How to get off the MBA waitlist (Part 2)

(Click here if you missed Part 1!)

5. Mount an influence campaign

I would only recommend this if you (1) truly need to be admitted to one particular business school in one particular cycle and (2) you are comfortable taking on the social capital debt of such a favor.

The people who make up admissions committees are social animals like the rest of us and can be influenced by others. Specifically two types of people: VIPs with opinions that the Adcom would respect (e.g. famous CEOs, political leaders, and prospective donors with whom the school is trying to curry favor), and current students whom can vouch for your “fit” at the school.

When it comes to VIPs, either you have one or you don’t. Personal/family connections are often too weak to be meaningful, and the waitlist timeline is usually too short to develop a good relationship with a VIP from a cold start.

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When it comes to current students, start by looking at your network on LinkedIn and see who is currently at your target school. Look for shared connections such as employer, undergrad, or high school. If you find someone you know well, explain your situation and see if they are willing to vouch for your fit at the school to the Adcom, using your new awesome narrative (see point #1). 

6. Be humble, be positive, be patient

Showing any sign of frustration with your situation is absolutely lethal to your application. Often, admissions deans are just itching to find reasons they can remove people from the waitlist – don’t give them one. Remember: you are the happy warrior, and the waitlist is a marathon, not a sprint.

7. Worst case scenario: use the lessons of the waitlist to make a better application next time.

Many schools look favorably on re-applicants and the classrooms are full of them. Next time, hire us the first time and we will make sure that you put your best foot forward.

What happens in an HBS FIELD Global Immersion? (Part 1)

For many HBS students, the FIELD Global Immersion is the seminal class of the HBS experience. Broken into two parts over the first year, the goal of the course is to stretch students’ emotional intelligence and apply the business learning of the RC in an international context.

A few months before departure, the list of 15 destination countries is announced, presentations are held on each, and students rank order their preferences. The goal is to send each student to a country they have no prior experience with. Once assigned to a country (in my case, Helsinki, Finland – my top choice), students are assigned to six-person teams, each curated from different sections to possess a diverse set of professional and personal backgrounds. Each team is then paired with a local company, non-profit, or government institution and given a consumer-facing business challenge to solve using the using the process of “Design Thinking” made popular by IDEO.

Pre-departure

In college, I studied abroad in two different European countries, and as a military officer deployed throughout East Asia and Central America. I felt confident in my international exposure, but was excited by the chance to help an international company with a live business challenge. My teammates include two female MIT engineers, three consultants, five different nationalities – and me. Our project was with the PE-backed Finnish outdoor children’s apparel company Reima and centers around finding the best consumer use case for their new “ReimaGo” line of wearable activity trackers.

Day 0 – Friday – Departure Day

Today is the final day of class in the RC year. Our TEM Professor, the former President of Babson College and COO of both L Brands and Au Bon Pain, delivers a stirring valedictory about the keys to success from his own experience in entrepreneurship. Our BGIE professor, a former White House Economist, ends with a mini-case on ways activist business leaders influence policy change. Both classes end with the traditional student-performed “roast” of the professor, poking fun at their quirks and lampooning some of the funnier things said in section. I perform as our BGIE professor.

We head to the airport for a 9:30PM departure from Boston Logan bound for Helsinki, Finland via Reykjavik, Iceland. Inspired by our BGIE course, I re-read part of my international relations textbook from college and try to get some sleep. The earplugs and eye mask prove to be a lifesaver.

Day 1 – Saturday – Arrival Day

Having painlessly exited EU customs in Iceland, we simply walk out of the Helsinki Airport and find our guides waiting for us. It’s gray, windy, and snowing. I think of my wife – also an RC – currently on a plane to the warmer shores of Cape Town, South Africa. We get to the hotel late in the day and find our way to an Italian restaurant able to accommodate the 16 members of our party (there are 72 of us in Finland) in a private downstairs room. The fish is incredible.

Day 2 – Sunday – Vappu

The snow continues and so after our first Finnish Breakfast, we hit the museums. Today is also “Vappu,” one of the four biggest holidays of the year in Finland. Students from the surrounding universities descend along the Helsinki waterfront, and place a ceremonial white cap, the kind awarded to every Finnish high school graduate, on the head of a statue in the water fountain. From that moment on, the champagne corks pop, singing breaks out in the packed streets, and seemingly every Fin, young and old, dons the white hat they received at their college graduation.

Day 3 – Monday – Orientation / May Day 

The weather turns absolutely beautiful as the Vappu celebrations continue for a second day. Businesses are closed as families head to the parks for picnics. All 72 HBS students head out of the hotel for a wilderness cooking class where we learn to smoke salmon and barbecue reindeer, before playing some traditional Finnish camping games. After a full day of outdoor fun, we return to Helsinki for a lesson in traditional Finnish folk dancing at the local performance hall, before a huge section dinner at a local restaurant.

Day 4 – Tuesday – Customer Interactions

We meet the CEO of our client company and her top leadership for breakfast at the hotel. We’ve been in contact with them over Skype for a few weeks refining the business problem, and they share final guidance on the direction they would like our project to take. After the meal, we split up into teams of two to interact with local Finnish consumers in parks and playgrounds to understand what pain points they encounter in children’s apparel and outdoor activity. We meet with new users of the ReimaGo technology to understand the value they derive from the product, and the ways they believe it can be improved.

Helsinki is home to four restaurants with one Michelin star and all are reasonably priced, especially given the high cost of lower-end restaurants in the city. I decide to explore one of them with some friends from my wife’s section. The dinner comprises 15-courses and lasts 4.5 hours.

Day 5 – Wednesday – Rapid Prototyping

Half our team visits a daycare center running a pilot of the ReimaGo product, while the rest of us demo our very own versions of the product and the iPhone app. We meet up at the mall to visit the Reima store to see how the products are displayed and advertised. After lunch, we bust out the post-its and start compiling the pain points we have observed, brainstorming ways to improve the ReimaGo product, and ideating entirely out-of-the box ideas that Reima can pursue to promote the “joy of movement” at the center of the company ethos. The Finns drink more coffee than another nationality in Europe, so our caffeine needs are satiated by the high-quality roasts they keep on tap.

We draw up some prototypes and immediately test them on some local Finnish MBA students who join us at the hotel for drinks. Their feedback is incredible. We mull it over a team dinner at another fabulous Finnish restaurant and present some initial ideas to our professor, herself an accomplished marketing executive, during evening office hours.

Story continued in Part 2

"Narrative" vs "Brand" - Which is best?

Many admissions consultants focus on "brand" while we at Ivy Admissions Group focus on "narrative." Every future leader who works with us on a Complete School Package has their personal narrative developed through our proprietary Narrative Bootcamp.

What is the difference? Which should you maximize in your application? 

Brand

A brand statement is a pithy phrase used to describe an admissions candidate. In 25 words or fewer these statements seek to capture the essence of who you are, what you have done, and where you are headed. These statements are relatively easy for people to write themselves. For example, 

Battle-tested female veteran accomplished in leading analytical teams in high pressure environments seeking a job as an investment banker in Chicago.

Athletic and analytical male ex-consultant with start-up experience seeking to build competencies as a general manager at a large manufacturing conglomerate.

The problem with these statements is that they just sort candidates into buckets. All they do is tell the admissions committee who they are supposed to compare the candidate against, not why this candidate is the best one. In this way, brand statements for people are just like brand statements for cereal -- they tell us that Lucky Charms is different than Shredded Wheat, but don't offer a compelling reason why it is the best.

Narrative

In contrast to the who, what, and where of a brand statement, a personal narrative focuses on the why. Whereas the brand statement distills the facts on your resume, the personal narrative is a story arc that connects your personal inspirations and motivations to your career aspirations. In the case of an MBA application, a personal narrative will inform the admissions committee how you ended up on your current life story arc, show where this arc will take you by projecting it into future, and then argue why business school is the logical next step in your career because it is the perfect bridge to connect the two. Consider a narrative we can tell for the military officer in the first brand statement above:

I joined the military as an intelligence briefer because I wanted to personally advise senior leaders, work with top-talent peers, and thrive in a team-first culture. As I complete my service, I'm applying for an MBA because I want to transition to investment banking where I can still experience all the best qualities of my former job, while also helping reinvigorate businesses back home in the Midwest. 

This narrative is much more compelling than the brand statement above because it explains to the admissions committee why the applicant did what she did, what she values, where she is going, and how an MBA will help. It makes total sense why she is going to business school and the admissions committee should give her a spot in the class. She is a person, not a product.

How to get off the MBA waitlist (Part 1)

Being put on the waitlist is disappointing – I would know.

When I applied to business school I was waitlisted by my top three choices: Harvard Business School, Stanford GSB, and Wharton. Getting stuck on those waitlists was frustrating and demoralizing; I had spent so much effort studying for tests, getting recommendations, and writing essays only to come up short.

Unfortunately, few admissions consultants if any offer help to those on the waitlist! I knew that I couldn’t leave my fate to a dice roll of the waitlist officer, so I did a ton of research, worked with every mentor I had, and executed my action plan -- it worked! By late spring I had been admitted to Harvard, Stanford, and Wharton.

While getting off the waitlist is a very difficult task, my personal experience and the subsequent work I’ve done with the admissions officers at Harvard Business School have taught me how to give an individual applicant their best shot as success.

Ivy Admissions Group offers a complete package of services that examines what went wrong in waitlist applications and develops a comprehensive plan to correct it. We work with you to refine your personal narrative, bolster personal areas of weakness, and communicate with the waitlist committee in the most effective way.

My 7-Step Plan for Getting off the Harvard / Stanford / Wharton MBA Waitlist:

1. Re-examine your narrative

If you’re on the waitlist, you're likely “good enough” to be admitted, but you lack that special something that puts you over the top. By putting you on the waitlist, the admissions committee is asking why the final spot in the class should go to you and not one of the dozens of similarly qualified candidates in the applicant pool. This question is not rhetorical. They want an answer.

Most often that special something you’re missing is a compelling narrative. Crafting such a narrative is extremely difficult. First, it requires considerable skill at writing. Second, most applicants aren’t able to step out of their own bodies long enough to see their experiences, motivations, and interests in a holistic manner. And third, most admissions consultants are more focused on sorting their many clients into buckets (consultants, ex-military, etc.), rather than developing unique story arcs for each.

Having a compelling, credible narrative is imperative to getting off the waitlist. As the admissions officers buzz about in their offices, deciding who should get the last spot off the waitlist, you need them to have the ability to describe you in a quick synopsis. For example, as that “clean water gal” or that “urban development guy.” If you don’t build this narrative for them, they will (1) likely forget you and (2) likely not champion your candidacy in committee. Admissions officers will not infer your narrative for you. You need to explicitly spell it out.

2. Evaluate your weaknesses

Everyone has a weak point in their application. Did you sufficiently address yours? 

It is the job of the Adcom to ensure that every student admitted will thrive academically and socially. Could the Adcom wonder whether you would succeed in the classroom? Whether you’ll be able to keep up in finance class? Whether you will be the kind of person who enriches the school community?  Re-read your application and develop a hypothesis as to what the hang-up is. We read tons of applications and have the expertise to help you see where you need to improve.

3. Start credibly fixing your weaknesses

Show the admissions committee that you have the self-awareness to know your weaknesses, the humility to admit them, and the drive to fix them. Have a low GMAT? Consider studying up and re-taking it. Some schools jealously protect their average GMAT score and hunt for applicants who will improve it. Others just want to see scores that are “good enough.” Often when you take the GRE instead, the school has more flexibility in admitting you since it doesn't impact their GMAT average.

Missing that all-important “impact”? Look for quick quantifiable wins at work or in your volunteer activities. Think the Adcom has trouble imagining you as the leader of a student club? Join a local community organization or non-profit that fits with your narrative. Better yet, found one! Not all titles and achievements are treated the same. Go for the ones that have the greatest institutional prestige.

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4. Don’t stay silent

Some Admissions Committees specifically welcome updates. Others say they are not necessary. Regardless, if you know how to communicate with the Adcom, there is a lot of upside and very little downside to providing substantive, well-written updates. The problem is that it is pretty easy for a novice to write a bad update – the kind that makes you seem mediocre, annoying, or worse.

These updates can serve two purposes: first, show improvement upon the application in the areas of weakness discussed above, and second, reaffirm commitment to the school (i.e. prove to them that you are guaranteed to accept their admissions offer and boost their all-important yield).

Some waitlisted applicants are hesitant to send updates because they think it requires judgement and writing talent, which it does. Clearly more of the same from your original application will not help push you over the top. The key is having an advisor who is a good writer, has navigate the process already, and can effectively “sell” you to the Adcom.

Story continued in Part 2

The power of narrative building - Sinek's Golden Circle

Before writing any essays, constructing a resume, or even approaching recommenders, every applicant need to understand their personal narrative. That personal narrative will drive their entire application and tie together every piece of it from the recommendation letters to the random short answer questions.

In this TED talk, Simon Sinek clearly explains the power of narrative building that starts with why, rather than the traditional brand building that starts with what.

A day in the life of an HBS/HKS student

Want to experience a day in the life of a student who addends the joint degree program between Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School of Government? In this video produced by HBS, you can do just that.