We are going to attempt to answer what we think is one of the most commonly asked questions by MBA applicants – How many schools should I apply to?
Well, the simple answer is “It depends” and in this article, we will throw light on some of the hard realities that applicants can expect as well as deep-dive into 2 alternative application strategies.
First things first! Now here below are some hard facts you need to consider and absorb before you even begin to apply for a B-School
MBA application cost
It costs almost $250 to apply to Top Business Schools globally although schools do offer application fee waivers in certain cases. Therefore if you’re considering applying to 5 schools that’s a whopping $1,250! These numbers can even look more menacing if you decide to take an admissions consultant that typically comes with a price tag of $4,000 per school.
Time-effort for an MBA application
An MBA application typically demands candidates to spend a significant number of hours in information gathering and personal introspection. As per Poets&Quants' article, an applicant applying to 3 business schools spends no less than 154 hours on the various application components! This is even more relevant for schools as INSEAD that have a fairly long MBA application.
When I applying for INSEAD I probably spent over 4 months to get in the application for R3. Depending on how much time you can take out from your personal lives to spend on the application, we think that at least 2 months is needed for your first MBA application. For subsequent MBA applications, you will need less time as you have already done the hard work for the 1st application.
Demographic representation
It's true that if you belong to an over-represented section your odds of success will be much tougher than others. In the previous article, we suggested it is furthermore important for you to create your niche and portray a differentiated brand so as not to be clustered in a group. This means you need to work harder and spend more time than usual in working and reworking on your candidature.
Read how to create your brand: https://theunofficialmba.substack.com/p/the-unofficial-pocket-guide-for-a-162
Considering these facts lets try to pivot to the MBA application strategies and see what works for us:
Focused Diversification Strategy
We are taking inspiration from Buffet’s Focused Investing approach to portfolio management. In short, Buffett says its better to have a focused portfolio in high conviction stocks than diversify for the sake of diversification (He calls it diworsefication).
In this same way, we suggest that an intelligent and focused way for strategizing MBA applications involves a deep conviction on the candidate-school fit. In this approach, we motivate candidates to spend time doing preliminary research work on the school for understanding if the school is the right fit in terms of providing
The Right Learning Environment
The Right Professional Network
The Right Job Opportunities
When you place a strong emphasis on checking for the B-school fit with your desired outcomes, the list narrows down to few options. In the Focused Diversification strategy, you pick 2-4 schools with a clear preference and intended back-ups. Ideally, also try to target the first rounds for your target schools (1-2) and later rounds for the backups.
Blitzkrieg Strategy
As the name says it's all about shooting applications in multiple schools and hoping to land one shot on target. We often see that this is a commonly used strategy by a lot of applicants who haven’t done the research on identifying the right school and instead want to take as many shots as possible. We don’t recommend this way of thinking considering that the cost and efforts of multiple applications. If however, you intend to apply to 5+ schools we highly recommend that you spread your applications over multiple rounds and apply all the learnings from rejections to subsequent applications.
Applying to MBA programs is a costly and time-consuming affair. You would need to sacrifice a lot of personal time in developing an application. Therefore it makes sense to start early and prioritize the school.
Till then,
Uzi
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