Columbia, HBS, and Stanford Essays and Recs

While Columbia Business School is the only one of the three to actually have the application online for 2015 entry, Harvard Business School and Stanford GSB have also announced their essay and recommendation topics.

I have already written about Stanford’s Class of 2017 essays and recommendations very briefly in Stanford GSB cuts 1 Essay and 1 Recommendation for Fall 2015 Admission (the full essay analysis will follow very soon).  Stanford actually has made the biggest changes of the three schools in terms of what blog post title indicates. 

I am actually working on Columbia Business School essay post now and will get it up very soon (It is up now).  I have already posted my recommendation analysis for 2015 entry.  Columbia has changed the topic of one essay and a done a few modifications to some of the others.  They also further simplified their recommendation.

And HBS?  The biggest change is their new Round 1 deadline of September 9th!  That is one week earlier than last year. This is extremely early,  but given the October 1st deadlines at Wharton (Essays not yet announced, but given what CBS, HBS, and Stanford have just done, they should!)  and Stanford, those that start on HBS early will be in a good position.  MIT's round 1 deadline is September 23rd (Essays not yet up).  Here is what Dee posted on the the “From the Admissions Director” blog:
“This is what the (optional) "essay" question will be:

“You’re applying to Harvard Business School. We can see your resume, academic transcripts, extracurricular activities, awards, post-MBA career intentions, test scores, and what your recommenders have to say about you. What else would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy?"
Use your judgment as to how much to tell us. We don’t have a “right answer” or “correct length” in mind. We review all the elements of your written application to decide who moves forward to the interview stage.
Why are we repeating this question when we usually dream up something new? In fact, I went on record last year as saying that we'd ALWAYS be changing the essay question. I was wrong. We liked it. When we look at the responses of admitted candidates, there was a wider-than-usual range of how folks approached it. Some are completely about professional lives, others barely mention work experience. Some are very brief, others are not.
And, sorry to repeat myself, but getting into HBS isn't an essay-writing contest. If we were to publish 50 "essays that worked" and another 50 that "didn't work", I would challenge anyone to make a perfect distinction. It's just one element of the application.
Now, on to recommender questions:
• How do the candidate’s performance, potential, background, or personal qualities compare to those of other well-qualified individuals in similar roles? Please provide specific examples. (300 words)
• Please describe the most important piece of constructive feedback you have given the applicant. Please detail the circumstances and the applicant’s response. (250 words)
The application itself will go "live" in mid-June. I'll post here when we've got a definite date. And please watch our website for both our in-person information sessions around the world and our informational webinars.
And finally, something you may want to know: Round One application deadline will be September 9, 2014. Interviews, by invitation only, will be conducted from mid-October through end of November. Notification will be on or around December 10.”

So, no change to the essay or recommendations.  Round Two deadlines are not yet indicated.  My essay analysis for HBS, expanded from last year, will be up soon.

I look forward to seeing what kinds of changes, if any, Wharton, MIT,  Booth, Kellogg, and the rest make.

-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.

Columbia Business School MBA Recommendation for January and August 2015 Admission

In this post I analyze the Columbia Business School MBA recommendation MBA for January and August 2015 admission.  For my analysis of the MBA application essays and whether to select J-term Class of 2016 or August Class of 2017, please see here. For my analysis of Columbia Business School application interviews, please see here.

Before reading my post below on Columbia, you might want to read  two of my other posts first. For overall MBA recommendation advice, I would suggest beginning with my 10 KEY POINTS FOR WRITING AN EFFECTIVE RECOMMENDATION: WHAT EVERY RECOMMENDER SHOULD KNOW, which provides core advice for what recommenders need to know.  Applicants can use this post to help educate recommenders.  In Further Comments on Selecting the Right Recommenders, I provide applicants with some very detailed advice on how to select the right recommenders. This post addresses the most common kinds of questions that my clients and blog readers have asked me about selecting recommenders

Columbia has the most user friendly and simple recommendation of any top MBA program.   The instructions, taken from the recommendation form,  are quite simple:

“Recommendation Upload

Thank you for your willingness to recommend a candidate to Columbia Business School. Your recommendation adds vital perspective to the admissions process. Please consider the following guidelines when writing your recommendation:

• How do the candidate's performance, potential, background, or personal qualities compare to those of other well-qualified individuals in similar roles? Please provide specific examples.

• Please describe the most important piece of constructive feedback you have given the applicant. Please detail the circumstances and the applicant’s response.

1. Does the strength demonstrate the applicant’s potential for future academic and/or professional success? If so it is a probably a good topic. If not, why does Columbia  need to know about it?
2. Is a weakness fixable? If you are writing about a weakness that cannot be improved upon, why do want to mention it to Columbia?
3. Is there sufficient context provided to really understand the strength or weakness? Providing a low context answer unsupported by evidence is likely to have little impact.

Please limit your recommendation to 1000 words. Thank you once again.

Upload a Word or PDF document”

Recommender Friendly: There is no quantitative evaluation form and the recommender needs to only consider the above questions, but unlike on most other recs (Well, we will see what other schools do this year. Previously, only Booth had a similar rec),  the recommender is not forced to answer specific questions.  Given that the recommendation is simply uploaded as a MS Word or PDF file, clearly they are not really counting words. I will surely suggest that recommenders keep to around a 1000 words, but if it is a bit over, clearly not something to worry about.  That said, keeping it to 900 to 1100 words would be a general rule of thumb.

Not set questions, just suggested topics for the recommender’s consideration: This is particularly user-friendly because it means that the recommender can really focus on the best stuff they want to mention about the applicant.

Beyond the suggested topics, I suggest you provide your recommender (Especially if they are not a Columbia MBA alumnus) with some background information on what Columbia is looking for.  Fortunately Columbia provides a very nice FAQ on this issue:

“Who makes a good applicant?
The Columbia MBA Program is carefully designed to instill both the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in the fast-moving, competitive world of business. Many top managers credit the skills they acquired at Columbia Business School as the springboard to their successful careers.
We look for intellectually driven people from diverse educational, economic, social, cultural, and geographic backgrounds. Our students share a record of achievement, demonstrated, strong leadership, and the ability to work in teams.
The Admissions Committee seeks intellectually inquisitive applicants with superior academic credentials from their undergraduate and graduate programs. Excellent written and oral communication skills are essential. Fluency in multiple languages is not required for admission but is increasingly desirable for the study and practice of global business.
Over the past five years, competition for admission to Columbia Business School has continued to rise steadily. We typically receive and review 5,500 to 7,000 full-time MBA applications each year, and in recent cycles only 15 percent of applicants were admitted.”

I will refer to this statement in what I discuss below.

Let’s look at each of the topics that your recommenders need to consider:

While, not stated a good recommendation should always mention the recommender’s relationship to the applicant.”As I emphasized in my 10 Key Points Post, "#2: YOU BETTER KNOW THE APPLICANT OR CREATE THE APPEARANCE THAT YOU REALLY DO," it is critical that the recommender establish the legitimate basis upon which they are making this recommendation. A clear description that is explicit about the time knowing, organizational relationship to, and extent of observation of the applicant is critical.

“How do the candidate's performance, potential, background, or personal qualities compare to those of other well-qualified individuals in similar roles? Please provide specific examples.“
Columbia is asking the recommender to compare the applicant to others in a similar role. You should advise your recommender to evaluate your performance comparatively, which is something many schools require. Comparing your performance to others is one very clear way to address your performance. While a recommender should not unrealistically overstate the applicant's performance, it will not be helping the applicant very much if they are not positively distinct in one or more ways. Ideally the recommender should provide at least one very concrete example of what makes the applicant special in comparison to others. The recommender should make it clear who they are comparing the applicant to. They should make that comparison in a way that supports the applicant. Measurable positive indicators of performance, especially in the recommendation by a supervisor or former supervisor who regularly evaluates/evaluated the applicant, can be an effective way to high light the applicant’s performance, especially if the numbers relate well to one of the applicant’s accomplishments. The recommender may discuss an applicant’s strengths relationship  to overall performance, interpersonal skills, and  language skills or simply in terms of specific qualities or skills.

A good recommendation will help admissions understand why the applicant will make a good classmate and has the potential to be personally effective throughout their career.    Since Columbia is looking for applicants with  strong leadership  and the ability to work in teams, interpersonal skills (via personal qualities) are a very important consideration.  Interpersonal skills relate not only to aspects of leadership (For example, ability to motivate others and ability to manage up/down/across an organization) and teamwork (For example, ability to work well with teammates, ability to help with teammates, and ability to gain support from others on a team), but also in a number of other ways (For example, sales skills,  ability to gain the trust of others, ability to influence others, charisma, winning personality).  Given the importance of the Cluster System at Columbia, admissions is looking for applicants with the ability to work effectively with their classmates.

For non-native English speakers,  a positive statement on the topic of the applicant’s written and spoken communication skills should hopefully be in at least one of the recommendations.  Admissions officers are always concerned about English speaking ability on the part of international applicants in general because low-level English speaking ability can significantly impact both a student’s and their classmates’ experience, which is to say that it is a gate keeping/overall student satisfaction issue.  Given that Columbia has been known to conduct post-interview English checks of non-native speaking applicants, it is surely important that a recommendation not overstate the applicant’s English abilities.

For native English speakers, If the recommender has a basis for commenting positively on your non-English language skills, they should do so. Especially for American and Canadian- Not many of my Anglophone Canadian clients have had solid French skills- if one or both of your recommenders can positively comment on your foreign language skills, they should do so. Again, they should only do this if they actually would have observed you using your foreign language skills. In most circumstances, I don’t necessarily recommend that Indian applicants have their recommenders discuss their non-native Indian language skills (Even if for example, you are native in Tamil and you use Hindi in your work, assume that admissions will not get the fact that Tamil is a Dravidian language while Hindi is Indo-European.) because it is surely much more important that the specific language is not mentioned and/or assumed to be English. East and Southeast Asian applicants mig ht have a recommender mention their non-native non-English skills, but in general mentioning an applicant’s native Japanese, Mandarin, Korean, Vietnamese, or Thai language skills would not necessarily have much positive impact on admissions. Use of a non-native non-English language (A French applicant using German, a Japanese applicant using Mandarin, a Chinese applicant using Spanish, a Korean applicant using Thai, an Australian applicant using Japanese, a Indian applicant using Portuguese, etc.) is surely worth mentioning if the recommender has a basis for doing so.

“Please describe the most important piece of constructive feedback you have given the applicant. Please detail the circumstances and the applicant’s response.”
While feedback need not be in response to weakness or need for improvement on the part of the applicant, it is often effective if the recommender does just that.  While good advice is a possible kind of constructive feedback, what is typically meant by constructive feedback relates more commonly to advice designed to help someone improve in the future.  I find that many recommenders resist writing about weaknesses, yet to do so reveals a deeper understanding about the applicant. While I think it is necessary to practice good judgment when writing about weakness, I think it is also important that the recommender actually reference your areas for future development. One standard defensive strategy that many recommenders seem drawn to is to write about knowledge or skill areas where the applicant is weak, but such weaknesses, unless specifically connected to past failures,  are rather superficial.  To quote my  general advice for recommenders: BE CRITICAL, BUT NUANCED. You will likely be asked to provide a critical perspective on the applicant. Questions about areas for future growth, weaknesses, or characteristics about the applicant you would change are very common on MBA recs.   The objective of such criticism is to help the admissions committee understand the applicant and also the extent to which you are relatively objective.  Still, make sure that your criticisms are not fatal ( Examples: "The applicant loses his temper easily and has been disruptive on teams."  "The applicant lacks the ability to analyze complex issues."  "She is too aggressive to work effectively with some people."), but are measured and nuanced. Be honest about the applicant, but when you answer such questions think carefully about the answer and provide a full and complete answer that  explains (an d hopefully delineates) the extent of your criticism.

Is it a good strength (performance, potential, background, or personal qualities) or weakness? Some questions to ask yourself:

Finally, recommendations play in an important role in the admissions process at Columbia Business School, so make that you give recommenders both sufficient time and appropriate input for them to be your strong advocates.

-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.

Stanford GSB cuts 1 Essay and 1 Recommendation for Fall 2015 Admission

The Stanford MBA Admission Blog announced the following on May 15, 2014 (My comments follow the announcement):

“Get Ready to Apply for Fall 2015

We’re gearing up for a new application season and we hope you are, too. We’ve made some changes to this year’s application. To help you prepare, whether you’re a first-time applicant or are reapplying, here’s a sneak peek at what’s new when the application launches in early July.

Letters of Reference
This year, we are asking for two references. One reference must come from your direct supervisor (or next best alternative) at work. Your second reference may come from either someone senior to you (i.e.,who has observed your performance) or a peer. This recommender may be someone from your work, or not. For example, someone senior to you could be a client or previous work supervisor or board member. A peer could be a work teammate or a colleague in an extracurricular activity. You get to choose.

With choice comes responsibility. You’ll need to decide what works best in your situation. Do you have a former direct supervisor that knows your work exceptionally well? Then a second professional reference is probably in your best interest. Have you worked on a significant project with peers outside your workplace? You might want your second reference to come from a peer.

The most important consideration is, choose recommenders who can best express your abilities and potential–people who know you and believe in you.


Essays
We streamlined here, as well. This year we will ask two essay questions, instead of three. “What matters most to you and why?” remains the primary essay prompt (750 words). The second question, “Why Stanford?” (350 words), asks you to explain how the Stanford MBA Program, specifically, will help you get where you’re trying to go. Tell us how the Stanford experience will help you become the individual you aspire to be professionally and personally.


Deadlines
Luckily, some things don’t change. There are three application rounds for admission in fall 2015; you may apply in one of them.
Round 1: 1 October 2014
Round 2: 7 January 2015
Round 3: 1 April 2015″

While the deadlines are not changing, everything else.

Over the last couple of years, MBA programs have been reducing the number of essays and total essay word count significantly and Stanford has now done so as well. By cutting out the leadership/impact essay, Stanford has returned to the core essay questions it is has always asked applicants. One other change not mentioned would apparently be that Stanford is no longer giving applicants the choice to determine how to allocate their word count between the essays. This was something that only Stanford did before, which was often helpful to applicants. Of course, it might just be an omission in the announcement above, but it would appear that the questions now have specific word count maximums and not recommended word counts. I will put up my analysis for both essays very soon. The big content change is that since goals are not mentioned directly in Essay 2,  it is possible that goals can be discussed in either Essay 1 or Essay 2. Given the nature of Essay 2, it would be difficult to explain that without factoring in what one wants to do the future.  While I have to modify my own essay analysis from last year a bit as a result of this, it will just be a big editing job for me.  I intend to have that essay analysis up very soon.

I am glad that Stanford is reducing the number of recommendations down to two, which follows the change that HBS made last year.  Eliminating a mandatory peer recommendation will be quite helpful to applicants.

While the Stanford application will not launch until early July, the US MBA application season for fall 2015  admission begins now! Start writing your essays!

-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.

GMAT or GRE? Both?

While I have had very few clients apply to MBA programs with a GRE rather than a GMAT score,  as Poets & Quants’ John Byrne reports in “GRE Gaining Ground On The GMAT“, it is clear that is GRE becoming a real alternative to the GMAT. GRE is now important enough that US News & World Report’s Rankings now include the category “Entrants providing GMAT scores.”  Since all of the top programs require GMAT or GRE, this an indirect reporting on the number of those enrolled (Not admitted, which would be a bigger number) who provided GRE rather than GMAT.  BusinessWeek has yet to incorporate GRE into its reporting, but this would seem likely when it posts new rankings for 2014.  Given that BusinessWeek only ranks once every two years,  US News provides much more current data and rankings that reflect changes taking place at a school (Selectivity, Placement success,  etc).

A GRE Advantage?  
Before addressing, whether one should take GRE instead of GMAT, I think it is important to ask whether there is a GRE advantage. While Byrne’s article does include reported data suggesting that relatively lower GRE scores are being accepted than GMAT scores,  or those applying to top schools, I would be cautious about that data for a couple of reasons:
1.  Even for schools that are reporting GRE, the reported data is very incomplete for Columbia, Wharton, NYU,  MIT, and Darden.  To be fair, Cornell, Yale, and Michigan provide more complete data.
2. HBS, Stanford, Booth, Berkeley Haas  and Tuck are not included in this score analysis.  If you are targeting top ten, you want to know what is going on with these schools in terms of taking a relatively lower GRE.

As always, one needs to get school specific, so depending on where you apply there might be relative advantage to taking GRE based on the data. However, the most common  previous strategic rationale for submitting GRE instead of GMAT was that GRE data was not impacting school ranking, however this is no longer true. US News & World Report makes full use of GRE when calculating ranking:
“Mean GMAT and GRE scores (0.1625): This is the average Graduate Management Admission Test score and average GRE quantitative and verbal scores of full-time MBA students entering in fall 2013. For the second consecutive year, we have used both GMAT and GRE scores in the ranking model for MBA programs that reported both scores. Using the GRE scores allows us to take into account the admissions test scores of the entire entering full-time MBA class.”
Given that test scores count for 16.25% of the rankings calculation, you can bet that schools  are going to pay increasingly close attention to GRE scores, especially if a large percentage of their admits consists of those who took GRE.  I suspect that at the moment, any relative advantage that taking the GRE has over GMAT will be lost as schools adjust more accurately for any real distinctions.  Maybe there is some present advantage in taking GRE over GMAT, but I would not bet on it lasting very long.  And unless BusinessWeek wants to look irrelevant, they will also have to include GRE into their calculations.  At that point, schools will be highly incentivized to make sure that their GRE score based admits are not damaging their rankings.

 Justifications for Taking GRE over GMAT or visa versa 
While GMAT costs $250 and you can save $55 by taking GRE,  in the scheme of things for most of those applying to top programs, it is really a drop in the bucket and hence not a real factor for deciding which test to take.  I understand for some low income applicants, the price difference is more significant, still given the overall costs involved in going for an MBA, this is a small price difference.

A minor justification for taking GMAT over GRE is that GMAT scores are particularly easy to benchmark against reported school data.  However this justification is losing validity based on the reported data as mentioned in the P&Q article above.  While the reported data for GRE is not as good as that for GMAT, if one uses the reported data and GRE® Comparison Tool for Business Schools, it is relatively easy to figure out what kind of GRE score one needs to target for any MBA program.

The only real reason to prefer one test over the other is because you think you will do better relatively on one test over the other.  I’m not a test expert, but these are different tests and so it is reasonable to assume that performance will not necessarily be the same.  It is said that GRE is better to take if you have superior verbal abilities and inferior quantitative abilities  and that GMAT is for the opposite.  I think that is something each applicant should determine for themselves by taking a look at both tests and possibly even taking both a GRE and GMAT practice or diagnostic test.

Both?
If one has the time, it would be possible to prepare and study for both tests and simply compare the results and then report the scores for one of the tests.   Needless to say, if you are considering this both option, only report scores when it is to your advantage.

The both strategy is one that I have seen some clients use previously for TOEFL and IELTS.  As these two English tests are quite different, it is indeed possible that the same person will do better on IELTS or on TOEFL.  Especially for those who studied British English,  IELTS can be an advantage. A few Japanese test takers I have worked with  found it easier to score an IELTS 7.0  rather than the TOEFL equivalent of 100. Again, this appears to be a matter of individual performance and prior experience.

While this both strategy is a particularly time consuming option and therefore not realistic for most applicants, a small number will find that taking both tests produces the best result.  Beyond simply comparing scores and reporting on one test or the other, two situations where the both strategy could be useful would be:
1. If you reported your GMAT (or GRE) score and then were waitlisted, if you submitted a GRE  (or GMAT) score that was superior, that could help you get off the waitlist.  Since you might be afraid of your GMAT (or GRE) going down if you took it again, taking a GRE (or GMAT) while on the waitlist would allow you to decide to report the score only if it improved.
2. This both strategy could be used by a reapplicant. For example if a reapplicant  was afraid of their GMAT going down or had maxed out on the 5 times in 12 months limit on taking the test, taking a GRE would be way to show improvement for schools being reapplied to and for getting a fresh start with schools that the applicant had not previously applied to.

Again, I think most applicants will only have the time to study for one or other of these tests, but having the choice to do both is really new advantage that applicants in the past did not have.

Finally, I think that it is great that GRE is now offering competition to GMAT because it gives applicants more options.  I think it is just a matter of time before GRE data reporting catches up with GMAT, which will further enhance the competition between these two tests.

-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

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