Struck Out? MBA Reapplicant Strategy and Stories to Inspire

You’re used to succeeding in just about everything you do – from Little League MVP up to being promoted early in your rockstar career. So, what happened with your b-school applications last year?

Firstly, every year it gets harder and harder to get into the top MBA programs as we’ve mentioned before. A ton of qualified people apply every year and the schools can’t take classes comprised solely of high-scoring gunners from three industries. So, some very qualified candidates get “dinged” every year.

Don’t worry – you are still amazing 🙂 But often, there are a few things, upon reflection, that you can point to as potential issues for the adcom, either pertaining to your application standalone or your application compared to others applying from your same “category” (eg. consulting, finance, NYC, India, etc). This is typically referred to on the 1,000 forums we’re sure you’re reading as a “ding analysis”.

Every year we’ve worked with reapplicants, and every year we’ve been happy to be a part of their success! So, here’s what we recommend…

Your Kick-Off Plan for Reapplying

1) Get Back in the Game (mentally): The past is the past. Anything worth having is worth fighting for, so the first step is to move past the disappointment and start looking towards your glowing future again. Dwelling on all of the lost time, money and otherwise will get you absolutely no where. Like you’ve always done to succeed, focus on moving forward!

2) Evaluate What Went Wrong: When projects at companies fail, they perform a “post-mortem” to understand what happened, and you should too. Identify potential issues that you can focus on this year.

3) Re-Evaluate Your Strengths & Weaknesses: Perform a SWOT analysis on yourself (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats). Things have probably changed a bit since you applied and/or they are going to change before the next deadline, so what does your new profile look like? Are your target schools still your target schools, or are there perhaps other schools you should consider?

4) Set Goals to Address Weaknesses & Highlight Strengths: Now that you have your baseline, what do you want your profile to look like in a few months when you apply again? If you think your leadership was lacking, what can you do between now and then to tell a different story? Was your GMAT low? What’s your new target score and when can you sign-up for a refresher course? Was your biggest strength your amazing international product development experience? What impact / results can you focus on now that weren’t solid before? Determine what you want to be able to say this time around and make it happen!

5) Start Early: Yes, the bar is raised for you as a reapplicant (if you’re reapplying to the same schools), and yes, the acceptance rates are lower. So if you’re going to do this, I recommend you give it 150%. That means that you need to start early so that you have enough time to put together an application that you feel great about.

And Now for Some Inspiration…

Below are examples of two reapplicants we worked with last year and how they were able to make it work this year! (and yes, of course we changed their names and pics for privacy)

Want some help getting started?
Our “Restart-Pack” will enable you to hit the ground running and start this process so that you can be ready for success this year! We’ll essentially tackle the kick-off plan explained above (pep talk included!) Email or inquire on our site:

www.vantagepointmba.com

Have a great weekend!