Blog

Learning Leadership: When It’s OK to be a Beginner

I am not a very good athlete, so you can imagine everyone’s surprise when I decided to pick up a new sport. I decided to learn to row – not in a traditional rowboat, but in a long skinny shell with two 10-foot oars. It isn’t that hard, except you’ve got to do a few things right or you end up in the water.But to really enjoy it, at least for me, I had to accept the fact that I was a novice. And that meant not expecting myself to get it perfect from the very beginning. As I found myself cursing my inability to square my blades, I realized that my mind was not allowing me to enjoy what should be a serene, zen-like experience.

I don't look like this when I row

Mindset I was guilty of what Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck calls the “fixed” mindset instead of the more constructive “growth” mindset. Dweck is an authority on things like brain science and learning. In her book “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success,” she describes the growth mindset as a far superior method for transforming effort into success. The growth mindset allows you to focus on self-development, self-motivation, and responsibility for results. A growth mindset keeps you from saying, “I’m a natural-born loser,” and instead saying, “I need to work harder at this.” In a growth mindset, people are not afraid to make an error, look silly, or show a deficiency.

Dweck’s decades of research are particularly relevant for people aiming for business school. The growth mindset resonates on a tactical level, in studying for the GMAT or GRE. It also resonates on a strategic level, considering the personal leadership attributes sought by admissions officers of most business schools.

The Tactical: Testing
Standardized tests demand a growth mindset. The computer-adapted tests, which give you harder questions if you answer right and easier questions if you score wrong, can send the fixed-mindset student into a failure spiral that will ruin any chances of a decent score. The growth mindset, however, allows the student to work toward mastery. To put the time and the effort into learning the material and the process. The growth mindset allows the student to embrace the possibility that skills can be learned (they can), and that sustained effort (and a good coach) leads to accomplishment. The person with a growth mindset loves to conquer a challenge, while the person with the fixed mindset demands perfection right away.

The Strategic: Leading
Business schools seek out people with attributes that will make them leaders who will change the world for the better. They are looking for people who don’t give up and see hurdles as a challenge. They want people who can learn from others to improve themselves and their environment. I worked with one student, now on his way to Wharton, who appeared on the surface to be an all-or-nothing high achiever. At first, he looked like the “typical MBA,” never a good sign. But later, in his application and interview, he mentioned something both disarming and revealing. When discussing his recent lessons in Taekwondo, he said “It is never too late for a fervent beginner.” That’s the growth mindset.

There may have been a time when business schools were looking only for people with natural-born talent. But as the world has changed and management science has evolved, MBA programs want growth-mindset types in their classes. They want people who are willing to try new things, and are prepared to not be perfect the first time out. They want people who think of themselves as works in progress.

And that’s why learning a new sport (or skill, or technique, or trick) isn’t so bad. I know I was clumsy and got it all wrong with my first attempt at rowing. But no harm done. I’ll just keep trying until I get it right.

Whenever that may be.

By Betsy Massar, Havard Business School graduate and founder of Master Admissions. Master Admissions acts as a campaign manager and champion, setting you up for success in applying to your top-choice business schools. Visit masteradmissions.com for a free consultation with Betsy Massar.

Filed Under: Blog

Clear Admit Publishes Free, Objective Overviews of 27 Leading MBA Programs for Business School Applicants

We are excited to announce the release of the Clear Admit “School Snapshots” series, a new publication line designed to give prospective applicants concise overviews of leading MBA programs – for free – as they begin the process of finding the right business school.

This new series of guides was created especially for early-stage applicants with limited knowledge of MBA programs at leading business schools. Each School Snapshot provides essential information about a given school’s MBA program, including faculty, curriculum, campus life, career services and job placement statistics, and more. Together, the Snapshots provide an excellent, objective introduction to MBA programs in the United States and abroad, making them the perfect resource for candidates who are trying to determine which business schools’ strengths and offerings best fit their needs and goals.

“The Clear Admit School Snapshots deliver need-to-know information that’s easy to read and free of marketing spin,” says Clear Admit Co-founder Graham Richmond. “They’re the perfect way for applicants to learn about a school before delving into deeper research.”

The Snapshots series is the most recent addition to Clear Admit’s line of critically acclaimed publications, which also includes more extensive School Guides, Interview Guides, and School Selection Guides, as well as a Strategy Series providing step-by-step guidance through the application process. School Snapshots of more than two dozen top MBA programs are now available for free download in the Clear Admit Shop.

Here is a complete list of titles in the Clear Admit School Snapshot series:

Filed Under: Blog, ClearAdmit

Preparing for IMD’s Interview

Without a doubt, IMD conducts the most thorough MBA interview. The interview day is divided into four evaluative sections. When you arrive on campus, you will be introduced to the adcom and faculty evaluators as well as a group of applicants who will partake in the same experience as you. Since the adcom will evaluate you on your team interactions and most of your peer-applicants will become your classmates, get to know them, have fun with them, and expand your network.

For the first part of the interview, our website’s interview section will help you. Review the interview questions and prepare response to them, or contact one of our consultants to help you prepare for the MBA interview. IMD’s adcom is trying to get to know you, your intentions, and your fit with the school. The questions are similar to those at other schools. They will ask you about your background and goals, team skills and leadership, successes and failures. This part of the interview day will take 45 minutes to one hour and is a great way to help you prepare for the rest of the day.

Next you will be asked to present a topic they give you in the morning. You will have 30 minutes to prepare the topic and 5 minutes to present the topic. This is what I call a mini-case. Take a stand on the topic and offer supporting evidence in a cohesive and dynamic manner. You can practice by thinking about issues you have at work or that are in today’s business news. For instance, they may suggest that you present your opinion of the European debt crisis or your opinion of the Euro. Should Germany have to bail out Greece? Can countries that have different political systems successfully use one currency? Give it some thought and present a good argument. They will evaluate your presentation on analysis and delivery, but not on your opinion itself (every business issue has multiple dimensions).

Then you will have lunch with alumni. Alumni are trying to get to understand how you will fit in with the culture of the school and they will report what they learn. Let your personality shine through, but be on guard. Alumni are evaluating your value-added to the school.

Finally, you will be asked to present the “Case”. Most applicants don’t know how to tackle a case, but from an adcom’s point of view, I believe offering the case is a stroke of brilliance. Much of your MBA education will be case-based and if you know how to tackle a case from day 1, you will have smooth sailing throughout the program. I suggest you read Mark Consentino’s book Case In Point or William Ellet’s The Case Study Handbook well before the interview. IMD will send you the case two weeks prior to your interview day. You will need to prepare that case and on the interview day, faculty will observe you and moderate the case discussion as you and your peer group dissect and present the case. They will be looking for your analysis, teamwork, leadership and presentations skills during the case. Again, Accepted.com’s consultants are experts in helping you with case interview preparation.

At the end of the day, you will be asked to sit in on a class. This is not part of the evaluation, but more of a chance for you to see the IMD faculty and students in action. Most applicants just observe and don’t participate in class, however, if they are discussing a topic in which you are familiar, I suggest you raise your hand and add to the discussion. If you are unfamiliar with the topic, you should just observe the students and how they interact with the faculty.

While IMD’s interviews are intense, you should gain a lot from the day. And if offered admission, you will know if IMD is a good fit for you.

Tune into “The IMD MBA” to learn more about their program.

By Natalie Grinblatt Epstein, an accomplished Accepted.com consultant/editor (since 2008) and entrepreneur. Natalie is a former MBA Admissions Dean and Director at Ross, Johnson, and Carey. $25 off Accepted.com Essay Editing Services: – Click Here to Start!

Filed Under: Accepted, Blog, IMD, Interviews

Stop Being Overwhelmed by Your Overrepresentation!

Take a deep breath. Being a member of an overrepresented group is not an MBA admissions death sentence. Most applicants find themselves relating to one (at least) label or group, and that doesn’t exclude them from the adcom pickings. What do you think – that the adcom readers only choose candidates who have no associations to any larger group or label? Obviously that would be impossible – if nothing else, applicants fall into either the “Male” or “Female” group, both of which are rather large groups!

The fact that you are a member of an overrepresented group should only motivate you to show that you are a unique candidate, despite your less-than-unique label. This applies to men, women, Indians, techies, consultants, and…well, everyone.

Why You Need to Apply Yourself to Your Application

If all adcoms cared about were demographics and labels, then there would be no MBA application essays, no letters of recommendation, and no b-school interviews. In fact, all they would need would be your transcript, maybe your MBA resume, and most importantly, your census information.

Of course that’s not the case. You provide the adcoms these other get-to-know-you materials so that they can properly gauge your qualities and qualifications beyond your label. It’s your job to use these application components to your benefit – to prove to the adcom readers that you aren’t simply another face in the Indian IT male crowd, but that you are a label-less, unique INDIVIDUAL. You’re not just another entrepreneur; you’re a Cuban entrepreneur who also runs the most successful pet grooming salon in Santa Clara. You’re not just a consultant; you’re a consultant who has also won 16 national hula-hooping competitions. You’re not just some guy; you’re the most awesome guy.

Become a Part of the Mosaic

You need to highlight your stand-out qualities and qualifications to set yourself apart from your label. But that’s not all. To truly catch the adcom readers’ attention, you’ll need to show the ways in which your unique qualities and qualifications will contribute to the b-school classroom mosaic. You won’t show this through your ordinary job or your place of birth, but through your brilliant personality, quirky interests, impressive achievements, mammoth strengths, heartfelt passions, and individual talents.

Please see Accepted’s Diversity in Admissions 101 for more advice on how to stand out in your MBA application by emphasizing your future contributes to MBA classroom diversity.

By Linda Abraham, president and founder of Accepted.com and author of MBA Admission for Smarties, the premier admissions consultancy and essay editing company that has helped applicants around the world gain admissions to over 450+ top schools since 1994. Visit Acccepted.com for all your MBA admissions consulting needs today!

Filed Under: Application Advice, Blog, Essays

Kaplan Test Prep Survey: Although Most Top Business Schools Now Accept the GRE as an Alternative to the GMAT, Only 16% of Future Business School Applicants Considered the GRE Option

The following is a Kaplan Test Prep press release by Russell Schaffer and Carina Wong.

New York, NY (April 25, 2012) – Despite the fact that a majority of top business schools now accept the GRE as an admissions alternative to the GMAT, just 16% of prospective business school students said they considered taking the GRE route, according to a recent Kaplan Test Prep survey*. And of the 84% who said they never considered taking the GRE instead of the GMAT, 60% said the primary reason was because some or all their target schools only accept the GMAT; 19% said it was because they felt applicants who submit a GMAT score have an admissions advantage over applicants who submit a GRE score; and 8% said it was because they thought they’d do better on the GMAT than on the GRE.

“Even though 60% of students said the primary reason they never considered taking the GRE over the GMAT was because the business schools they plan on applying to don’t accept the GRE, we believe that number may be inflated because of a lack of information. Many of them would be surprised to know that most, if not all of the business schools they plan on applying to accept the GRE, in addition to the GMAT,” said Lee Weiss, director of graduate programs, Kaplan Test Prep. “However, it’s still a smart business school admissions strategy to take the GMAT if you are only applying to business school, and not considering applying to graduate school too. According to a separate Kaplan survey of business school admissions officers, applicants who submit a GMAT score have a slight admissions advantage over applicants who submit a GRE score.”

Kaplan Test Prep believes an increasing number of business school will accept the GRE in the years to come, though applicants who submit a GMAT score may continue to hold an advantage, especially because the GMAT is adding an Integrated Reasoning section in June to reinforce its status as the best predictor of student success in business school. Kaplan will continue to track this trend.

In 2011, there were a record 700,000+ administrations of the GRE worldwide.

*The survey was administered by email between November 2011 and April 2012 and included responses from 314 Kaplan GMAT students.

To learn more about the differences between the two shows, check out our videocast, “GMAT vs GRE: Which test should you take for you MBA application?”

Filed Under: Blog, GMAT

Want to get into b-school? Be yourself!

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “authentic?” My bet would be that you don’t automatically think of an MBA student. But someday, you just might.

Why? The top business schools are not only looking for applicants with academic potential, but they’re seeking out a new breed of leader—someone who’s passionate, collaborative, and wants to make a difference in the world. They want applicants with more than good grades, impressive scores, and a letter of recommendation from the likes of Bill Clinton. They’re looking for people who can use their hearts and souls when making business decisions—leaders who are authentic.

Many applicants shudder at the thought of revealing themselves in a business school application (“what if I look imperfect?”). But believe it or not, that’s OK! If you try to be the person you think schools want to read about, you’ll end up sounding just like every other candidate out there. So, take a look at these do’s and don’ts that will help you show business schools your true self—and your leadership potential.

Do: Be Yourself

It’s corny, but according to Mary Miller, Assistant Dean of Admissions at Columbia Business School, it works—and it’s exactly what admissions committees are looking for. “Be yourself,” she advised in a BusinessWeek interview. “We’re all unique individuals; we all present ourselves in a unique way…After you read 10,000 applications, it’s pretty easy to pick out who really shares themselves.” So do some self-exploration before you start writing. Figure out your own motivations and influences to get in touch with the genuine you.

Don’t: Presume You Know What They Want to Hear

Don’t model yourself after admitted applicant “essays that worked.” Admissions readers are wise to the templates that are out there, and they’ll take away from your own authenticity.

Instead, write what you want people to read in your application essays. As Director of Michigan Ross MBA Admissions Soojin Kwon Koh says, “the uniqueness comes when you answer questions using your own experiences and your own points of view developed through your unique way of processing experiences. An off-the-shelf approach is a sure way to distinguish yourself—in a negative way.”

Do: Learn By Doing

Of course you can take Myers Briggs or Enneagram tests to determine your leadership style—but the best way to develop it is to go out and make things happen. Take on a new responsibility at work, join a non-profit steering committee, or mentor someone who could benefit from your expertise—and use those experiences to talk about your leadership potential. Take note of how you work with others when you are faced with challenges and actively seek feedback on ways to improve.

Don’t: Be Like the Tin Man

Harvard Business School Admissions Director Dee Leopold claims that the best candidates have a “Wizard of Oz” combination: brains, heart, and courage. We all know plenty of smart, gutsy people—some of whom have risen to the top of their organizations. But many are missing a crucial ingredient: heart.

Authentic leaders show heart, which comes in the form of their dedication to their purpose, and their commitment to their values. Throughout the application process, don’t be afraid to reveal your passion—it’s this quality that makes someone a leader worth following.

Do: Stand Proud of Your Success

It’s OK to be excited about your accomplishments—in fact, you should showcase them in your essays and interviews. Tell stories to illustrate your experiences and potential. . Just don’t forget to acknowledge the contributions of your teammates and supporters too. . Success is something you should be proud to share, but chances are, you didn’t get there alone.

Don’t: Brag

While showing pride can be an asset, don’t get carried away—you can be gracious about your accomplishments without boasting. Dwell on your accomplishments too long, and you risk sounding like what cynics call the “typical MBA,” not a future leader. Also, don’t be afraid to own up to your mistakes. Nobody’s perfect, and admitting that you’re fallible can demonstrate maturity.

As you begin to prepare your essays and applications, you may think your own stories aren’t so interesting. In reality, the opposite is true—the more genuine you are, the more interesting your stories become. That authenticity will improve your chances for admission, and pave the way for success—in business school and beyond.

Filed Under: Application Advice, Blog, Columbia, Harvard, Michigan

3 Steps to a Successful MBA Reapplication Effort

Reapplying to Business School? Take 2: ACTION!

Have you been dinged from your top choice MBA programs? Don’t despair – get back on that application horse and try again! (In other words, it’s time to put your best efforts forward again in the MBA reapplication process.)

Here’s what you should do:

1. Analyze why you were rejected. Was there a problem with your MBA profile (like you not have enough work experience or your GMAT was too low)? Or were you competitive but your actual application was flawed (like you forgot to change Harvard Business School to Wharton in each of your application essays or your MBA resume wasn’t updated to reflect your current position or your essays were boring, didn’t answer the questions, or failed to show fit)?

2. Determine what you can do to increase your chances of acceptance. Can you improve your profile (by adding another year or two of valuable work experience, retaking the GMAT, boosting your extracurricular/leadership roles, etc.)? Can you create an application that better presents your impressive qualifications? Can you do a better job staying organized and making sure that your application is letter-perfect and tailored for each program you apply to (i.e. not just change HBS to Wharton, but also ensure that your answers specifically answer Wharton’s questions and your goals reflect a perfect fit with the program)?

3. Apply to different programs, if needed. After completing steps 1 and 2 above, you may find that the details of your profile and the quality of your application were fine, but that you simply weren’t competitive at the MBA programs that you’d chosen. In such a case, you’ll need to cast your net a little wider and apply to programs better suited to your qualifications.

Here are more questions for you to consider: Should you reapply next year, or would your profile benefit from more time (2-3 years) before reapplying? If this last attempt was already your second try, should you even consider applying a third time? Is it possible that b-school isn’t for you? Or maybe that you’d do better applying to a part-time MBA program, a Master’s program, or an Executive MBA program?

Please see MBA Reapplication 101 to review resources that will help you determine if reapplying to business school is right for you, and if it is, how to do so successfully to the top MBA program of your choice.

Filed Under: Application Advice, Blog

How to Make the Most of Your MBA: A Primer for Entrepreneurs-to-Be

This week’s tips come courtesy of Alison Albeck Lindland, a fellow Vassar graduate who went on to get her MBA from Columbia Business School, graduating in 2008. Prior to business school Alison worked on the Goldman Sachs and Jaguar accounts at OgilvyInteractive and was an early team member at TheaterMania.com, a startup media and ticket software company. After graduating from CBS, she worked at American Express Interactive, and is now director of business development at Kohort, a venture-backed group management and event planning platform.

Alison says these tactical pointers cover a potential entrepreneurship career. Personally, I think her recommendations apply to anyone hoping to take a big jump into something new and different careerwise.

Get to know everyone in your cohort. There’s a temptation to gravitate to the people you are just going to be friends with or have to work with in study team but guaranteed you’ll be missing out on some terrific people and contacts.
Network with your classmates. Once you’ve identified the industry or area of focus that you want to pursue after graduation use all the internal databases and or LinkedIn to identify current classmates who worked in that field and do coffee chats with them. I met lots of great classmates who I otherwise would never have met socially, whose background ranged from telco engineers who gave me mini tutorials in how mobile tech actually works to mobile entrepreneurs who had worked on interesting early mobile dating apps.
Get to know your professors personally and tell them what you’re interested in. Having gone to a small liberal arts school, I came from a mindset where you always got to know your profs personally and would have them over to your house for dinner. Most business schools are not this way so you can really stand out if you make an effort and you never know what it will yield.
Seek out opportunities to TA for your favorite profs or help with their research. I TA’d for Prof. Whadwa’s excellent strategy consulting class for a session for the Exec MBA class. This a great chance to get to know my favorite professor better, and to know 65 terrific Exec MBA students.
Volunteer to help out institutes or think tanks in your school. You would be surprised how many institutes and think tanks your school funds. Though the smaller ones may not have a great profile to students you would be surprised to learn how many industry and high profile alums may be involved. At CBS I was thrilled to discover the Columbia Institute of Tele-Information and I simply walked in, introduced myself and said I wanted to get involved. Turns out they were in the early stages of planning a Location Based Services conference for the summer . Given my contacts from my summer doing mobile at Amex, they were happy to enlist me. It was without a doubt one of the best experiences I had in school.
Get off campus and talk to everyone. If you’re nervous about cold-emailing people for networking coffee chats, start with the guest speakers in your courses. Connect with them in person before they left the actual classroom and follow up that day asking for a coffee. It’s a great warm intro and usually you’ll know more about what they’re working on after the talk. In my case, if they could not meet with me, they would give me someone else to talk to.
But if you’re nervous about cold emailing people – don’t be. Being an MBA gives you carte blanche to reach out to people – it is what professionals expect of MBAs. Just say you’re really interested in something related to their career or company and can you come to their office for a 20 minute coffee chat. 90% of the time people said yes to this request – and again, if they didn’t I’d ask them if there was someone else I could talk to. Remember to make networking hay while the MBA sun shines. And set yourself a target – like 3 a week so you keep doing these.
Take a class in another school or that is widely cross registered. MBAs are great but you’re going to spend most of your career working in cross functional teams – why not get to know these people (lawyers, journalists, designers, developers etc) now.
Lastly, I’d be remiss if I didn’t remind you to go to all the happy hours and on some major group trips. You’re working hard in school and this is a great way to recharge and really grow those relationships – plus you’ll never have time in your adult lives to do things like this again.

Phew! It’s exhausting, but that’s the beauty of the MBA experience — it’s all there for you if you want it.

Filed Under: Blog, Career

Why You Should Take a Test Prep Course

I’m surprised that so many students who want to go to graduate school don’t feel the need to take a test-prep course. Most of them are well worth the investment.

I can’t stand standardized tests. They test only one thing: test-taking ability. But they are here to stay, and students who want to earn their MBA , or other top professional program from a top school, should get really high scores. Especially in quant.

Both the GMAT and the GRE, the former being the primary business school entry hurdle, arecomputer adaptive tests. That means that more correct responses will lead to harder questions. So those who suffer even the slightest anxiety about the test are faced with another layer of uncertainty. First, there’s the voice that says, “I am afraid I don’t know the material.” Then there’s the voice that says, “I don’t have enough time to answer” and now there’s the voice that says, “this question is easier than I had expected…so I must be doing badly!” It’s exhausting.

This is Your Brain on Anxiety
The brain doesn’t like these conversations. Neuroscientific research has taught us that such anxiety hijacks our ability to think. In very simple terms, limbic system, (the part of the brain that tells the body to breathe, pump blood, and run away from predators) disrupts the “working memory.”

A test prep course, or, if you prefer, a one-on-one tutor, can help you reduce that anxiety, and at a minimum, improve your ability to recall information.

Let’s look at the benefits one-by-one.

1. You will learn the material – the test looks for analytic ability, especially in the quantitative section. You need to brush up on your math. Certainly you can do it from books on your own, but the test is designed to trip you up. Call it mean-spirited. The knowledge itself is important, but you want somebody to walk you through the way to think about the problem.

2. You’ll improve your timing – It’s a timed test, so you need to be very efficient in your responses. You cannot skip a question and you cannot go back. At a minimum, a course or tutor can help you become familiar enough with the material so you can use your precious minutes figuring out the answer rather than figuring out the question.

3. Focus – Standardized tests are about the process of taking the test as much as they are about the material. A good course and a good teacher will teach you how to approach your studying and your test taking. You should take advantage of the prep coach or company’s resources to learn how to master the process.

4. Discipline – You cannot cram for a test like the GMAT. According to Doug Barg, a former master GMAT teacher at Kaplan and a very smart guy, you should study for at least three months, preferably six. Check out his classic blogpost here. If nothing else, a course will help you break up the studying so that you will not only learn, but retain more. A course will also encourage you to take more practice tests than you will on your own. It just works that way.

5. Confidence – A course will help you be more confident. It will help you practice, which should help you feel more confident. And the more genuinely confident you are, the better you’ll score.

It’s possible that you do not suffer from anxiety; not everyone is that high strung. In that case, a course can only help you improve even more dramatically by familiarizing yourself with material and test process. And you are being measured against all other test takers, many of whom will have taken a course. You are competing; why wouldn’t do whatever you can to get the edge?

A formal training program with a teacher or coach is worth the investment. There are lots of classes, online courses, tutors, coaches, and more. I know trainers at: Veritas Prep, Manhattan GMAT, & Kaplan (to name a few).

Check out our test prep discounts in the right hand column!

Filed Under: Blog

The Myth of the Flawless Applicant

Once upon a time there was a beautiful b-school applicant who had a perfect GMAT score, a 4.0 GPA, a dazzling resume, and glowing recommendations. She devoted all her spare time to serving her community, that is, when she wasn’t dabbling in her hobby of bassoon-tuning or spinning wool into gold to hand out to needy orphans. To top it all off, she had the glossiest, longest hair, to-die-for eyelashes, and the straightest, whitest teeth – and she had never even had braces!

As the most perfect specimen of human beings, this goddess-like applicant sent the most impressive applications one could possible imagine to Harvard, Wharton, and Stanford. She was an obvious shoo-in at all three, no doubt.

Harvard Business School

Wait, don’t be jealous…

When the admissions decisions came out, our heroine received three dings.

WHAT?! How can that be?

Well, the adcoms are no fools. They know a mythical creature when they see one, and they knew that this flawless applicant wasn’t real.

NEWSFLASH: Flaws make you real.

The flawless MBA applicant isn’t the best applicant. In fact, the presentation of a perfect, or even near-perfect application, usually raises a red flag that something is wrong. There are several possibilities. Perhaps the applicant is a fake. Or perhaps the applicant has never really stretched herself or left her comfort zone. Or maybe the applicant can’t assess success and failure and admit to the latter.

Why else do you think that top business schools generally ask you to address a failure, character flaw, or weakness? They want you to realize for yourself and to show others that you are an authentic, real human being. Not a robot. Not a lab-produced human clone. Not a mythical god or goddess. But a person who needs to persevere to play that healthy hand of talents and flaws that we’re all dealt at birth, or later on. That person has the resilience to pick himself up after he falls down and the ability to recognize that he hasn’t reached his goal and will take responsibility for the outcome.

Recognizing and talking about your flaws shows the adcom that you are a mature, self-aware individual. It reveals that you have striven and taken risks. You are willing to own up to your errors, reflect upon them, and then improve. After all, this is what is required if you want to succeed in the business world.

It’s time to get real!

Please see MBA Application Weaknesses 101, a tip-filled resource guide, for more advice on how to approach your strengths and weaknesses in your MBA application.