Why Result Predicted by Your Profile Evaluation May Go Completely Awry?

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How often have you seen this on online forums for MBA admissions?

(Few puns intended in the profile below.)

I’m planning to apply to MIT, Wharton, Stern, and Tuck in round 2 this year. Can someone evaluate my profile for these schools, please?

Age: 27

Nationality: …

GMAT: 740 (Q 50, V 39)

Undergrad from a reputed university in ABC country with a GPA of 8/ 10 (top 10% in the class)

Extracurricular activities:

Climbed Mount Everest in first attempt (Well, GMAT was tougher. It took two.)

………………………………………..

Leadership experiences:

Led 50-member (did I exaggerate?) team to …

………………………………………..

Professional experience:

………………………………………..

International exposure:

Worked in cross-cultural, multi-functional, multi-gender teams comprising of members from U.S., U.K., China, India, Singapore, Australia, and Niger …

………………………………………..

Other:

………………………………………..

Career goals:

………………………………………..

What are my chances at these schools? Would you recommend any other schools to add to my target list? I need urgent help. Thanks in advance.

Responses will start pouring in soon, with some classifying your target schools under long shot, stretch, and safe categories.

Such queries for profile evaluation aren’t limited to online forums, though. They also happen in-person when you consult a B-school alumni or an admission consultant and when you use online chance-prediction calculators.

Every year, I come across few applicants with outstanding profiles which elicit positive feedback on online forums to the extent of even the best schools falling in safe to stretch categories for them. But, eventually, they end up not getting admission to the schools for which they were competitive, some without even an interview.

Why do such strong profiles not translate into admission?

Are online evaluations amateurish or overly rosy?

Most aren’t.

After having come across few such cases, I see few reasons why there is gap between potential and result in such cases.

Below-par execution

Great idea, star team, and adequate resources. Yet, a promising startup fails. Another newbie in the same industry with similar, if not the same, business model succeeds. Many a times, it’s all about execution. An average (in terms of star value) company can surge ahead of its more illustrious competitors on the back of a determined, customer-centric execution.

Similarly, a strong profile gives you a distinct advantage, but it has to be translated into strong performance primarily through your essays, recommendations, and interview. Otherwise, it will remain just that – potential.

Profile evaluation on different forums – online as well as offline – is mostly generic, providing you a glimpse of your strengths and weaknesses (provided you’ve fully disclosed them) from the perspective of MBA admissions. Such evaluation is highly unlikely to address range of specific questions that admission essays and recommendations ask, lest of all address them at a deep, personal level that the admission process requires.

That’s what execution is about in this context: answering essay and recommendation prompts at a deep, personal level and highlighting your professional, academic, and extracurricular experiences/ achievements. Strong execution also includes allaying any potential concerns that admission committee might have about your candidacy, not committing silly mistakes, and presenting your thoughts succinctly. If you can do that well, you can succeed despite a less-decorated profile.

And if you don’t, even a strong profile will not carry you through.

In nutshell, execution is king.

Inadequate disclosure of your profile when making those requests for evaluation

Sometimes you don’t disclose grey areas in your profile publicly because either you feel embarrassed doing so or you may view it as irrelevant for the purpose of profile evaluation. Whatever the reason, not disclosing grey areas fully may provide an inflated picture of your profile in such evaluations.

Complacency

And in odd cases, a 750+ GMAT score combined with all-positive feedback on profile makes applicants complacent, leading to poor execution.

Conclusion

By all means, get feedback on your profile whenever it’s available for free. There is some excellent advice available out there. It’s good to know different perspectives on your strengths & weaknesses and the difficulty level of making it to different schools.

However, don’t gloat over overly positive feedback or get depressed by negative. As discussed above, it’s all about execution. And do disclose even grey areas (anonymously, if need be) if you want better evaluation, which I’m sure you would.

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