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.

On travel, visiting MBA programs, and other things

In this post, I discuss a number of things mostly relating to me.  I don’t do this sort of thing often, but now seemed to be a good time.

Since June of 2013, my wife and I have been living in different cities in order to expand our perspectives and live (not just travel) in different places.  A great thing about my job as a graduate admissions consultant is that as long as I have an internet connection, I can work anywhere, which is what I have been doing.  First, we spent three months in Berlin (With short trips to Paris, Salzburg, and Warsaw), next a month each in Chicago and New York City (I visited Columbia Business School, NYU Stern, Cornell Johnson, Wharton, and Yale SOM), and since November have been based in Kuala Lumpur (With trips to Bali, Hanoi, Siem Reap (Angkor Wat), and Tokyo (Sushi recharge).  On the 20th, we leave for Rome and will be back in Japan after a week in London (I have already scheduled a visit at London Business School).  Whether it has been visiting B-schools on the East Coast or dodging motorbikes in Hanoi or understanding how the raise of Mal aysia’s middle class society is giving new life to American  restaurant franchises that are shrinking at home or wondering around everywhere in Europe’s most dynamic city (Berlin) or meeting clients in NYC and Warsaw, my perspectives have been challenged and my views have broadened.   And, whatever your age (in my case, 46), gaining new experiences and perspectives is critical to not only staying mentally agile, but living an interesting life.

My visits to schools on the East Coast was a great opportunity to talk with admissions at Cornell and NYU and former clients at Columbia, Wharton, and Yale.

I visited Yale before the new building had opened, but my former client and I walked around.  It represents such a massive change for a school that really did have a pretty awful building.  If I was to bet on one school to increase in rankings and number of applications over the next few years, it would surely be Yale.

Talking with Cornell’s Christine Sneva, Executive Director of Admissions and Financial Aid, I was also impressed by what I think is the most innovative new MBA program around, Johnson’s  One-Year MBA at Cornell Tech.  Amongst top US schools, only Kellogg (limited to those with essentially the equivalent of an undergraduate degree in business) and Cornell at the main campus  (limited to those with a graduate degree, CFA, CPA, Actuary certification, and project management certification) have been offering one-year MBAs. The new one-year program is different because of its interdisciplinary focus on the digital economy.  While this MBA is not for everyone, it creates a third  great option for those who want to do a one-year MBA in the US.  While Cornell’s new NYC campus is being built, those in the Cornell Tech MBA will have to take their classes at Google’s NYC building.  I hope to have the opportunity to work with applicants on this program in the coming year.  By the way, if you are interested in applying to Johnson’s one or two-year programs in Ithaca, I highly recommend visiting.
Based on what I observed, Johnson provides a level hospitality to visiting applicants that is highly personal and really gives applicants the chance to make a positive impression.

One of the best parts of visiting schools is talking with former clients and, when possible, going to classes.  Getting the perspective of  current students or very recent alumni remains the single best way to get informed about the realities of any MBA program. Even if you can’t visit, make the necessary contacts because students will give you insights that you can’t get from a video, a presentation, or even most formal school visits.

While my constant travels will to end in July when I return to Japan, I am beginning a new adventure. I have been admitted to INSEAD’s Executive Master in Consulting and Coaching for Change (EMCCC), http://specialised-degrees.insead.edu/executive-master-in-consulting-and-coaching-for-change/. I am very excited to be part of a program that seems specifically geared towards enhancing my professional skills as a coach and consultant.  As an executive program, it will allow me to continue working while attending a series of short modular courses at INSEAD’s campus in Singapore beginning in September 2014. I plan to reduce my counseling workload by 25% to give myself plenty of time to focus on the program.  Just for the record, I had to write 14 essays with a total word count of over 7000 words.   I have always sympathized with my clients doing their applications, but since I finished my prior masters degree in 1993, lets just say that I have now received a reminder of what is involved in putting a graduate application together.

In order to better lead my clients through their own self-transformations, I have wanted to experience a more personally transformational approach to education. Working as an MBA admissions consultant since 2001, I have learned about curricula at top business schools.  The part of the MBA that has most intrigued me is the transformational aspect in terms of self-understanding. I wish to experience this for myself and in an intensive way, which what INSEAD’s EMCCC will allow me to do.  I look forward to sharing my insights with both my clients and future readers of this blog.

Finally, I wanted to discuss my plans for the blog during the rest of the year.  For the rest of May, I plan to write a number of long pieces like the one I posted yesterday.  Once schools start putting up their essays, I will post analysis for the schools I typically cover. I plan to do relatively limited blogging in June, just focusing on CBS, HBS, Stanford, and Wharton and heavy blogging in July to  mid-August.  As is usually the case, my blogging will die down from late August through early October, pick up a bit in October and die down again in November through early January.  As I blogged heavily in January and February, I hope to bring my total number of posts to 50-60 for the year.  As per usual, I will focus on substance over quantity.

-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.

Advice for Family Business MBA Applicants

Amongst the many different types of clients I work with, applicants whose careers and/or future goals are related to their family businesses have special advantages and challenges. My family business clients have come from very diverse backgrounds.  I have had applicants whose families controlled businesses that were quite small, $1 million or less in annual sales, to many whose firms ranged from $10 million to $1 billion to simply vast, billion or multibillion dollar businesses. These clients have come primarily from China, Europe, India, Japan, the Middle East, South Korea, and the United States. The post that follows provides some of my advice for those applicants coming from family businesses. 

While each applicant is different, there are some common types of family business applicants.  Chances are that you fit more or less into one or more of these categories.

1.  The Leader is in charge of his or her family business.  While the Leader could actually be the founder and a successful entrepreneur who now employs his or her family in the business, more commonly,  The Leader has either due to death or retirement  taken over the business.  The Leader has to have a team in place that can manage the business on a day-to-day basis, so that he or she can pursue an full or part-time MBA or EMBA.  Leaders typically pursue MBAs because they feel the need to enhance their ability to make effective decisions, to enhance their soft and hard skills, to professionalize their organizations, to grow their businesses, and to take on new challenges.

2. The Future Leader is the designated heir of the head of a family business.  Usually this is a daughter or son, but might be a grandchild, niece, nephew, or spouse.  Unlike The Leader, they live directly in the shadow of their relative and must contend with an organization that may include many senior level people who they will eventually lead.  The Future Leader can more easily pursue a full-time MBA than the The Leader because the organization can typically function without in his or her absence.  While Future Leaders pursue MBAs for much of the same reason as Leaders, they are often especially concerned with soft issues related to their eventual ascendency and organizational change.


3.  One of the Children.  Clients in this category are neither the Leader or designated Future Leader of the family business. These “second sons or daughters” or nieces and nephews may already be heavily involved in the business and know that they will play a senior role in it, but have no expectations of being The Leader.  Their reasons for doing an MBA will be similar to those of Leaders and Future Leaders, but in order to tell an effective goals story, they have to identify specific part(s) of the business that they hope to contribute to.  For those coming, from say, large Indian family conglomerates, this usually means focusing on specific units within the business.  For others coming from smaller or more specialized businesses, it might mean focusing on a functional area like investing, marketing, or corporate social responsibility.

4. The Spouse.    The spouse is looking at a situation where he or she needs the skills of an MBA in order to either assist or replace his/her spouse in a family business.  The Spouse typically has both the resources and time to attend an MBA or EMBA.

5. The Independent is typically a son, daughter, niece, or nephew who has been professionally successful away from the family business.  The Independent plans to enter the family business after his or her MBA. I have worked with many Independents who are Future Leaders.  While Independents’ goals are often similar to those of a Future Leader, their accomplishment related content in their essays and resume  is likely to have little or nothing to do with the family business.  Unlike those that only worked within the Family Business, unless the Independent owns their own business, they usually have no difficulty securing recommendations from supervisors.


The Advantages of Being a Family Business MBA Applicant

-Easily believable future career goals. Family business applicants have a huge advantage in respect to this because assuming they make a good argument justifying an MBA, they should have little difficulty articulating goals that an admissions committee can accept.  Making those goals exciting is another thing, which I will discuss below.

-Experience.  While not true with every family business applicant I have worked with, those that have worked within their family business often have significantly greater monetary and supervisory responsibilities then the applicant pool as a whole.  While this would obviously apply to the leader of a family business, it typically applies to anyone who has worked at their family business. While some of my clients have started “like any other new employee,” the rapidity of their advancement is clear in almost all cases after two or more years of work. This typically means that the family business applicant has no difficulty providing impressive accomplishments in their resume, essays, and in interviews.  They often have extensive leadership experience.

-Guaranteed post-MBA employment.  Like entrepreneurs returning to their businesses and  those who are company-sponsored, family business applicants have guaranteed post-MBA employment, which makes them ideal in respect to a school’s post-MBA employment statistics and to minimizing the utilization of career services.    In other words, admitting a family business is statistically advantageous and resource efficient.

-Wealth. Rich and successful alumni play a key role at building great business schools.  Those who lead or will lead or be one of the leaders of large family businesses will likely be in a position to contribute to the program as alumni. Additionally, such alumni may also become future employers of the program’s graduates.  While an applicant should not flaunt this reality in a vulgar way, it is surely an advantage.

-Connections.  Just as those employees coming from companies that might have a close relationship with a particular MBA program, family business applicants are also often in a position to take advantage of connections.   if a family business applicant also has connections with the development office (fundraising office) or other departments within the university  that they are applying to, these connections should be utilized if they are deemed to be potentially effective in gaining admission. All parts of a university, including the MBA admissions office, are subject to influence. Such influence must be used carefully and while no guarantee, I have seen this kind of influence work effectively at a number of top MBA programs in the US.  For those who find my remarks shocking,  grow up, the world is unfair and the application process is just as subject to a variety of influences as any other human activity.  While each applicant must use his or her re sources to the best of their ability to gain admission, good judgment and tact are critical when considering using connections.

-Resources especially for family business students.   Family business students are not only a distinct group of students in an MBA program, family business itself is a distinct subject of study by business school faculty.  So not only are family business student clubs very common.  Some programs that have courses and/or defined academic focus on family business include:

Columbia Business School: Family Business Management course
HBS: Management of the Family Business course
INSEAD: Wendel International Centre for Family Enterprise
Kellogg: Center for Family Enterprises
London Business School: Family Business Research
Stanford GSB: Family Business course

Additionally, a number of schools including  HBS,  IMD, and UCLA Anderson have conferences and executive educational resources focused on family businesses that MBA students may be able to take advantage of.

The Challenges of Being a Family Business MBA Applicant

Franky, I think the advantages completely outweigh the challenges.

-Formulating attention getting and dynamic goals. While family business applicants have little difficulty making their goals believable, making goals that are exciting to the reader can be more of a challenge.  In this sense, the family business is like any other applicant, but with the difference that their future is not entirely wide-open because it is very much connected to an existing organization.  The dynamism can found by figuring out what kind of change related story to tell about ones post-MBA goals: How will the applicant impact the business?  You can find my own approach to creating dynamic goals for yourself in my post on Stanford Essay 2. In addition, I would recommend that family business applicants actually conduct a SWOT analysis on the business when formulatin g their own goals.

- Team member related experience. While many family business applicants have no difficulty writing about and/or discussing team member experience,  some have had limited exposure to being in a position where they were not the leader. Not surprisingly, I also have found this to be the case with some of my clients who built their own companies.  Sometimes the notion of peer and colleague has to be altered in order to find effective stories for such applicants. One of the ways I help such clients is through advising them on the identification of relevant experiences that fit team related questions.

-Getting Too Personal. Setting the right tone and telling the right stories is key to MBA admission.  One of the primary ways I help clients is by giving them feedback on the stories that they intend to tell.   Family business applicants are especially likely to need feedback in this respect because family businesses are very personal. The conflicts within them can often be with relatives.  Knowing what to disclose and how to do so is not always obvious.

-Recommendations. Just as with many entrepreneurial MBA applicants, family business applicants often have difficulty with recommendations.  Since family members are not considered to be objective enough, having your grandparent, dad, mom, uncle,  aunt, etc. write your recommendation is not an option. Many of my family business clients have no supervisor recommenders, instead they look to senior non-family member colleagues who don’t report to them, clients, business partners, and outside advisors for their recommendations.  Family business applicants with past or present non-family business experience are less likely to face this problem or at least not with all of their recommenders.  All I can say is that no client of mine has ever been unable to find suitable recommenders, but sometimes it just takes a bit more creativity to identify the right people. Many MBA programs, in fact, provide advice to family business  applicants regarding the reco mmendation issue. For example, Stanford provides the following useful advice:
“We understand, however, that you may be in a situation that prevents you from providing a reference from your current direct supervisor. For example, you may:

• Be self-employed
• Work for a family business and a family member is your supervisor
• Be in a new position and your direct supervisor does not know you that well
• Not have notified your direct supervisor that you are applying to business school

In this case, use your judgment in finding a source for your recommendation — a previous supervisor, a client, a member of your board of directors, or any other individual who reviews your work.
If you are unable to provide a letter from your current direct supervisor, include a brief note of explanation in the Additional Information section of the online application. It is up to you to choose an appropriate replacement.”

Similar advice will be provided by any MBA program.

While each applicant’s situation is unique, I hope that the above is useful for family business applicants.  If you are looking for more individualized advice, please contact me to arrange an initial consultation.

-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 "Hidden Essays" in Recent MBA Applications

One marketing gimmick, used the world over, is tell potential customers/applicants/survey test takers how easy it is to complete an application for whatever.  I can’t prove that the Business School Admissions offices that I mention in this post had car insurance ads or membership card applications or “Please Take this Survey” requests in mind when putting together their applications.  Still Booth Chicago, Cambridge Judge, Harvard Business School, IMD and Oxford Said  all have “hidden essay” content, that is to  say, they require essays which they don’t call essays.  I expect this trend to continue in the coming years.

I think most of this is done to somehow create the appearance that applicants will have to do less writing than would otherwise be the case.  Each of these school’s applications has its unique way of hiding essay content that is actually really important.

One downside of hidden essays is that applicants can easily underestimate how much time will actually be required to effectively complete an application.  As anyone who has ever completed an application form for a top MBA program can tell you, it is time consuming.

Another downside of hidden essays is that applicants will not take really important content as seriously as they should because they somehow think application form content is not as important as essay content.  Underestimating the importance of applications is actually a mistake.  Schools take their application form content seriously and information on an applicant’s past academic, extracurricular, and professional background is a core part of the evaluation process.  I regularly review my clients’ application form content because it is an important part of the application process. Even more so when the content is extensive and contains answers to questions related to goals, why MBA, and accomplishments.

While applications are sure to change in a variety of ways for 2015 admission, let’s  take a look at some some of the hidden essays used for 2014 admission.

1. The Mini-Goals/Why MBA Essay of HBS and IMD
HBS eliminated even an optional full-length Why MBA/Goals Essay a couple of years ago.  For the last two years, they have been asking for a 500 character statement  in the application form:

Employment Section Intended Post-MBA:
Industry:	Please Select

Accounting
Advertising/Marketing
Aerospace/Automotive
Agribusiness
Arts/Culture
Biotechnology
Broadcasting
Chemicals
Commercial Banking
Community/Economic Development
Computer Software and Services
Construction
Consulting
Consumer Products
Diversified Communications
Diversified Financial Svcs/Insurance
Education
Energy/Extractive Minerals
Engineering
Entertainment/Leisure
Food Service/Lodging
Food/Beverage
Government
Health Services
High Technology/Electronics
Highly Diversified Manufac and Service
International Development/Relief
Internet Development Services
Investment Banking
Investment Management
Legal Services
Machinery and Indus Equip Mftrs
Medical/Health Care Devices
Military
Multimedia
Other Non-Profit
Paper and Forest Products
Pharmaceuticals
Printing/Publishing
Private Equity
Public Relations
Real Estate Development
Real Estate Finance
Retailing/Wholesaling
Sales and Trading
Sports
Telecommunications
Trading/Import/Export
Transportation
Utilities
Venture Capital






Function:
     Please Select

Accounting/Control
Consulting
Engineering
Finance: Corporate Finance
Finance: General
Finance: Investment Management
Finance: Lending
Finance: Mergers and Acquisitions
Finance: Research
Finance: Sales and Trading
Finance: Treasury/Analysis
Finance: Underwriting/Advising
Finance: Venture Capital
Fundraising/Development
General Management
Human Resources
Information Services Mgmt.
Investment Advising
Legal Services
Logistics
Manufacturing/Operations
Marketing: Brand/Prod. Mgmt.
Marketing: Communications
Marketing: General
Marketing: Research
Marketing: Sales
Medical Services
Other
Product Development
Professional Advising-Religion
Project Management
Public Relations
Purchasing
Research and Development
Strategic Planning
Teaching

How does pursuing an MBA support your choices above? 500 characters.


Quite similarly IMD (My of IMD’s essays can be found here) provides two 200 character statements:
What is your career goal post IMD?
What are the skills you need to develop in order to achieve your goal?

IMD gives even less character count than HBS to explain why you need an MBA and what you intend to do post-MBA.  This is a major  topic, which might be central to an interview at either school and will surely be a basis upon which an applicant will be judged, so it highly likely that an applicant will spend much more time thinking about the answer(s) than on the writing.   This really is a “brevity is the soul of wit” situation: An applicant needs to think deeply and explain as succinctly as possible why they need an MBA to achieve their goals.

2. Cambridge Judge: Somehow make the distinction between “MBA Essays” and “Career Objectives”
My Analysis of Cambridge Essays can be found here. Anyone who thinks that the Cambridge only has has two essays is in for a bit of surprise when they actually look at the Cambridge Judge Online Application because there are actually 5 essays, not two.  Strangely, a 500 word Career Objectives statement is not an “essay.”
One  "Career Objectives" Statement
Please provide a personal statement. It should not exceed 500 words and must include the following: 

• What are your short and long term career objectives?
• What skills/characteristics do you already have that will help you to achieve them?
• What do you hope to gain from the degree programme and how do you feel it will help you achieve the career objectives you have?

I am not sure what sort of bureaucratic mind is at work that differentiates between this statement and the essays, but clearly this is an essay and a core part of the Judge application.
3. Chicago Booth: Break-up an essay into two pieces and just don’t include it in the essay section.
Booth is not as confusing as Judge, but clearly doing something a bit odd.  You get 700 characters each for these two application form questions:
What is your short-term post-MBA goal?
What is your long-term post-MBA goal?
It seems clear enough from their application form that Booth modified what HBS had been doing.   The thing is, HBS gives 500 characters, which is about 75-125 words and clearly a very mini-essay.  On the other hand, Booth is giving 700 characters each for the above, which amounts to about 125-150 words each, so between the two applicants  had about 250-300 words, which is actually the length of a small essay.  Clearly Booth was just moving around content to make it appear that applicants have fewer essays to write than  they actually do.
4. Cambridge Judge and Oxford Said: Combine essay content with a standard employment description
I have already mentioned Cambridge labelling only two of its five essays as “Essays.”  Their other non-essays are:
What is your most significant challenge within your current company? (1000 Characters Maximum)
What is your most significant accomplishment within your current company? (1000 Characters Maximum)
1000 characters is 150-250 words, so again small essays. These two non-essays are clearly on important topics for assessing an  applicant’s past experience.

Many applicants to Cambridge Judge also apply to Oxford Said (My Oxford essay analysis is here)  and “coincidently” Oxford as the following non-essay questions:
Please list your main responsibilities, your most significant challenge and your greatest achievement  (5000 Characters including spaces, which means about 1000-1250 words maximum for answering all three of these).
These are three separate topics.  The first one is simply standard current position application content, while the other two topics are actually the same non-essay questions that Cambridge asks.   I think it is fine to include this sort of content in an application form, so please note that I  am not criticising this, but rather simply pointing out that these are major topics for evaluating an applicant and should be taken seriously.

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet -W. Shakespeare 
B-schools can call them essays, application form questions, statements of purpose, whatever.  The name does not matter.  The time you will to write an answer will be just the same.  The value given to the answer will be just the same.   Just make sure your answer smells sweet!

-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.