We know that lots of Brave Supplicants have been getting some disappointing news recently. We want to offer you a dose of reality today.
The good kind.
The truth is, if you don’t give up, and you readjust your strategy, and you possibly look at the targets you’re aiming for, you are pretty much guaranteed to make it into a Top 20 school.
We did a review of our 2020-2021 clients recently and did all of them make it into Harvard? Of course not. They didn’t even all make it into their top choices. But the vast majority of them did make it into somewhere good.
If it wasn’t Wharton, maybe it was Darden.
If it wasn’t Yale, maybe it was UCLA.
If it wasn’t Chicago Booth, maybe it was McCombs.
There is ALWAYS a home for you somewhere.
You just have to not give up.
Yes, there’s a lot of applicants out there. More and more, it seems, each passing year.
But if you’re open-minded about where you are targeting, you will recognize that there are lots and lots of very good schools.
If your heart is set on getting an MBA, then let’s be realistic, shall we?
A Top 20 school is really not that much different from a Top 10 school.
Would you really be so ashamed to tell your friends and family that you’re going to USC? Or UT-Austin?
Great schools like Vanderbilt Owen and Notre Dame aren’t even included in what we’re calling the “Top 20.”
Sure, keep your aim set high. Apply to Tuck or Columbia or Booth in Round 2. But consider REALITY too and don’t get so snobby starstruck by the brand names that you lose sight of the fact that bschool is a stepping stone.
1: The school you go to does not define you.
2: You’ll get out of the experience what you put into it.
If you have come up emptyhanded so far: It was the profile, or the pitch.
If it’s the profile, then there’s likely little you can do about it now, in this ramp-up to Round 2, but there’s not nothing you can do. For example, you can plan for a submit-then-retest strategy, if it’s a GMAT issue. Etc.
If it was the pitch, then there’s plenty you can do. (Shameless plug.)
In either case, the most important thing you can do is keep chugging away at your goals. Work on those essays. Then work harder on them. Throw out your first drafts and start over. Heck, sometimes we tell BSers they need to throw out their tenth drafts.
Be flexible. Recognize that this process is difficult. Be prepared to be frustrated.
This phase will be over soon enough. Choose carefully, and plan the strategy, and then execute.
You still have time to get it all done.
We’re with you, Brave Supplicant! We know you can make it. This particular marathon has a sprint ahead. Stock up on gummi worms so that you’ll survive the essay storm that’s looming on the horizon.
To all those who did in fact grab the golden ring that came around on the Round 1 merry-go-round, congratulations to you! We’re celebrating.
To all those who are getting up on that horse again: You’ll make it! We know you will.
Godspeed and good editing as you prepare for the sprint ahead.
Tell us what you think.