How To Assess YOUR MBA Profile

In this conversation, Harold Simansky and Rachel Beck discuss how to assess one's chances of acceptance into business school. They cover topics such as academic credentials, including GPA and university attended, the importance of standardized testing, and the value of leadership potential. They also emphasize the need to demonstrate fit with the school and realistic career goals. They encourage applicants to be realistic about their profile, identify weaknesses, and take steps to address them. They also highlight the importance of differentiating oneself and showcasing unique experiences and perspectives.

Takeaways

• Assess your academic credentials, including GPA, major, and university attended.
• Standardized testing is important and should be taken seriously.
• Demonstrate leadership potential through work experiences and extracurricular activities.
• Consider fit with the school and articulate realistic career goals.
• Identify weaknesses in your profile and take steps to address them.
• Differentiate yourself by showcasing unique experiences and perspectives.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to the mbaMission podcast
• 0:22 Framework to assess your MBA profile
• 1:16 Academic credentials - GPA and test scores
• 8:00 Leadership potential
• 13:33 Post-MBA career goals
• 17:00 Fit of business school
• 20:25 Focus on what you offer and what makes you different
• 24:37 There is a business school for everyone - spread your risk
• 29:28 What if I only want Harvard, Stanford, or Wharton?
• 30:45 Know your weaknesses
• 32:15 How mbaMission can help you maximize your MBA profile

Transcript

Harold Simansky (00:10)
Hi, this is Harold Simansky with the mbaMission Podcast. I'm here today with my colleague, Rachel Beck, Managing Director at our firm and one of the most experienced people we have. On that note, Rachel, what frequently happens to me is I will get a new client and invariably they're one of two types. Either they think they're going to be getting it everywhere, incredibly confident, or they're so concerned they're not going to be getting it anywhere and incredibly underconfident.

I always try to take them through this notion of, okay, let's be very realistic in terms of how we assess your chances. It's very much an eyes wide open process here. With that in mind, Rachel, someone comes to you, how should they think about assessing their own chances of acceptance?

Rachel (00:56)
Well, this is something we face every single day because not only in the clients that we have, but also in doing our free consultations where sometimes we have to give people a reality check, right? And so this is the framework that I use to give that reality check. And it's really just doing a self -assessment of your profile. So the first thing I always look at is your academic credentials. And there's a lot of different components to that. First of all, look at your GPA.

GPA is, it's not just, you know, you need a three six to go to this school. There's a lot more baked into the GPA. what major you have, what university you attended, you know, some universities have terrible grade inflation, or if you get the grade inflation, it's incredible. other universities have much lower grades.

Harold Simansky (01:47)
Yeah.

Rachel (01:52)
So the schools are very good at looking at kind of where you stand and the business schools have a good sense of kind of where you are. But the truth is, is that most schools publish like an average or median GPA and you don't want to be a big outlier on the downside. So you have to be real about that. And the thing about your GPA is you can't change it. So there are other things that you can do. So assess your

Harold Simansky (02:15)
Rachel, just very quickly here, frequently all have clients, particularly international clients who say, but the admissions committee doesn't know my university. First of all, is that true? And then how do they think about international universities in particular?

Rachel (02:31)
So that is an issue a lot of the time, like the grading outside of the US feels random to people who are in the US. So a lot of times I'll say to people, well, where did you fall in the class? Did they give you a class rank? Did they tell you what percentile you were in the class? And that helps get a sense. There are some online tools that can also help you convert your GPA. And I often recommend to...

perspective clients or clients to contact the business schools and ask them what's the best way to convert your GPA or how are you looking at the GPA? And the schools are very open to that. They understand that not every country runs under this like 4 .0 grade point system. So with your GPA, regardless if you're in the US or outside the US, you have to take a hard look at it. And if you feel that your GPA is beneath the levels that it should be, there's an opportunity to create something called an alternate transcript.

Harold Simansky (03:28)
OK great.

Rachel (03:29)
And if, of course, if you're applying very close to the deadline, right, and you're doing this assessment, you know, six weeks out, you're probably not gonna be able to do this. But if you have a few months, you could take an MBA math class, you could take a class online in statistics or economics, you could take the HBS CORe great. That's a great way to kind of improve your profile. They're also looking at...

Harold Simansky (03:52)
In fact, just very quickly, I know some schools, HBS, but other schools even specifically ask you, have you taken the HBS CORe

Rachel (04:00)
Correct, correct. And some schools are very, very welcoming. They think that that's an added benefit if you have taken those courses. So sometimes I'll really suggest that even if you have a good profile, like it just shows kind of that extra step you're willing to take. Everyone has to do their standardized testing. There's very few waivers for standardized testing out there. A few schools have it, but for the most part, you're stuck taking it. So.

I suggest all the time for people to take a diagnostic test and see how that test goes for the GMAT or GRE because those are accepted everywhere. There's also the executive assessment, which is really for a handful of schools for the full -time MBA, more broadly for Executive MBA. You need to do well on your testing. It's very, very hard to get in to especially a more competitive program if you're not

close to the averages or the median scores, right? When you're again, an outlier on the lower end, you're kind of fighting your way in. And I always tell people, you wanna get a check plus in the academic category because you wanna then be able to move on and not worry about that. You don't want the admissions committee to worry about your grades. You might also be in an industry that you could get certain designations, a CPA, a CFA, Six Sigma.

Harold Simansky (05:07)
Yeah, sure.

Rachel (05:23)
Those things don't change your grades. They don't change the outcome of your standardized testing, but they might show that you have some of this quantitative ability that the schools are looking for. So they're not a replacement, but I hear all the time, well, I, you know, I passed all three parts of the CFA. Doesn't that show for something? It was so much work. I'm like, that's fantastic. But your GMAT score is well below the median score that, that doesn't help you erase the score.

Harold Simansky (05:51)
Rachel, does one thing take over, make up for the other thing? So if I have a low GPA and then I am getting a great score on the GMAT, is that like, do they forget the GPA or the flip side? If I have terrible GMAT, but I had a great GPA, does one, can one really offset the other or is it always sort of floating there?

Rachel (06:08)
I think if you don't have a great undergrad GPA and you have somewhat of a story to go with it, you know, I didn't do well my freshman year, it was a hard transition or I decided to change majors, I just, I was pre -med and I decided I didn't want to do that. Some of those things can be forgiven, especially if you end on a higher note and the GMAT then can really be able to show this academic ability that you have.

I think it's harder if you have a really good GPA and then you just cannot handle the standardized testing. I'm a very bad standardized test taker. So I really feel for people who struggle with their standardized testing and have good grades. Like that's a, it's hard because you really want to be able to perform. but you can't, you, you can't make up for, a low standardized test score.

Harold Simansky (06:35)
to make sense.

Yeah.

you. You know what I always find a little curious is that the notion of a test waiver, because I've certainly had clients in the past, and sometimes it feels very random that people get a test waiver, but I remind people that a test waiver does not imply that you're fantastic at analytics or quant. In fact, sometimes it's sort of a negative to get a test waiver because they look at your transcript and they're still not convinced that you can actually do the analytical work.

Yes. Right.

Rachel (07:27)
Correct. I think you have to be very careful when asking for a test waiver and maybe even explain why you've asked for it. A lot of times they'll require that in the application for it, but you can also reinforce it in an optional essay because you don't want them to think, well, I just didn't have time to take the test or I bombed the test completely.

Harold Simansky (07:46)
Yes. Right. Right. No, that makes sense. Okay. So that's the academic side of things. Obviously, one leg of the stool of your application. And then at that point, where do you go?

Rachel (07:51)
Yes.

Exactly.

So from there, I like people to really assess a few other things. Most importantly, their leadership potential. This is really, really crucial in applying to business school. And it's kind of like the qualitative data, let's say, because the standardized testing is their numbers, but this is more qualitative. So you want to be able to show the admissions committee that you're somebody who has risen somewhat in your career.

Harold Simansky (08:26)
Yes. Yes.

Rachel (08:27)
Number one. Number two, you want to be able to demonstrate that you have some leadership. Now, leadership isn't management. And I think that a lot of young applicants, especially those applying to full -time MBA programs, lose sight of the fact that they don't need to necessarily be overseeing somebody, but they could show leadership through other metrics. And that's something I think is really important to reinforce. For instance, maybe you're somebody

Harold Simansky (08:49)
Yeah.

Rachel (08:56)
who didn't know a lot about how the company works and spent the first two months doing coffee chats with a lot of higher level executives. And that really led to you getting on better projects. Like that's all initiative, right? And being able to show initiative is great. They like to see evidence of you taking risks, right? I took on this project, it was much different than...

Harold Simansky (09:12)
Yes. Sure.

Rachel (09:21)
I thought it was going to be, or I took on this project and I didn't, I had no oversight of the people that were working beneath me, but I had to inspire them to deliver. This is how I did this, right? So that's, that's real initiative and that shows real leadership. So I think that's very important.

Harold Simansky (09:37)
Where would you include it in the application? Is that just the essays, the recommendations, other places?

Rachel (09:46)
It's definitely the essays. It's definitely the recommendations. It also could be bullets on your resume as well, because sometimes a nice bullet has to do with where you're clearly going and meeting a bunch of different managers and learning from them doesn't end up on your resume, but maybe getting on a project does get on your resume. So you have to be a little bit creative. I also just pointing to the resume, people have a

a very bad tendency to want to put a lot of bullet points on their resume, trying to show I've done this, I've done this, I've done this. And I, in my mind, say, I used to be a resume reviewer when I was at Columbia Business School. And so one of the lessons we learned is don't create a black hole in your resume with over -bulleting. So I'm very, very strict working with my clients that you get four or five bullets in a role you've been in for, you know, one, two years and that's it.

Harold Simansky (10:35)
Yeah.

Rachel (10:44)
You don't wanna listen to 12 things, because no one's reading down, really, pass four.

Harold Simansky (10:45)
day on the left. Right.

Right. No, that makes sense. I think stepping to the side here, I think most people do not spend enough time on the resume. I think when all of a sudden,

Rachel (11:00)
Yes, they don't understand that at a lot of schools, that's your introduction to the school. And you're basically want to wow them with your resume, like, wow, you've really done a lot of great things. That's where that leadership potential can really be highlighted. I want to also point out that leadership potential doesn't just have to take place at work, right? Well, at work in your direct line of work, number one.

I love when I see people doing things outside of their direct line of work at their company. For instance, maybe leading a mentorship initiative or helping with a summer intern program or leading training sessions or doing recruiting or sitting on a committee that works toward the betterment of the organization. Those things really show that nice leadership potential because no one's telling you to do it. You're doing it, right? And leadership potential.

course could be shown in outside activities. Extracurriculars are a great place, especially if you're in an industry, like let's say you're an investment banking analyst and you don't have a lot of opportunity to quote unquote show leadership. You're being told what to do. So here are both those pathways, getting involved in work and also getting involved in extracurriculars would allow you to show additional leadership.

Harold Simansky (12:09)
Yeah.

that makes sense. And I also tell some of my clients that it's also a point of differentiation in the sense of investment bankers. They'll always tell me that they're just too busy. They're working 80 hours a week and how can you possibly do it? And yet people find a time to do, you know, zoom with tutoring someone for one hour a week, two hours a week. And actually that could be a way that in the world of where every investment banking analyst looks exactly the same, more or less, it's like, that's the place where you can stand.

Rachel (12:49)
Exactly. Exactly. And you want the admissions committee to read your application and think, well, this person is different. And so when you're assessing your profile or your chances of getting into business school, you have to think what sets me apart from other people who share the exact same background. And by really thinking, what do I do that goes above and beyond, that will help you see those things.

Harold Simansky (13:16)
Yeah. Yeah. No, it makes sense. It makes sense. Okay. So we have leadership. We have sort of academic abilities. let's say resume. I'm sure that there are some people who do resumes really well, hopefully, and some people who do it. Yes.

Rachel (13:22)
Yes.

Yes, yes. Any of our clients, any of our clients do resumes really, really well. Another avenue that I think is really important and sometimes overlooked in the application process is really assessing what you're laying out as your career goals and why you want an MBA. In fact, I think this becomes somewhat of a big miss for a lot of applicants. In fact, you and I review people who don't get into business school, right?

Harold Simansky (13:56)
Yep, all the time.

Rachel (13:57)
People who haven't worked with our firm come to us and say, what happened? And the first place I look is the career goals. Because I think people don't understand that your application is you marketing yourself to the business schools. Just like Colgate sells toothpaste and Crest sells toothpaste. Who decides if they're choosing Colgate over Crest, right? So you have to make your application

Harold Simansky (14:15)
West.

Rachel (14:24)
really great in the sense that they want to choose your toothpaste, right? So you want to make sure your career goals work for the admissions committee so they believe that you're going to be able to achieve what you want out of business school. And that's for two reasons. Number one, and you've heard me talk about this before, your goals have to be believable, reasonable, and feasible. They have to believe you're going to be able to get this job on the way out the door.

Harold Simansky (14:31)
Yeah. Yes.

Yes.

Yeah. Yes.

Rachel (14:52)
Right? That is so important to them. Number one. Number two, they have to believe that you are going to make something of yourself in the world of business. And I think that's something that they're closely looking at when they're assessing. You don't want this pie in the sky.

Harold Simansky (14:56)
Yeah.

Sorry.

Rachel (15:19)
job, you want a job that's really anchored on reality. And one of the business school asked for a long -term goal of a dream job. And when they first came out with that application, I had a client write in her brainstorming document that she wanted to be the CEO of Amazon, which I told her was a very notable goal, right? You should want to be that level of leadership, but I did not think that Jeff Bezos was giving up his job so quickly. So let's anchor this, these goals in reality. And so you really need to be.

Harold Simansky (15:43)
Right, right, right, right.

Rachel (15:48)
When you're assessing your candidacy, you need to think, am I marketing myself well to the admissions committee? Or do they believe I need this degree to get the job that I want right out of the MBA?

Harold Simansky (16:02)
make sense. I always tell my clients, you don't go to business school to become an astronaut, meaning you go to business school to do things in business and very specific things in business.

Rachel (16:11)
Yes, yes, yes. And it has to work. Like you want the admissions committee when they're reading your application to really believe, yes, fine. You don't want them walking down to career services with your application in hand and asking, what do you think? Because that what do you think means forget it.

Harold Simansky (16:30)
Exactly right. You already lost at that point. So obviously that's something you can control. A good applicant can control how they think about their, by all means, how they think about their career going forward. So as you, as you yourself are sitting there, as our listeners are sitting there thinking about their, thinking about their own chances, okay, they'll think about how they are academically. They'll think about just how their job and job progression leadership they've shown. Obviously career goals is something they can pull into place themselves. How else to assess their candidacies?

Rachel (16:59)
I also ask them, are these schools the right fit for you? And I think that this is a place that a lot of people also fall down, right? They're too generalized in their understanding of why a particular school and fail to really demonstrate this school is right for me for these reasons. And that's why I really stress to applicants to spend the time getting to know these programs.

Harold Simansky (17:05)
Okay.

Rachel (17:29)
The schools have made it very, very easy to attend online info sessions or in -person info sessions. it's very easy to connect with people who are part of clubs and associations. The internet exists. Sometimes I find it very funny because you and I went to business school at a different moment in time and started our careers at a different moment in time. The internet didn't exist. Where, where you like.

Harold Simansky (17:44)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Rachel (17:57)
literally had to get someone's number or use a phone book. I mean, it was just really incredible, but the internet exists and LinkedIn exists. So if your goal is to go into consulting or you want to be a marketing manager at a media company, LinkedIn is a great resource to connect with people. So I think that a lot of applicants in building their profile and assessing their profile,

Harold Simansky (18:01)
Right.

Rachel (18:27)
don't do what's needed to be done to put together good fit for the school. And that then translates into weak applications. So when you're assessing your profile, you want to say, this is the right school for me because it offers me A, B, C, D, E, F, G. And I think that's something very, very important.

Harold Simansky (18:46)
Yes.

Yeah, yeah, definitely. In fact, I mean, listen, you and I see this all the time where we're going to start getting either ding reviews, people didn't get in and I read their application and I just changed the name of the school and they could write the same thing. I love the teamwork. I like the environment there, whatever it is. And I think people really have to dig down deep in terms of what makes one school Columbia different from Yale or whatever.

Rachel (19:10)
Exactly, exactly. And that takes time. And I think that a lot of applicants don't realize the time it takes to get to know the schools that they're interested in. And think of like, not just, this class sounds interesting, but why does the class sound interesting for what I want to do? What am I going to get out of it? And I think really digging into some of the schools, not every school is going to ask a why this school essay. So you have to know that and not

Harold Simansky (19:28)
Right?

Rachel (19:38)
not answer that question if it isn't asked. I think that's something important as well. But the schools that do ask it, they want a higher level of understanding. Kind of going back to the why this school and the career goals coming together. I don't know if you recall this, but at one of our conferences pre -pandemic, we had an admissions director for a top program who, I'm not sure you were even, there's pre -pandemic.

Harold Simansky (19:40)
Yes.

Yes.

I don't think it was before my time.

Rachel (20:07)
But he actually talked about that this school really likes to hear that people have identified problems that they want to solve with their career goals. And I think that's something that applicants can also think about when assessing their own profile is, you know, why do I want this job? What do I want to make of it? And that has stuck with me.

Harold Simansky (20:30)
Yeah. No, that makes sense. I always tell folks is you can't present yourself as a might as well candidate. And frequently we have this with the smart folks went to great schools. And at that point, you know, three, four or five years in their career and they're like, you know, I've always done well academically. Let me apply to business school might as well. Yeah. You realize you have to have a reason to go.

Rachel (20:46)
Right. Right. Right. I think kind of building on that though, that there are kind of going on the opposite. Like some of these business schools could fill an entire class with just people graduated from Wharton undergrad. Right. It could be just that or Ross or McCombs or whatever, whatever you want it to be. But the business schools are not looking for that. And so in assessing your profile, if you're somebody who is a non -traditional applicant, don't

Don't run scared. Be willing to understand what do you offer? And in assessing your profile, think to yourself, how can I convey what I bring to the conversation? Because most of these business schools use the case method in one way or another. Some are everything is case method, others are 50, 40 % case method. Regardless, they want people who add to the conversation. So...

Harold Simansky (21:18)
Yeah.

right.

Right, right. Yeah.

Rachel (21:42)
If you worked for Teach for America or if you're like me who is a journalist or you come from PR or advertising or work in supply chain management or you work in a factory, whatever it is, you're bringing different things to the conversation, which makes it very interesting. And they don't, they could fill their classes with people who are consultants and bankers and they don't want that. So don't, don't think you don't have a chance in assessing your profile. You have a chance regardless of career.

Harold Simansky (22:09)
Yeah. Right. No, that makes sense. And this is also, when it comes to those, let's call them poets, folks like that. I mean, I was coming out of politics. If you take that profile, but then you overlay something like taking an online course like mbaMission or HBS CORe, suddenly I think you're a fundamentally different candidate with sort of going from being a poet to suddenly your chances really rock it up that you've shown this initiative as well as now you've been developing some skills. So as you assess your profile,

Rachel (22:16)
Yes.

Harold Simansky (22:37)
recognize if there's a glaring weakness, there are ways to actually make up for it.

Rachel (22:41)
Exactly. I've had teachers who've been part of Teach for America, who have done a lot of quantitative work within their schools to improve operations, improve student outcomes. Those make great MBA application stories and they don't even have to be Teach for America. They're just teachers. I had a client recently who came from the art world and felt very, very like.

Harold Simansky (22:58)
Yes.

Rachel (23:09)
I'm never gonna be able to do this. My profile isn't good enough. This is why it isn't good enough. She got in everywhere. She got, she really got in everywhere. And I was like, you have good stories to tell. It's interesting. It's different. So in assessing your profile, think of what makes you interesting and different and ask friends and family and colleagues, what makes me interesting and different?

Harold Simansky (23:16)
Did she really?

know that makes sense. And like you, I'll frequently tell my clients, listen, they can fill their class again with investment banking analysts, with consultants, whatever it is, but they have to have new voices, different voices in the classroom. And yeah, so different is sometimes good.

Rachel (23:45)
Exactly. And I actually look at my consulting clients who are very successful in this process and why they are consultants. They all have something else that they've done that's really interesting, whether it's in college or in extracurricular during the post -college years, that their consulting is, they have good jobs, but they have really interesting components outside of that as well.

Harold Simansky (24:15)
make sense. That makes sense. Okay. So we're thinking about assessing the candidacy. We thought about academic, we thought about leadership, we thought about knowledge of the school. We thought to some degree of how you address some of your weaknesses. And again, I'm sort of, you know, anything else, and then maybe we'll talk a little bit about, okay, if your assessment is not getting you where, where you want to go, what, what does that mean?

Rachel (24:36)
Right. So I think those are the big categories. If I was going to give it a headline, I would say the headline is how are you an initiator and how are you a creator? Right? Like those are, that's, that's the takeaway from the qualitative component of, of your assessment of yourself. And you might, you might get to the point that you say, I don't know if I can, I can make it, right? I'm not sure. And I think that.

Harold Simansky (24:48)
Okay.

I'm not sure.

Rachel (25:06)
there is a business school for everybody. I think a lot of it, a lot of the bright light shines on the most competitive schools. But something that I think is really important to note is if you go to a school a little further down in the rankings, you still are going to be successful. In fact, you're going to drive your success. So don't get too caught up in that, you know, if I don't go to Harvard or Stanford,

Harold Simansky (25:09)
Yes.

Yes, yep.

Rachel (25:35)
there's no success for me in the world. In fact, I actually hate that approach. And I had a client a number of years ago who got into a very good school and she cried, it's so B list. And I was like, who are you? Who are you to say that? I'm gonna let you know a few of my clients who've gone to schools just like this.

Harold Simansky (25:35)
Yes. Right, right, right.

Yeah, she was just...

Rachel (26:00)
who are amazing, doing amazing things that are changing the world, like never look at it like that. So I really encourage people to spread their risk because the tippy top is extremely hard to crack. Even if you have the perfect profile, you need to. Now we encourage at mbaMission as you know, we encourage people to stretch, but spread their risk, right? Because people get into the top top schools every year that we're like, it happened, this is so.

Harold Simansky (26:00)
Yes. Yes.

Right, right, read.

Rachel (26:31)
And we might have, we might assess their profile and think, well, here are some weak points, but it comes together and the schools see something in them. And hopefully we've helped them see that.

Harold Simansky (26:44)
Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Listen, I'm always surprised both ways. I'm always surprised where some people who are at first blush, you think, they never get to the very top schools. And we, we have a lot of our Harvard Stanford clients, and these are such hard schools to get into. Never, ever, ever, never let anyone say, you have a real good shot there. You know, it's there. There's, they say they can fill their class three times over. So at some point you just aren't part of that one third.

Rachel (27:08)
Right. Right. I want to also point out something here that I heard years ago having to do with the test scores, right? Because we'll hear a lot of times that people feel like it's not fair. The test scores, the test scores, like I'm such a good applicant, but my scores aren't good. And it is frustrating for us too, right? Especially when we see somebody who's really interesting, who deserves to get noted. First of all, the schools at times will

Harold Simansky (27:32)
Yeah. Yeah.

Rachel (27:38)
look at people who are interesting and different, but don't look at the numbers that the schools are putting on their website. Like there's always these outliers and a few times a year I'll get an email from someone saying, you know, well, but I saw that Harvard accepted, you know, the range is 540 to 780. I'm like, okay, there was one person at the 540. So that's number one. Exactly. They were an Olympic athlete. They were, you know, had some...

Harold Simansky (27:43)
Right. Yes.

Right, right, right. Right, right, right, exactly. And they were an Olympic athlete. Yeah.

Rachel (28:05)
credible connection to the school. So don't believe that to be true, but you can control your test score. You can, so keep at it and keep working hard. And it's okay if you have to spread your risk, kind of going back to that idea.

Harold Simansky (28:11)
Yes.

Yeah, right. Right. Particularly if people, as they get to know the schools, they should look at the employment reports. Because the reality is that when you start looking very closely at the employment reports, people are getting great jobs at all of the top 20 schools. And frequently, they're getting the same jobs from all the 20 schools. So.

Rachel (28:39)
Right. And by the way, sometimes things surprise people. Like when I am meeting people through free consultations or clients that I'm working with and, you know, I'll hear like, well, I want to work at a tech company and product management. I'm like, have you thought about University of Michigan's Ross school of business, which has incredible placement in Silicon Valley and other tech hubs around the country. And they're like, what? And I'm like, that's why you have to do, that's why you have to do your work.

Harold Simansky (29:08)
Absolutely. I tell folks, if you want to do product management, there are two great schools. One is Carnegie Mellon Tepper, and one is University of Washington Foster. Two schools that frequently don't pop up, but it's straight line to some of the best tech companies. I think that that's really it. Now, interesting then. So Rachel, and if someone comes to you and they are dead set on Harvard, Stanford, and Wharton what do you say to them?

Rachel (29:17)
Yeah. Yeah.

Exactly. Exactly.

Harold Simansky (29:34)
And I know you're a very encouraging person. So let me start there.

Rachel (29:38)
Well, I'm real. And actually, my testimonials say I'm very real. I always say, let's do the profile assessment so you can see where your strengths and weaknesses are. And then you can really assess whether or not you feel that you're a strong enough applicant for them. And the line we typically will hear is, I only want Harvard Stanford, or I only want Harvard Stanford Wharton because

My industry only allows for that. And I beg to differ. There are plenty of people who are in top industries who didn't go to Harvard, Stanford, Wharton. And I'm sure there's MIT and Columbia and NYU and Booth and Kellogg and Haas and Darden and Duke in their ranks too. So I really try to open people's eyes to the fact that there's more than just that.

Harold Simansky (30:17)
Yeah, of course.

Right, right, right. Definitely. And listen, at the end of the day, as we all know, I always tell my clients this, you can get any job you want to, you just have to go out there and get it. You really have to just go out there and get it. Yeah. And that's it. And I think that's it. Rachel, any final thoughts on assessing your MBA profile? And again, I know you do a ton of consults. What do you generally tell folks about your one minute's pitch on how one should actually think?

Rachel (30:41)
Exactly. Exactly.

The one minute pitch is be real and know where your weaknesses are going in. And by knowing where your weaknesses are, that might help you put forth a stronger application. There's some weakness management that you can do. If you didn't do well on the GMAT,

Harold Simansky (31:14)
Right.

Rachel (31:19)
why don't you try the GRE or why don't you try the executive assessment? Not that the executive assessment is accepted everywhere, but for the school, there's a likelihood that there are some schools you're applying to where it is accepted, right? You don't have a lot of the extracurriculars that show leadership, figure out a way to make it happen. You feel at work that you don't have a lot of leadership to show or you haven't advanced.

Harold Simansky (31:31)
this.

Yes.

Rachel (31:48)
Plan out your path. Think about how can I raise my hand and get onto this an interesting project? Who could I talk to? How could I network within my company? So when you and I are doing these free consultations or we're working with clients, we're having these conversations all the time about advancing their profile. And you have to be real all the time when looking at your profile.

Harold Simansky (32:11)
know, that makes perfect sense then. And great. And as we think about here at mbaMission, what we do, it's really helping you maximize your profile and then certainly address those things that are weaker and getting some strategies around what to do with those things.

Rachel (32:20)
Exactly.

Exactly. Exactly. Again, why are you buying Crest toothpaste? Why are you buying Colgate toothpaste? You know, why are you taking Bob over Mary? Right? Like what, what makes these two people like, why are they choosing one or the other? You have to think of your application as you marketing yourself to the school, honestly, but real, really real.

Harold Simansky (32:32)
Right. Yep.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. Of course. Of course. And talking about mark- marketing here, I'm going to just am with little commercial for mbaMission here at mbaMission you can come speak to us, go online, speak to any one of us, Rachel, me for 30 minutes, completely free. And we can help you assess your profile and think about next steps that are best for you. Rachel, Rachel, thanks very much for joining me today. I very much appreciate it. And hopefully I'll have you on another podcast going forward.

Rachel (33:12)
Thank you. Thank you. Sure.

Harold Simansky (33:17)
Okay, perfect then. Great.