Thoughts on the MBA Application Season 2015-2016 and Beyond

With the results from MIT Sloan for Round 2 now in, I wanted to give my quick take on this past season.  For me personally, I worked with a reduced number of clients from the previous year because I was focusing on my part-time degree studies at INSEAD, so I had a somewhat lower headcount but I had a high number of clients getting into multiple programs. I worked with fewer HBS admits (5) than my all-time high last year (9), but have had more clients admitted to Wharton (10, including 1 for Lauder) than ever before. Each year is different because my clients are different and the results will be different. My client results can be found here.

As has been reported by Poets&Quants, GMAT scores keep going up at top schools and this is certainly impacting who is getting invited and ultimately admitted. While I continue to have clients who get admitted despite their GMAT (or GRE) score, they are certainly in the minority. I see both from my current clients and those who are now contacting me for reapplication that high test scores matter, so if you are planning on making application in this coming or subsequent admissions cycles, getting to at least the average test score for those who are admitted, is advisable. Still scores outside of the bottom of the 80% range for admits don’t make it impossible, just very challenging.  Someone is in that lower 10%,  which certainly include those in under-represented groups, but will also include some exceptional candidates who just did not do well on GMAT or GRE.

Regarding trends in MBA goals, entrepreneurship and tech remain hot, while finance (especially investment bank) remains cold amongst those seeking a career change.  Amongst my own clients I had both career changers and career enhancers who did quite well, which is the same in past years.  My expectation is that FINTECH will be extremely hot this coming cycle as it is now one of the biggest disruptors out there with real possibility to drastically change financial services. Applicants with Fintech backgrounds will surely be in high demand at MBA programs. Those thinking of a Fintech career who have no experience in this area should make attempts now to become educated so that they can talk the talk in their essays and interviews.

Given the collapse in the price of oil, the number of oil and gas professionals seeking an MBA and EMBA has surely increased. I saw that with my own client base. I fully anticipate further increases as the recovery in this industry is likely to be drawn out.  Applicants in this sector will see increased competition from their peers for admission.

It is generally said that MBA programs (and graduate education in general) are counter-cyclical to the rest of the economy: They grow when the economy retracts. Low rates of growth worldwide would suggest that more applicants will be applying in the coming season, thus increasing competition for admission.  I would not be surprised to see the admissions rates at Stanford, HBS, Wharton and other programs that showed reduced acceptance rates in recent years continue to experience increased numbers of applicants and reduced rates of admission in the coming cycle.

One major issue for international applicants who view an MBA as a ticket to work opportunities in the US is the continued limits on the number of  H1B visas, which has been a long-term issue but is now further complicated by the possibility of anti-immigrant candidate getting the Republican nomination and subsequently being elected President.  A Trump victory, a truly awful prospect in my opinion, could have a potentially devastating impact on visa issuance including student visas given his stated position.  Given the current political situation in the US,  it is hard to see comprehensive immigration reform including H1B visa expansion occurring anytime soon.  At best, I hope for the status quo in terms of US student visa and H1B visa issuance.


While I know much of what I am writing here is rather gloomy, the employment results for new MBAs was strong in 2015 according to Poets&Quants. Hopefully, that trend will continue in the coming years.

Long-term, as MBA programs worldwide build their reputation and brand, it will interesting to see whether the number of international applicants to top US schools starts to decline.  At this point, I don’t think we can assume that will happen any time soon. International MBA brands and the networks that have built up around them are not easily replaced by newer entrants.

I think it is safe to say that change will occur much faster as a result of the expansion of offerings (online, specialized degree programs, executive degree, and certificate programs) at top business schools. In this respect consider the offerings at MIT Sloan, which offers an MBA, LGO (MBA and engineering degree), a full-time mid career MBA (Sloan Fellows), an EMBA, a Master of Management Studies for those who already have an MBA or the equivalent, specialized Masters (Finance, Business Analytics, System Design & Management, PhD, executive education, and online courses.  MIT is not alone and I mention them because they are just a good example. The two-year early to mid-career traditional MBA is but one offering and room for expansion exists elsewhere rather than in such programs.  For schools like MIT,  unless they increase MBA class size and greatly increase the rate of admissions acceptance, so mething that runs contrary to maintaining their brand position as highly selective institutions, the must grow outside of the MBA program, which is what schools are and will continue doing.  In this respect, I think we will continue to see the MBA as a premium offering that enables Busines Schools to offer additional branded programs that will be highly attractive to diverse individuals with different learning needs.  Given both the increased variation, change, and length in people’s careers such offerings will help to meet the learning needs of professionals at all stages of their career development, which I consider a good thing.

-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.

My Executive Education Journey at INSEAD

Last month I completed the modules for my Executive Masters in Consulting and Coaching for Change at INSEAD. I began the program in September 2014 and will graduate after writing my thesis (ongoing) in October 2016.  Regular readers of this blog perhaps noticed a reduced level of posting over the last year and a half.  Along with reducing my client base by about 40%, I also stopped blogging as much as in past years to be able to focus on my program.  I wanted to provide some thoughts on the process for those considering doing this kind of degree.

A key issue for anyone pursuing a part-time degree program is making time for it.  Whether it is a part-time Masters, evening program, weekend program,  MBA, EMBA, or otherwise, making the time is critical.  In my own case, I am fortunate to be my own boss and except for my wife, didn’t need to consider the opinions of others.  I know from both my clients experiences and from those of classmates at INSEAD that getting their organization to give them time if not outright financial support is critical. For me, I just made a decision to reduce my income. I could make this decision because I had the support of my wife. And just like with employer support, having family support is also critical. In our case, we had to consider the financial costs of me attending and also know that me getting to my modules in Singapore would be the highest priority.  If someone has kids, which we don’t, this impact on them also needs to be considered. Executive degree programs t ypically ask about how you will make the time to attend the program and this is for good reason because having the time is the biggest barrier for succeeding once admitted. Everyone in my program, we had a class of 31, completed it and I was impressed by the fact that everyone was present and focused on the modules.

Based on my experience, I can agree with the assertion that one of the advantages of an executive degree is the ability to apply what one learns to the workplace. Given the nature of my own work, I was not looking for an Executive MBA but for a program that would provide me with  an education designed for training someone to be a better coach and to gain a deeper understanding of organizations, leadership, teamwork, and family businesses.  In other words, I wanted a business school education focused on non-quantitative “soft skills” content, which is exactly what I got.  One key aspect of the EMCCC is that its focus is such that problems or issues the participants have in their work or personal lives served core material for the program.  Whether it was business issues or personal ones, we could apply the methods we were learning to them.  Outside of the program, I began applying what I was learning to my own work with clients.  In fact, my thesis will us e a variety of methods covered in the program to both analyze and suggest how to improve client performance in MBA admissions interviews. I have already applied some of these techniques to the way I conduct interview training and I am seeing a significant positive impact for my clients as a result.  Gaining a deeper understanding of the impact I have on others and they have on me, a key aspect of what was covered in a variety of ways in my program, has made me a better admissions consultant and feel that improvement happening throughout the program. Keep in mind that I have been working as an admissions consultant since 2001. Gaining new techniques and feedback from peers and faculty has enabled a renewal and expansion of my ability beyond the kind of incremental improvement I think I had been making previously. My program challenged my assumptions and hopefully gave me the kind of impact that I could feel in my daily work.

Another consideration when considering any sort of education is who your classmates will be because it is really true that some of the biggest learning will happen because of interacting with them. In the case of the EMCCC, my classmates were management and other types of professional consultants, entrepreneurs, corporate executives, HR professionals, executive coaches, family business executives, and even a member of the INSEAD faculty. The age range was from 30 to over 60 and the mix of nationalities, typical for INSEAD, was diverse. The opportunity to interact with mature diverse professionals who were united in their desire to understand themselves and the world around them better was marvelous. I found fit with my classmates and also had an opportunity to go beyond my own professional context and to look at issues in new ways, which is what I was seeking: Renewing my own perspective and gaining a wider network to enable me to take a fresh approach to my work.  I have also made great friends.  So whatever type of program you might be considering make sure you are realistically evaluating who your classmates will be.

Finally, one question I get asked a lot is whether I will be changing my career now that I have my degree.  This was not my primary intention. While I hope to expand the range of work I do, one of my core objectives was to become a better graduate admissions consultant and coach.  I think it is fine to have multiple objectives (some that may be addressed in an application and others that you may prefer to keep to yourself) and depending on what those objectives are, you might be more focused on the short, medium, or long term.  Whatever the case, you should be able to articulate why you want to do the program and what you hope to get out of it. Given the time and money involved you owe to yourself to understand what it is you think you want.

-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.

MBA Applicants: Waiting for interview invites? Start your interview preparation now!

Are you waiting for MBA application interview invitations?  Now is the time to start your preparation.
For my detailed suggestions on overall interview preparation, please see:
-MBA Application Interview Strategy

-Interview Practice is ABOUT SPEAKING!

-Further Comments on MBA Admissions Interviews 
-General Characteristics of Admissions Officers, Students, and Alumni Interviewers
-Recovering from a bad answer during an MBA admissions interview
-10 Ways to Blow an MBA Admissions Interview
-When to start MBA interview practice? How to prepare?
You can also find my school specific interview posts  in the Interview Section of my Key Posts page.
For information about how I can help you prepare for interviews, see here. My client results and testimonials can be found here.


For my  detailed suggestions on overall interview preparation, please see:
-MBA Application Interview Strategy

-Interview Practice is ABOUT SPEAKING!

-Further Comments on MBA Admissions Interviews 
-General Characteristics of Admissions Officers, Students, and Alumni Interviewers
-Recovering from a bad answer during an MBA admissions interview
-10 Ways to Blow an MBA Admissions Interview
-and my more recent post, When to start MBA interview practice? How to prepare?

-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.

Yes, you really should write your own MBA admissions essays!

As an MBA admissions consultant, I help clients with their B-school applications. I advise on essays. I sometimes edit essays. I don’t write essays. I believe in helping applicants use their own own voice. I always thought this was the right thing to do and that ghostwritten essays were not only unethical, but highly risky to submit.  The technology for detecting ghostwritten and plagiarized is getting better and better as a recent article, “Cheating MBA applicants: Trick shots,“ in The Economist discusses:

“But while the proportion of people trying to cheat the system may have stayed the same, the number of schools keen to avoid being hoodwinked has increased. Where Smeal was the first to use Turnitin to sift through admissions essays, now there are around 40 big business schools making use of anti-cheating software. This is good in itself. But it may also make economic sense. Investigating academic fraud once classes are underway can be difficult and expensive. Ms Marcinkevage estimates that, by rooting out potential cheats before it gets that far, the anti-plagiarism software has paid for itself. And most importantly of all, it allows harried admissions staff to concentrate on students' essays, rather than fear their work is falsified.”

So, yes. Write your own essays and beware of anyone who gives you completely set phrases and entire paragraphs to insert. Be yourself. Represent yourself. If you need help, get it from someone who will assist you, not do the writing for you.

-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.

Top of the Ecosystem: Why Top 10 MBA Applicants Should Apply to HBS

Every year I have clients who get rejected from HBS and get admitted to other top MBA programs.  This year has been no different.  One of those who was rejected in R1 and offered an interview at another Top 10 business school asked me if it had been a waste of time to apply to HBS.  I responded:

“I think it was worth a shot for you to apply to HBS. The content you generated out of it helped you with your other essays for other schools. It was always a high risk/high return application. Not getting an invite does not mean it was not worth applying. The nature of this process for any applicant is that it involves rejection. Even those admitted to HBS and Stanford have often been rejected at one or more schools. ”

I wish I had added to my response that HBS is at the top of the US Business School Ecosystem because it consistently has the most applicants, is the biggest program in terms of headcount, has the biggest brand name (Regardless of ranking 1, 7, or whatever by the shifting standards of journalists elected by no one whose statistical survey expertise is at best doubtful), is the most important publisher of case studies, etc.  It does not matter if Stanford is harder to get into, more applicants apply to HBS and more applicants who are admitted to HBS go there than any of the other top MBA programs.  It  is the market leader and is at the top of its ecosystem.

Applicants should assume that those who apply to other top US MBA programs have already or will apply to HBS.  Regardless of what HBS’ essay topic is, more applicants will be writing on it than for any other school.  And since, in recent years,  HBS has given a broad topic that can go in an almost infinite number of directions, taking a broad perspective on the self is what will get reflected in many applicants’ essays.

Therefore my primary attitude about application to HBS is this. If you want to want to go there and have time to make an application, apply.  Even if you think your chances are poor, if you view them as at all viable try it. I know getting rejected is no fun, but if you don’t give it a shot you will never know.

Surely some will say that “MBA Admissions Consultant analyzed my profile or someone just like me and said HBS was not possible.”  One of the reasons I have long rejected doing applicant profile analysis on the fly is that it an act of extreme malpractice because it is based on a false assumption:  A mere smattering of facts as the basis for a prognosis.  Such analysis would have meant that my client admitted to HBS last year with a GMAT below 650 and just a so-so GPA from a not so impressive school should not have gotten in.  Almost every year I have clients like that admitted to HBS and other top programs. What mattered were not the numbers or some basic facts but the whole person.  Now it is the case that the particular client I mentioned had a very powerful story and experiences, but to get to those would require a relatively high level of knowledge about the applicant. That is why my intake form is a pain to fill out because I ask for a lot of inform ation. That is why I conduct initial consultations before working with clients on a comprehensive basis.  And even then, when asked to make a prognosis about results, I am humble enough to know that I don’t own a crystal ball. It is understandable that applicants want to know the outcome prior to application, but the reality is that until the race is run, no one knows the outcome.

-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.