Avoiding Application Pitfalls: ClearAdmit

I'm working on a story about the most common mistakes MBA applicants make on their applications, and how to avoid them. My first interviewee was Graham Richmond, CEO of Clearadmit, an admissions consulting and publications company that helps guide MBA applicants through the application process.

Richmond said the MBA application process is, "like a multivariable equation": a 360-degree process with a lot of moving parts. It's important to evaluate your entire application and make sure no single part is weaker than the rest. However, he said the most common, and debilitating, mistake applicants make is telling, rather than showing, on the application and in the essays. It sounds pretty basic, but it's a principle that applies to all the writing, and interviewing, parts of the application process.

"It's not enough to say you exercised leadership," Richmond said. "You need to provide specific examples, such as how many people you supervised, and or how you guided a team to achieve measurable results."

Richmond said another common error is that applicants forget who their audience is. "Assume the admissions committee doesn't know much about the field you've worked in," Richmond said. "It's easy for an applicant who's been immersed in their field for several years to assume knowledge on the part of readers, but that's dangerous."

Stop by MBA Podcaster in the next month or so to hear the podcast.

(Updated! Listen to the completed show here: http://www.mbapodcaster.com/MBA_MoreInfo/MBA-Application-Pitfalls.asp?iEpisode=83)