“There’s too many candidates like me.”

Sometimes people give up when they shouldn’t. It can be totally depressing to get rejected. But the obvious truth is, if you stop trying, then you’re definitely not getting an MBA. Oftentimes the reasons for rejection are fixable – maybe not easily so, but fixable nonetheless.

A common complaint we hear is about the oversubscribed candidate pools. “There’s too many Indians in IT.” “There’s too many white guys in finance.”

This should be acknowledged – if you’re in one of those categories, then yes, it’s going to be more difficult – but if you’re really an overachiever, if you’re the type of person that attracts the attention of the top bschools of the world, then this won’t matter. It’s just one part of your reality and it should not be considered a showstopper.

So let’s take a moment to recognize reality:

It is a competitive marketplace and there are a lot of goods for sale out there that look just like you. If you’re an Indian engineer, or a white finance guy, you know there’s a lot of others like you.

The same is true if you want to go into consulting. This applies regardless of your nationality or ethnicity or background. By pitching yourself as one of the many BSers who want to become a strategy consultant (or any type of consultant), then you’re putting yourself in one of the most competitive categories. If you got rejected, this “too much competition” angle could be a factor. *Maybe* the field was just too crowded…

But honestly, this doesn’t hold all that much water. We see plenty of Indian engineers and white finance guys get in every single year. And plenty of people want to go into consulting; it’s one of the main industries that the MBA feeds into.

The way you should respond to the competition is to improve.

This is not that difficult. We’re early days in the season. You’ve got plenty of time to work through your plans. (If you need help with that, The Reapplicant Roadmap is perfectly designed to suppport you.)

If you want to win, you will win – it doesn’t matter what the others are doing. You’ll find a way.