Thread by @tayooye

5 steps to gain admission to your perfect MBA program.

- A THREAD.

In 2009, I applied to Oxford and Cambridge MBA programs - got into both, chose Oxford, and graduated with an Oxford MBA a year later.

I will explicate the steps I took in hope that it would help the class of 2021 with their application packages.

Step 1. Evaluate your profile.

The key elements of your application profile are:

1. Quality of your undergrad degree (school and grade).
2. Your GMAT score.
3 Your essays.
4. Your age.
5. Your reference letters.
6. Your work experience.
7. Your extracurricular activities.

Step 1 (cont.)

1. Undergrad. Your GPA and the quality of your school matters. The GPA is probably more important. "I finished in the top 5 percentile of my class with GPA 3.9/4.0" works magic even if you went to Mount Kenya University.

1a. My undergrad profile was not great. 2:2 (3.2/5.0 GPA) so I crafted a story around my 4.0/4.0 (all As) PhD GPA and used my lack of resources at the undergrad level to explain why I was not a stellar undergrad student.

I will share my essays later.

Step 1 (cont.)

2. GMAT. For a top 20 school, you need a GMAT score around 90th percentile.

Try to score as highly as possible. My GMAT score was 92 percentile. It meant that I scored higher than 92 of every 100 people who took the test across the world.

3. Your essays.

I'll provide more details about this later. But the key is to sell a future picture that the school would want to be a part of.

An essay touting a future providing solar electricity across Africa is more compelling than a future banker,, for instance.

4. Your age.

Most people don't know this.

The very best schools hardly accept applicants older than 30. Other schools don't mind but you'll hardly see a 30+ student at the top 7 schools in the US.

Older applicants should consider lower ranked US schools or Europe.

5. Your reference letter.

This is important!

Don't trust anyone to write your reference letter. Create a draft or an outline highlighting your awesomeness and ask if the reference writer would consider following the outline for his/her letter.

6. Your work experience.

2 years at McKinsey is more valuable than 5 years at KPMG.

Brand name matters.

If you don't have a brand name experience. Tell a compelling story about the value of your work experience.

Stories matter.

7. Extracurricular activities.

Climbing Kilimanjaro is a winner. Volunteering at Clinton Foundation is magic. So is working on FGM and tutoring kids in poor neighborhoods.

Any activity that shows that you're not just a money-chasing vampire is good.

Wow. This is just step 1.

I'll stop here for now and continue with Step 2 tomorrow.

Homework.

If you're serious about applying,

1. Follow me to get the remaining steps.
2. Create a profile on "beat the GMAT" and "GMAT club" forums today.
3. Start preparing for the GMAT exam immediately.

I will share Step 2 tomorrow.

Step 2 is here:

Step 3 is here.