We mostly hear about Full-Time MBA programs. But there are others as well, which may be a better fit for you depending on your unique situation and may also be more cost effective. And these other MBA programs aren’t on fringes in terms of applicants considering them.
According to GMAC (2015) mba.com Prospective Students Survey, only 40% of MBA aspirants are considering a full-time two-year MBA.
If you’re an international applicant (to MBA programs), then you may not have to necessarily write TOEFL or similar tests such as IELTS or PTE, measuring your fluency in English. Instructions by schools regarding who needs to write and who doesn’t are quite clear in most cases, but most instructions aren’t very clear on what evidence they want to see if you had English as the medium of instruction.
For every Roger Federer, there are tens of thousands of tennis players whose games and faces go unrecognized. They don’t get talked about.
For MBA admissions too, tales of glories receive the most eyeballs on GMAT Club and BEAT the GMAT forums, relegating stories of outright disappointment (all dings) and underperformance (admission to not-so-stellar schools) to quick obscurity.
These stories of disappointment get some exposure, but what escapes our attention is that many of these applicants had the potential to avoid an all-ding scenario or get into a better school.
Haas School of Business doesn’t admit 80+ percent of applicants with 750+ GMAT score.
Proficiency (or lack of it) of your recommender in written English has little impact on how adcom evaluates your recommendation. After all, they are not judging your recommender’s communication skills.
As far as recommendations are concerned, adcoms primarily focus on content.
Probably, the best insights in this regard come from Stanford GSB. In response to the following two questions, they say:
You commit nearly $200,000 (not counting opportunity cost) for a two-year MBA program. Imagine, you struggle to land a job of choice after this investment!
Although this can happen to anyone, the chances of international students facing this is generally higher (relative to those with work authorization) at most schools, including the top ones.
You’ve an MBA degree and have worked for 4 years now, but you aren’t satisfied with your career- either you didn’t get the right opportunities post-first-MBA or, after few years, you found that this industry isn’t your true calling.
It’s now or never, and the best option that comes to your mind is doing a second MBA, preferably from U.S. or Europe.
But unfortunately, many international MBA programs don’t accept applicants who already have an MBA. Some accept with riders. And some unconditionally. But even those who accept, want to know why you are pursuing a second MBA, after all it’s not common. That way, they’ve raised the bar higher for you. Made an already competitive process, even tougher.
But it can be negotiated if you focus on the right reasons for pursuing a second MBA.
If you are a non-traditional applicant to MBA programs, you’re an attractive bet to B-schools, on the first glance at least. However, when they dig deep into your profile, they may have some concerns, which aren’t uncommon among non-traditional applicants.
If you take proactive steps to allay these concerns, you can be – even to your surprise – a strong applicant.
Ecstatic!
One step close.
After few weeks you receive your AWA score.
3.5.
Disappointed!
You start wondering, “How is 3.5 going to affect my odds of getting admission? And should I retake the test just for that?”
Average age of the class at HBS is 27 years. At Columbia, it’s 28. That’s usually the range for most U.S. B-schools: 27-28 years. Some schools, however, don’t provide average age of their class; instead they provide average work experience, which usually is 5 years (to name a few: Wharton, UCLA, and MIT – 5, Stern – 4.5, and Stanford, a relative outlier – 4). The average work experience too points toward a similar average age.
Though the average age of most programs is not too far from 30, B-schools do have some specific concerns about the candidature of applicants falling in 30+ age bracket, though very few air it openly. (There is nothing sacrosanct about 30; it’s just a metaphor for older applicants.)
