So we got to thinking, we did — not that we think you don’t believe us. Because surely you do. Else why keep coming back?
But we got to thinking about our insistence that you START NOW if you’re considering applying to bschool in the future. That you should be preparing your pretty ducks in real-time, actively, currently, now, for the grueling arduous process that lies ahead.
And we decided to do some math. Because we’ve been doing this for a couple-few years now. We have a dataset. We have some data. And of our many high numbers of clients who are successful each year, we were curious, what are the stats on those who start early versus those who, like, barely squeak over the finish line by submitting their application within hours (or even mere minutes) of a school’s deadline?
Our survey is decidedly unscientific, and we don’t have a big enough sample to make hard-and-fast pronouncements from this. HOWEVER: from the past, say, three years, ALL of our clients who first came to us in either April or May HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFUL in their quest for admission to a really good school. Did you catch that? All of them. Again, it’s a fairly small sample size, but it is in the double-digits.
Now, we can’t trumpet our little horn too loudly here, because we also have a smattering of clients who started with us in June, and June is also pretty darned early. These people also were showing signs of being pretty darned motivated. But you know what? Some of them didn’t make the cut. So there are certainly no rules that we can extrapolate from this. But the “all of them” statistic on the April/May project start thing holds true.
Probably the only takeaways we can glean from this are that people who get started earlier have their act together — which means that they probably have their act together in all parts of their life, that they’re motivated and driven and they’ve got results to show for it in other areas, too. It’s not the simple fact of starting the process early that got them the winning ticket; it was the fact that they tackle everything in their life like that. They set goals. They plan ahead. They realize how much work it will take, if “it” is a Super Important Thing like getting into a really good MBA program. This is correlation, people, not causation.
The other element is that at least a few of these start-early success stories were also serious worriers (drove us crazy, they did). They may be headed to an early grave just due to all the STRESS they put on themselves about every little thing. So don’t be that guy.
Instead, be the guy who’s buttoned up and thorough and has time to double- and triple-check everything (and re-take the GMAT if his consultant suggests strongly that he do so). People, if you’re serious, GET STARTED NOW.
Tell us what you think.