MBA is competitive. Not just the journey within, but especially the ride into a prestigious business school.
As they say, it is competitive because it is highly selective and it is highly selective because it has to stay competitive. Think of it as the snake eating its tail, excuse the gory imagery.
It is natural to imagine that top schools want the best candidates and can afford to stay to keep their club exclusive enough for only the very best.
They want those who can and will not only shine in their MBA program but can also keep their outgoing MBA stats well worth talking about – nearly 100% placements with top salaries and successful post MBA careers – setting the b-school brand in stone.
Top b-schools boast selective admission rates well under 20 percent. That is, for every 100 candidates applying, they only offer admission to 20 or less.
A few “congratulations” vs a lot of “we are sorry but surely wish you the best for your future”, aka rejection letter.
MBA rejection letters are heart breaking and like most “dear John” break-up letters, they very rarely offer any insight into why the applicant was not accepted into their program.
A typical rejection letter looks like this.
Dear John/Betty,
We regret to inform you have not been selected in our MBA Class of XYZ.
[Some cliché about how your candidature was good but we only have a select few seats available.]
Thank you for your interest in the ABC University MBA Program.
We wish you the very best for your future success.
Regards,
Admissions Director | Business School at XYZ University.
Read Dealing with MBA rejection
MBA Rejection Feedback
First question though, you may ask, is why should you care about a feedback?
It helps to understand why you were rejected. If it is an obvious one like a low GMAT score or GPA, the answer is simple.
But it can be trickier if it is your essay, your profile, or something else A feedback analysis can help point out the shortcomings so as to not repeat the mistakes elsewhere or during reapplication.
Second question is how do you do a feedback analysis?
It is not common for business schools to help you understand the application flaws.
Firstly, there are just too many rejected applicants to deal with and secondly a lot of business schools would prefer not to get too specific on their reasons for dinging an applicant.
However, there are certain schools who often extend a feedback arm to those who ask for it.
Business schools like Darden, Berkeley Haas, Wharton and ISB allow different forms of feedback avenues. It can either be formal 15 minute sessions or personalized responses to email queries.
If you happen to have been rejected by one of those considerate b-schools who let applicants down easy with a feedback analysis, you should be prepared to get either a generic, mostly vague, response or something more actionable like ISB is known to do – like focus on more specific career goals or get more work experience.
You have to realize that the schools are faced with scores of rejected dejected souls looking for the eternal why.
It would be nearly impractical for schools to get into personalized specifics and they may just rely on a more generic template response mostly aligned with what kind of candidate they prefer and it will be up to you to evaluate how yours was falling short.
Read
- Rejection feedback calls and reapplications. Tuck Regional Director’s reflections
- MBA rejection analysis
MBA Rejection after Interview
It is natural to feel mostly sure about an admission offer upon being called for an interview.
After all, why would the admission’s officers waste any more time on a candidate if they are not impressed with the rest of the application?
That is why getting a ding after an admission interview feels like an even bigger let down.
Perhaps it is important to demystify this misconception about the strength of an application that has reached the interview stage.
As experts posit, there are more than a few reasons why a candidate is called for an MBA admissions interview.
- Profile Validation
- Profile Evaluation
- Profile Validation & Evaluation
This is the super happy scenario when the application as a whole is extremely impressive – good GMAT, GPA, essay, recommendations, the works. Having been blown away by the strength of the application, an interview in this case is usually aimed to validate the candidate’s credibility. Is he just as good as he is on paper?
The MBA application is not perfect and though there may be good reason to reject the application then, there could be some factor that could be appealing to the adcoms. In that case, an interview would be the best place to iron out the details or fill the gaps – why was the undergraduate record not more reflective of your quantitative abilities, why are your recommenders holding back or contradicting your story, etc.
This is not a cut and dry situation. Adcoms are people and their opinions, though seasoned, are subjective. They know that your application may not reveal a complete picture just as your interview may be scheduled on one of your bad days. So, they use their experience to both evaluate and validate shortcomings and accomplishments through an in-person interview.
These situations make the interview not just an icing on the impending admission offer cake but rather an integral part of the decision making process.
It could be that your interview either confirms their doubts about you as a fit for the program or reveal an attribute that they don’t want.
Therefore, a rejection even after an interview is not rare and one should not take it personally either. The answer could simply be that you are not a good fit.
Read MBA application rejected without or after interview.
Top reasons for MBA application rejection
So, the half a million dollar question is why are MBA applications rejected?
Obvious culprits aside – low GMAT scores, low GPA, no work experience – why are even some of the more carefully packaged or aimed to impress applications met with rejection? Let’s explore.
1. Lack of or falling short of credentials
While certain GMAT scores, academic credentials, or other objective meters may be competitive for certain business schools, they may not be as impressive to others.
Exceptions are always there but then exceptions are made for exceptional candidates. Thus, the lack of such competitive credentials can become a valid reason for rejections.
For instance, top b-schools like Wharton, Harvard, INSEAD, etc boast average GMAT scores well over 700.
While other equally reputable good schools like Mendoza, Emory Goizueta, ESADE, etc have average scores of 650 plus.
In the presence of more competitive applications, schools can afford to use the GMAT scores or GPA to eliminate applications.
2. Program fit is not evident
One of the major factors most schools and MBA consultants stress upon is the match – between candidates and the school.
Demonstrating a program fit requires extensive research and strong credible reasons as to why you have chosen this school over the others.
If your essay is unable to throw light on exactly why this school is appealing, beyond just its brand and reputation, your candidature will not be taken seriously and most likely met with rejection.
3. Regurgitated or formulaic application material
Applications are time consuming and exhausting. Especially when you have to juggle other commitments. But they are designed to help schools sift through thousands of applications for the selection process.
Your essays should be less of an expanded resume and rather tell who you are, your story, in relevance to the kind of personality that would fit the school.
It should set you apart and not make your story be a run of the mill forgettable one.
If you have used a formulaic application with a generic essay and other responses, you shouldn’t be surprised if they readily reject your application.
You should similarly put in a lot of consideration in choosing your recommenders.
If you have perhaps used recommendations from referees who don’t represent what the school wants, such as completely missed out on a work recommendation or chosen someone with lots of credentials but who doesn’t know you in any capacity, you will hardly gain any points with the adcoms.
4. Dishonest application
A no brainer for rejection. You can’t lie and expect wonders. You can’t falsify records, you shouldn’t inflate your achievements, and quite importantly, since this happens more often than desired, you should never ever have someone else write your essay for you.
Schools have seasoned adcom members who can spot a plagiarized or inconsistent essay from a mile away. They can tell writing qualities apart.
So, if your writing style varies between your essay and the everything else, it will be easily concluded that you didn’t write it.
And even if you try more subtle tricks, a dishonest application will invariably get challenged in your MBA interview.
Read
- UCLA Anderson rejects applicants for unethical MBA essay
- Exaggeration, lying and hiding facts in MBA applications
5. Unclear understanding of motivation and goals
One of the common rejection causes is related to a candidate’s inability to justify their interest in getting an MBA degree and how it would serve in accomplishing their career goals. Why MBA?
This lack of insight into your motivation for an MBA can surface in either the essay or responses to questions.
If you haven’t done any introspection on the “why-MBA” question, how your short-term goals will lead to your long-term career goals, and how that particular business school will help you reach both, you may end up wandering off into generic responses.
Lack of research and introspection spells lack of dedication to adcoms and is grounds for rejection.
6. Incomplete application
There are anecdotal instances when applicants have accidentally missed out a part of an application and managed to request it in later and still got an admission offer.
But, it is best avoided. It shows carelessness.
And if the application is missing multiple bits, is filled with grammatical mistakes and typo errors, and perhaps addressed to another school (oops), you will not be called in.
7. Lack of judgement/questionable background information
Everyone, from your girl(boy)friend’s dad to employers and admission officers, does a perfunctory social media check.
If yours has questionable material like hate speech, sexist or racist comments, or anything else that will not gel well with the school’s community, you will not be invited to join them.
8. Poor interview or improper attitude
Interview etiquette is crucial. You may be super prepared for typical questions but have you gone through your application for holes that may need explaining during your interview?
If you fumble for facts from your own background, you will not make a good impression. And even if you have all that covered and end up reaching late, informally dressed, avoid eye contact, or as has been known to happen, cry during your interview, you will be sent off with a polite smile and a rejection letter in the mail.
Be smart about being easily conversational and pay attention to your body language. Strike a balance.
You shouldn’t come across as a nervous nelly or display an overly confident know-it-all persona who is unable to think beyond his own achievements.
You are being judged for your ability to become a part of the student community. Are you one of them?
9. No differentiation
Differentiation is also a must in applications.
Many overly represented groups like the Indian IT Male Engineer is faced with the task of setting themselves apart from the crowd by building something unique in their profile.
(Read Indian MBA applicants more likely to be rejected from top b-schools).
Being rejected is not the end of the world. If you are determined about your MBA plans, it can only serve as a chance to assess and reapply.
Re-Application after Rejection
Since rejection feedback is usually not specific and unless there are the usual suspects like GMAT score, low GPA, low work experience to blame, it is hard to pin point what exactly caused a ding.
In doing a failure analysis, it is a general approach to blame a few aspects of the previous application and ignore other possibilities.
Here, at MBA Crystal Ball, our approach is more wholesome. We start from the ground up, instead of looking at piecemeal improvements for a better reapplication strategy.
This leaves no room for cracks and setbacks.
In fact, here are a few our MCB success stories that re-applicants shared. Take a look at their experiences and let us know if you need any professional help at info [at] mbacrystalball [dot] com
– Reapplication by fixing long-term career goals. Find out how career counselling helped this reapplicant get into her dream school at ISB, after rejection the first time around.
– Reapplication after profile building. This reapplicant took a couple of years to build his MBA applicant profile before making it into Kellogg MBA.
– Despite a 740 GMAT and ample work experience, this applicant was rejected. A business school rejection feedback showed him that his storyline needed work. He shares how he worked with us to tell his story and secure an admit from Duke Fuqua.
– And of course, unconventional but useful strategies may help too. This ISB admit (reapplicant) shares how he worked on his GMAT, essays, interviews with a touch of the unusual – meditation.
– This applicant got rejected despite a 760 GMAT score for a lack of a clear showcase of his abilities to the adcoms. Here’s how he improved his application and made it in.
– The not-so-obvious reason why strong MBA applicants get rejected by elite business schools
Don’t let yourself be dissuaded by your MBA application rejection story. Here are some more MBA reapplicant success stories to inspire you for your reapplication journey.
Good luck!
