews. Double the acceptance rate at programs with invitations only admissions and acceptance rates less than 50% and you have a pretty good idea about what percentage of applicants are being interviewed. This is is critical because only those who are interviewed have a chance to gain admission.  Stanford is difficult not only because the number of applicants far exceeds the number of available seats, but because the chance even to interview is so small, 13.6%. Things get a bit easier at HBS, where approximately 22.6% of applicants will get interviewed, and significantly easier at Booth, where about 42% of the pool will get an invite.To varying extents these programs are rejected outright many applicants who surely fit within th e 80% range.  Fortunately, they are not necessarily rejecting the same people.  For instance, I have had clients rejected without interview from HBS, who were admitted to Stanford and vis a versa. I have even had clients rejected outright by Booth and admitted to HBS.  Ross must interview the majority of their applicants in order to get enough admits. In other words, they schools are easy to get interviewed by as long as you fit within the 80% range. The 80% range and averages is the subject of the next blog post in this series.

-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.