Evaluate your profile and components of MBA application before choosing a B-school

Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a very hot topic nowadays. Is there any real value in pursuing this programme? Higher salary, better career opportunities and knowledge acquisition, there are whole lots of benefits of doing MBA as quoted by MBA grads. However, before you jump into the MBA bandwagon, evaluate your profile and MBA application components before selecting a B-school. 

Profile Evaluation
Evaluating your profile either on your own or by a professional can be a helpful step in choosing the right school. It can give you an idea of whether you are targeting schools that are too ambitious for someone with your profile or you are being too conservative. Either option isn’t good. 

If you have an unconventional profile, the story can be quite different. ‘So you aren’t an engineer? And you’ve never written a line of software code in your life? Your GMAT score isn’t 750 +? And your CV (resume, if you prefer) doesn’t say IIT on it either? Are you sure you are from India?’ 

Don’t worry. That’s not how an admissions committee member will grill you if you aren’t from the common Indian applicant pool. MBA admission officers screening piles of applications aren’t looking only for conventional profiles. They don’t want their classrooms to be filled up only by management consultants, tech whizkids and investment bankers. 

They are also looking for people who’ve made their mark in other fields – medical, manufacturing, retail, energy, education and media. So unconventional is actually good; it helps you break away from the herd and carve out a niche for yourself. But it will only work if you can back it up with other strong credentials. 

Components of an MBA Application
For conventional two-year programmes offered by Indian schools that take in candidates with little or no experience, the selection boils down to one huge hurdle – the entrance exam. Of course there’s the Group Discussion (GD) and the Personal Interview (PI) at many top schools. But it is essentially the competitive exam that it all comes down to. If you are lucky enough to break into the top percentile (99 + for the top IIMs), the rest is generally a cakewalk. Well, not exactly. There are many qualified and competitive candidates who crack the entrance tests but get rejected after being invited for an interview. So it’s definitely not a cakewalk. 

But compared to the international process, the weights in Indian schools work differently. When a candidate is coming in with very little real-world experience, there’s not much corporate exposure to judge her/ him by. The short time span is hardly enough to cause major impact on the professional side and so bragging rights are limited. What does that leave us with? Academic performance, extra-curriculars and, of course, the big, bad entrance examination.
For international business schools, the rules of the game are different. Individual B-schools may differ in their application formats, but a large majority request the same basic set of requirements from prospective candidates – GMAT score, TOEFL score, application (essays), recommendations, interviews. 

If you can handle the challenges of a leadership position and looking to improve your career opportunities, you’re a good candidate for MBA programme. Profile evaluation and analysis of components of MBA application can help you get admission in your dream company.