SOYOUWANNA GET INTO A TOP BUSINESS SCHOOL?

The U.S. is currently experiencing one of the best economies the world has ever encountered. Everyone from your school janitor to your nosy Aunt Hilda is talking about stocks, day-trading, start-ups and venture capital firms. While those freak stories about Microsoft's secretaries becoming millionaires are inspiring, the real way to make a bundle in the business world is to go to business school (a.k.a. "B-school"); MBA no longer stands for Master of Boring Activities. Getting into a top-notch business school is a key part of "making it" in the business world. Sure, you can teach yourself about economics, management, and marketing, but if you come out of a top business program, you're salary will instantly shoot up significantly. So read on, and B the best you can B.

1. MAKE SURE THAT YOU WANT TO GO TO BUSINESS SCHOOL

What happens at B-school?

Partying, sleeping late, and getting some time off from real work are all potential reasons to go to B-school. However, you can do those things anywhere. Rather, most students want to develop their understanding of the business world as well as get an interesting, demanding, well-paying job from their experience. Here are some things to consider when planning your business future:

• B-school usually lasts two years (full-time programs, at least). Are you willing to spend that kind of time on school?
  
  
• B-school will be expensive unless you get a company to pay for it (if you're already with a company, they'll often incur your tuition costs if they like you). The average cost is $18,000 - $25,000 tuition per year.
  
  
• B-school is as much about making connections and learning how to work with people as learning the fundamentals of business. So if you're an antisocial loner, you won't enjoy it. Almost every single assignment will involve group work. In fact, you'll be assigned to a group right at the beginning and most likely stick to that group for your entire stay.

So you have to do some soul-searching. Why do you want to go to B-school? Do you need it? Will it get you where you want to go? We can't answer these questions, because we don't know you.

Do you have business experience?

Having previous business experience serves two functions: 1) it assures the schools that you already have a certain amount of baseline knowledge, so classes won't have to be at kindergarten levels, and 2) it assures the schools that you already know what you're getting yourself into and that you want it.

All top business schools require (or in their language, "strongly encourage") that you have at least two to four years of experience prior to being accepted. This means that if you're a senior in college and you'd like to get an MBA, you should be focusing on getting an entry-level business job and on taking the GMAT exam. B-schools want applicants who already have some understanding of the real world and are interested in learning to manage that world. You don't necessarily have to work for Goldman Sachs or Andersen Consulting to get into a good school (although it certainly couldn't hurt). You simply need to demonstrate that you have good organizational skills and leadership abilities.

Even those applicants with sterling academic credentials need three years in the corporate environment before graduate business schools will seriously consider them. The quality of that experience, the degree of responsibility, and job performance including the impact (if any) on the bottom line are absolutely critical. After you have gained this work experience, then you can begin the rest of the application process.

2. DETERMINE WHICH BUSINESS SCHOOLS ARE THE "GOOD" ONES

There are two especially well-known and definitive sources for graduate school rankings. One is the U.S. News and World Reports list. You can access their rankings online. The other is Business Week. You can access their rankings online too. Both of these magazines use very similar criteria to judge how "good" a B-school is. The essential features they examine are:

• What other B-school professors think of the school
• How interested employers are in hiring graduates of the school
• The average undergraduate GPA of accepted students
• The average GMAT scores of accepted students
• The percentage of applicants it accepts
• The average starting salary for graduates
• The percentages of students who are employed after graduation
• The tuition rates

Schools with the highest overall scores are considered to be the most prestigious. Prestigious schools also, expectedly enough, fulfill the most important criterion: getting you a job with a high salary. Schools that show up in the top 10 on both lists include:

• Harvard
• Stanford
• Columbia
• Duke
• University of Chicago
• Wharton (at the University of Pennsylvania)
• Kellogg (at Northwestern)
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology

So that's who they are. If you want to get into one of them, or one like them, you've got a lot of work and planning ahead of you.

We realize that listing these top programs seems incredibly elitist of us. Please, don't call us names. We're just telling you that these programs are all generally referred to as "top" programs. There are many, many other respectable B-schools out there, and to see side-by-side comparisons of rankings, check out this table. You'll see that there are plenty of good schools in your area.

3. PICK WHICH KIND OF PROGRAM YOU WANT TO ATTEND

So you're committed, enthusiastic, and want to apply. Now what? Well, first you must remember the two keys to succeeding in the b-school application process: begin early and be organized. According to the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), (they're the guys who administer the GMAT exam so you should pay attention to their advice) you should begin the application process 6 to 10 months before the program in which you are interested starts. But before you can know when your program begins, you need to decide what kind of program you want to enter.

Unlike picking out an ice cream flavor, picking out which kind of MBA program you want to attend should not be a random decision. The options are varied and the experience each one provides is different. Most schools offer three programs:

• Full-time programs take 2 years of course work during the day to complete. Students take 3-5 courses each semester. Full-time programs often offer both an academic and a social component, since students are around campus all day.
  
  
• Part-time programs offer students the ability to continue working while they pursue their degree. These programs usually take between 3-5 years to complete, depending on how many requirements there are and how many courses students choose to take per semester. Courses are offered in the evening, on weekends and during the summer.
  
  
• Executive programs are designed for people who have been in the workforce for at least five years and are looking to enhance specific skills. These programs are generally scheduled over several weekends per month and on average can take about 18 months.

To find a program near you, check out this search index.

4. GET SOME GENERAL APPLICATION TIPS

DEADLINES: One important issue to keep in mind is that you should definitely apply early. Most schools, even the top ones, accept students on a rolling admissions basis. This means that if they like you, they will accept you once they read your application. This means it's easier to get in early on (when there are many open seats) than later on (when there are very few open seats). So, don't be fooled by the admissions deadlines. Top business schools are looking for future managers and leaders with great organizational skills. The first way to give that impression is by getting your application in ASAP.

OUTSIDE INTERESTS: Other aspects of the application include discussing your activities outside of your job. Schools look for well-rounded students who are not just going to do well in class, but will participate in other school activities. (You just can't do enough for these admissions guys.) If you had the most popular radio show in college, played Olympic-level badminton in Malaysia, have been the mayor of an old Alsatian town, or have a collection of vintage leather jackets, then let them know. These extras are not as important as your work experience or your GMAT scores, but it could distinguish you from some other schmo with the same numbers but who doesn't have a life. The school wants to accept a person, not a machine.

INTERVIEWS: Most schools do not require interviews, but we strongly recommend that your schedule one. Here are some B-school interview tips:

• Schedule the interview as early as possible. For instance, the University of Chicago recommends doing it early in the process (September or October); remember those rolling deadlines?
  
  
• In your interview, which will usually either be with a current student or someone in the admissions office, make sure you clearly get across your reason for wanting to go to business school. Even if you don't know what you want to do after school, you need to convey to the interviewer exactly what your goals are and how that particular business school will help you achieve those goals.
  
  
• Research each school you are applying to, and be ready to talk about its strengths during your interview and how they mesh with yours. Also, most investment companies look for people with MBAs.
  
  
• Explain how you will contribute to the life of the school by putting time into community service activities, student government, or the B-school newspaper. Make sure you don't just talk about what the school can do for you.

So these are all great tips, but what actually goes into an application? Calm down, friend, calm down. Each school generally requires 4 essential components: GMAT scores, transcripts, essays, and recommendations. So let's move on.

5. TAKE THE GMAT AND READY YOUR TRANSCRIPT

The first part of the application that you should consider are your academic achievements: the GMAT and your transcript.

GMAT

The GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test) is the SAT of B-school; you must take it to get into any business school. The GMAT tests your verbal, math and analytical writing skills. According to the GMAC (you know, those test-writing guys we said were so important before), schools use your scores to predict how well you will do during your first year in graduate school. This may or may not be an accurate predictor of your grades, but the schools pay attention to these scores, so you should, too.

The GMAT does not ask specific questions about finance, economics or accounting, because it is geared to measuring more fundamental skills. The two basic sections - verbal and quantitative (math) - are divided into these types of questions:

• Test reading comprehension
• Make sentence corrections
• Solve logical reasoning problems
• Solve mathematical problems
• Decide on data sufficiency

These two parts of the test are graded together into one score on a scale of 200 to 800. The third part, the analytical writing section, asks you to write two essays: one analyzing an issue, and the other assessing the validity of an argument. This portion is graded on a scale of 0 to 6.

Now here's an important note: in assessing your application, the schools will not consider the score on the writing section, so make sure to pump up your main score and not worry too much about the writing portion. Sure, a good writing score might push you over the edge, but it's mostly useless. Students in the top schools all have scores above 680. Schools ranked in the top 20 have average scores of 650 and above. So, if you want to go to a top school, you're going to need a score in this range.

College Workshop (a soon-to-be-launched web site) states that your GMAT score is incredibly important. The top business schools in the country receive applications from candidates with sterling academic records - they do not need to seriously consider an applicant with less than superlative academic credentials. While a low GMAT score will not necessarily shut you out, the rest of your application must be extraordinary to compensate for a low score.

Transcript

All schools require that you have graduated from an undergraduate institution and they'll want to see how you did. While no schools claim to have a minimum GPA requirement, the average GPA of students in the top schools ranges between 3.4 and 3.5. Remember what we said before, though: the longer it has been since you graduated, the less they will focus on your transcript. But don't fool yourself-they're still incredibly important. If you've done other graduate work, definitely throw that transcript into your application, too. Having gone to graduate school is not a requirement for business school, but showing them that you received other degrees will certainly help your case.

6. NAIL THE ESSAYS

We know that you'd much rather have your eyes gouged out with a wooden spoon than write a B-school essay. After all, no one writes these suckers for fun. However, your essays show schools several things:

• That you can write sentences in the English language (a much rarer skill than you'd think).
• That you can make clear arguments about your beliefs or the beliefs of others.
• That your theories and thoughts extend beyond the obvious.
• That you can explain why you sincerely want to attend their school.

Here's the pertinent info for writing kick-ass essays:

• Most applications require between two and six essays.
  
  
• Applications usually provide page or word limits, but it can be difficult to discuss your entire values system in 300 words or less.
  
  
• Schools like to give you essay topics where you won't be able to submit a stock essay to every school; thus, many of the subjects are rather strange. Here are some examples:

New York University Stern School of Business: Agree or disagree with three statements: one by Sophocles, one by Aristotle and one by Jose Ortega y Gasset. (statements provided in the application)

Harvard University: Describe a situation in which you failed and explain why it happened.

Stanford University: What course you would pursue if getting an MBA did not exist as an option?

• Start early enough to give yourself time to think about the questions, write several drafts, give them to friends to read and comment on, and then think about them again. No matter how brilliant you are, your fourth draft will be better than your first. So get input, revise, and make sure that you're happy with it.

• Make your essays sincere rather than trying to give them what they want. Don't write about how you want to use your business skills to help third-world countries, or how their school is the one that you dreamed about as a child. They can smell insincerity, and they will HATE your application if you try to feed them what you think they're looking for. Instead, just be honest.
  
  
• Stay away from clichs. The admission committee reads thousands of these suckers, so make yours interesting enough for them to grab their attention. Clichd essays about dead relatives, a stock "I like your school" essay, or one of those dreaded "and then I had an epiphany!" essays will be your doom. Talk about interesting things you've done, interesting problems you've solved, and interesting things you plan to do.
  
  
• Talk about how you solve problems in groups. Not explicitly, of course, but admission committees love students that can solve problems and work well with others. Very kindergarten.

7. GET GOOD RECOMMENDATIONS

The last primary component of your application will be your recommendations. Most schools ask for three letters of recommendation from people that have seen your work and know your abilities.

Who should you ask? You should definitely request a letter from your recent employers. B-schools want to see how your supervisors evaluate your work and what kind of potential for leadership they think you have. If you feel uncomfortable asking your current boss (maybe she barely speaks English, for instance), then make sure to add in an explanation of that in your application. The schools will take your particular situation into consideration in evaluating your application, so long as they know what that situation is.

As College Workshop explains, B-schools are in the business of training fast-track future corporate leadership; therefore, schools want to know in concrete terms about your leadership experience and potential. Further, they are seeking a biography that demonstrates a history of ethical behavior, a long-standing commitment to business and community, and evidence of your ability to foster a cooperative effort.

Finally, be aggressive. If you really want to go to a particular school, find friends that may have gone there, or even friends of friends. Have them send in additional recommendations for you. Show them that you'll go to the ends of the earth to get into their school.

And now you're ready to become a CEO! Can we buy stock in your company?