Every spring, a small amount of prospective MBA candidates are left with nothing but rejection letters and questions, mostly that begin with the phrase “What if.”  What if I wrote a better essay?  What if I scored higher on my GMAT tests? What if my grades were better or my recommendations were stronger? What if I worked for a Fortune 500 company to bolster my acceptance chances?

There are three important steps to follow to get a strong recommendation:

Selecting the recommender: The best recommender is a supervisor  who has interacted with you closely. Recommendations from CEOs or CFOs are absolutely useless  unless you have closely worked with them on several projects. A supervisor who can talk about your strengths, weaknesses and really knows what you are made of is one of the best choices. A peer review is sometimes sought by schools. When the recommender selection is left as an open choice, a supervisor is preferred over a peer.

Selecting the right school is one of the most important steps  in the application process. I consider the following aspects crucial to the selection process.

Curriculum and Electives: Check what a school offers as a part of the curriculum. Do the electives offered meet your career goals and aspirations?

Career Placement: How good is the recruitment in your field of  interest. If you are an international student make sure you find out which companies are willing to sponsor work permits. Not all companies are inclined to recruit international students.

Wondering what schools expect when they talk of extra-curricular activities?  Well, be it any domain that the school is concerned about, they look for one key trait: leadership!  In fact, one need not have held any lead role designations in one’s work experience.  The initiatives you took and your leadership instances count.

We have been hearing “It is the best to apply when you and your application are ready”.  But, why not get ready for early rounds? Even if your stars don’t turn lucky for you, you would still have many doors open if you are an early bird. Yes, people who are not happy with the offers they get in the first round decisions always stand a chance to apply to their next set of schools’ second admission rounds. This is more appropriate for international students who are typically allowed to apply only to certain rounds of admission, most likely the first couple of them. First round generally spans from Oct to Dec. But certainly, as said, ensure you are all set when you apply. You may go through the MBA Checklist post to measure your readiness.

Here is a step-by-step approach to mission-MBA. This is designed by logically prioritizing each of the activities that make up the process. This will be of help to address each task in a timely manner.

• Identify your career goals and identify why you would want to have an MBA.  (Read “MBA? Where do I Start?”)
• Choose an MBA program that make the best fit for you in terms of career goals as well as factors like the student body, class size, teaching methodology, placements, student clubs, location etc…

GOSH!! I know. It’s so confusing! #@$% Chill… Read on and I’m sure you’ll feel better.