Unconventional Tips on How to Get into Top Notch Schools

8-minute read

Applying to the most prestigious schools is a long, exhausting process and needs long-range planning to increase likelihood of getting admitted. Duke University has admitted me for the Master of Quantitative Management: Business Analytics while University of Chicago has placed me on the waitlist for a similar Master's degree. In this article, I talk about my application process experience with applying to these schools. There are many articles about how to get into top-tier schools; thus, I will try to provide 15 pieces of unconventional advice to you.

Long-term plan: I started planning and preparing to apply to schools for my Master's degree slightly after I graduated in the end of 2016 from Montana State University. I had about four years of continuous preparation from 2017 until 2020. That is plenty of time and some of the preparation included exploring the universities and the programs I would like to attend, choosing from them, reading and preparing for essay questions, reading business school admission books and blogs, and studying for the GMAT. I really was not on a rush. This also gave me adequate time to craft a compelling story and create a future a head of me that made me stand out in the admission process.

Do your homework: You need to know the schools inside out. Understanding the program and the school that you would like to attend, specific courses that you would like to take, the instructors you would like to take classes with, and the school clubs you would like to participate at are all vital tasks you should do. This will help you know if a certain school and program are fit for you and help you write the school essays. With this information, it is easier to explain how the school or program would bridge the gap between your current and future situation.

Show the school that you are interested: If a school gets this message from you, it will understand that you are serious and have a genuine interest. This is a plus for you. You can do this by attending a virtual or in-person information session about the program you are interested in, attending a class, or physically visiting the school for a tour.

Test requirements: Whether it is GMAT, GRE, TOEFL, or IELTS, you need a rigorous study plan. I only prepared for the GMAT as TOEFL and IELTS were not required because I completed my undergraduate in the US. GMAT Club, Manhattan Prep, and e-GMAT are all sources I used for my preparation. I prepared for the quant section from Manhattan Prep and the verbal section from e-GMAT while reading articles on learning methods, GMAT study plans, people experiences, and GMAT questions from GMAT Club. The Analytical Writing Assessment and Integrated Reasoning took the least amount of time from me and I prepared for them from the GMAT Club. I also used a review log to type any question I answered incorrectly, perform question analysis on what the question is testing, write opportunity for improvement, choice analysis, and takeaways if any. While all these collectively helped me prepare for the test, I got a test score below the average of the class from Duke. What matters is that I got in. I think part of the reason is because I am Saudi. This is said because most candidates from the Middle East get a test score below the class average across most schools. Schools do not compare a test score of a Saudi candidate with that of an Indian candidate, who generally scores higher.

Quality over quantity: Aim for a smaller number of top schools rather than a larger number. First, the process is exhausting as each school asks different essay questions and has different requirements. Second, think of your recommenders because each school poses different questions to the recommenders. There may be a case in which the questions across the schools you would apply to are similar, a situation that can make submitting recommendation letters easier than expected.

Third, it is easier to focus on applying to a small number of schools than a large one. During the process of applying to schools, you need to search for schools and specific programs, understand both courses and potential clubs you may attend, and write multiple essays per school; all those are time-consuming activities. The more time you can put into a single school application, the higher the quality of your application; thus, the higher the likelihood of getting admitted.

Have a compelling story: While you cannot change your past, you can image any future you would like. Having an outstanding story will not only draw attention from the admission committee, but also signal to the committee why this specific school is the right one for you and for this reason I would say this is the most significant element, the story, in the admission process. The narrative should clearly communicate what you are passionate about, short-term goals, long-term goals, courses and clubs you may want to attend, and how all that bridge the gap from you are to where you want to go.

In my case, my goal is to positively and meaningfully contribute to Vision 2030 through working for a government entity at a data science managerial position as a short-term goal and launching a technology startup as long-term goal. This does not imply that I will not apply for jobs in the private sector, but you need to articulate a concise message of one short-term goal to the committee. One needs to be more specific in the goals such as mentioning the name of the government entity and how it will help you achieve your goals. Also, what kind of projects you may take on within the entity should be indicated. The same also goes with the long-term goal that it should be specific. I mentioned also that both short-term and long-term goals support Vision 2030.

Sharp-rounded over well-rounded candidate: While this may sound counterinitiative, having a deep mastery or expertise in an area should benefit you more than being mediocre across all areas. Even though the media and some articles have pointed out that well-rounded candidates are more attractive than non-well-rounded; this is a myth. While I do not claim that I am sharp-rounded, I strongly believe it would make me look more compelling in the school application. Here are two articles that support this: Be Sharp Not Well-Rounded and Think You Need to Be “Well-Rounded” To Get Into College? You Don’t.

Letters of recommendation: You should not ask high-status people such VPs or CEOs for recommendation letters when your relationship with them is superficial. Top schools look for quality recommendation letters whose recommenders have a deep to good academic or working relationship with you. So, what matters is the quality of the relationship, not the status of the person.

When asking for a recommendation letter, you should send your resume and achievements at work if your direct manager would write the recommendation or achievements at the university and specifically a class in which the instructor would write the recommendation. Moreover, you should map these accomplishments to some common recommendation questions posed by the schools to ease the process on your recommender.

Improve your weaknesses: No one is perfect. You may lack quantitative skills, volunteer experience, or leadership experience. The benefit of long-range planning is that you have adequate time to improve these skills or gain valuable experiences either at work or at your community. For example, you may have received poor grades at your statistics class in your undergraduate and taking an additional course at Statistics in one of the educational platforms can show improvement in your school application.

Have leadership experience: It never hurts to have multiple leadership experiences. I would say you need at least one experience to show in your application. Leadership experience always adds value regardless of the school as it shows you have what it takes to lead. Always remember to show, not tell, the experience by laying out the story in a compelling manner.

Bad or average GPA or grades are not always a bad thing: In order to get excellent grades, you need to spend more time studying and less time socializing. In the long run, this may negatively impact your social skills. If this happens, you are more associated with a scientist who does experiments in the corner of his lab and who lacks social skills than a leader who supports people, clearly articulates his thoughts, and has strong social skills. It is a trade-off. This is why you hear sometimes the C student hires an A student to work for him or her. Some people may associate excellent grades with mediocre or poor social skills, which translate to lack of leadership.

Apply early: There are limited spots for each program. The earlier you apply, the better as your chances of getting in becomes higher. For example, if the school already offered admission to two people from the Middle East and who come from the financial service industry and you are also from from the Middle East with a similar industry experience, then your chances of getting in reduce. Similarly, if the school already offered admission to four Indian people with IT background and you are Indian with similar background, your chances of getting an offer becomes lower. This is said because top schools look for diversity. My advice is to aim at applying for the first round.

Read books: I read two amazing books on the admission process for top schools application. The books are Complete Start-to-Finish MBA Admissions Guide and MBA Admissions Strategy: From Profile Building to Essay Writing. While these books focus on MBA admission, the books were unquestionably helpful. The two books mainly help you craft a strong, fascinating story for your essays, a killer resume, optional essay if necessary, and how to ask for a letter of recommendation.

Ask for help: It is highly recommended that you bring an admission consultant during this process. An experienced consultant will substantially help you write everything from essays to optional essay while keeping your voice. This does not imply the consultant will write the essay from scratch, but perform multiple revisions after you completely write the essay. One of the leading business school admissions firms is mbaMmission, the number-one-ranked firm on GMAT Club and named the number one business school admissions consulting firm by Poets&Quants in 2019 and consistently have more experts on its list of top individual admissions consultants than any other firm. While the consultants from mbaMmission mainly help potential MBA candidates, they have experience with other non-MBA programs.

These consultants are expensive and they charge $375 per hour as shown in this link. For the cost of help on one entire program/school, it costs $4,900 as shown here. I suggest you use a less-expensive-yet-quality help from a freelancer at upwork. The freelancer who helped me is Kristina Barile who is a graduate of Harvard University (Bachelors) and MIT (Masters) and she is the founder of a private editing company with a focus on top-tier undergraduate and graduate programs.

Optional essay: Everyone is unique. And everyone most likely has faced a hurdle or unfavorable circumstances in his or her education, career, or life whether it is poor grades at school or prerequisite tests for admission such as GMAT or TOEFL, work layoff, poor performance at work, gap in your work or education, or any other related situations. These should be mentioned in the optional essay. I highly recommend you write something in the optional essay. At the end, you are a human and life is an array of ups and downs and there is usually something that you can talk about.

I strongly hope that these 15 tips are helpful and can guide you, even if partially, through the admission process. These tips are based on my experience and are from my accumulated knowledge from reading. Should you have any questions, you may write them below. Best!