Yue Xu, Host, MBA PodTV: You want to apply for business school, but do you have a plan for applying? Welcome to MBA PodTV. I’m your host, Yue Xu. In today’s show, we have two special guests, Tyler Cormney and Chris Aitken, the co-founders of MBA Prep School. They’re here to share how you can create a solid work plan for applying to business school from researching schools and writing your essays to acing your MBA interview. So before you start filling out those applications, stay with us and learn the most important steps in a complete application strategy.

Tyler Cormney, Co-founder, MBA Prep School: This is my sixth season as an admissions consultant and I’ve worked with my fair share of clients who are used to working fast and furious and what I can tell you is even they are shocked by how much time it can take to put together two to three high quality applications. For the work plan that we’ll talk about, we had to make some assumptions. The first assumption is that you’re done with the GMAT, you have your GMAT score in hand. The second, that you’re going to apply to about three schools in a single round, which I think is the ideal number. Third, that you’re going to work consecutively once you start until the applications are done. Finally, which is true of most applicants, that you’re going to be working full-time while you’re putting these applications together.

 Yue Xu, Host, MBA PodTV: So how much time should you set aside for your applications? Four weeks, five weeks, 10 weeks, 40 hours, 50 hours, a hundred hours? Now their recommendation is 200 hours.

Tyler Cormney, Co-founder, MBA Prep School: I know that sounds like a lot, but when we watch applicants in what they’re doing, there are number of different steps in the process. 50% of the time is going to be essay writing, that’s the biggest investment of time, but other steps will also require a good deal of time. Career goal setting, application strategy, doing your research about the schools and building your case for why that school is a great fit for you, choosing your references and working with them to ensure the best references come out, and interviews, and your resume, there’s a lot, there’s a lot to accomplish.

Adeem Fenster, Columbia MBA, Class of 2012: The application process requires a lot of strategy. I would say it took me about one year and the reason for that is to really look within yourselves and figure out what you want to do after business school. The GMAT and everything of course comes first. The second thing after that is thinking about where you want to go, why you want to go there, what your aspirations are three years, five years out of business school and you have to be honest with yourself. Based on that, you can develop a career story, you can really narrow down the list of business schools, but without that planning, you’re going to end up in a place where, you know, potentially you could have gone somewhere else and that’s why it’s really important to plan a year out.

Yue Xu, Host, MBA PodTV: MBA Prep School has broken the process into 10 MBA prep steps. Step 1, preparing to apply is for the early birds who have more than 12 weeks and want to get a head start on their applications.

 Tyler Cormney, Co-founder, MBA Prep School: I interviewed an admissions officer when we were writing our book and asked him when does the application process really start ideally speaking and he said something really interesting. He said that the application process really starts when the prospective MBA graduates from college and his point was that the decisions that that young professional is making, the experiences they’re having that help them to gather general management experience, leadership experience, all of those things will ultimately be very important to their future application.

 Chris Aitken, Co-founder, MBA Prep School: Don’t just write yourself off for a top tier MBA program because you’ve got a few blemishes in your profile. There are a number of things you can be doing right now in the preparation phase to help strengthen your candidacy. So for example if you had poor quant skills in undergrad, you could think about doing a college level calculus course now and scoring well there. If you’ve got a spotty resume, push yourself hard at work right now and see if there are things you can do there to get some more accomplishments. If you have no community service leadership, which is often true for many people, find an organization that you care about, get involved right now and see if you can get others to join your team so that you can show that you’ve actually done something to drive that organization forward.

Yue Xu, Host, MBA PodTV: The core application process as MBA Prep School defines it covers 8 steps and lasts 12 weeks. In steps 2 to 5, you’ll focus on crafting an application strategy and gathering the building blocks for your applications. Step 2 is when you discover your strengths.

 Tyler Cormney, Co-founder, MBA Prep School: Twelve weeks from the application deadline is when you shift from the preparation mode into creating your applications. Now, the first step is really about gathering the building blocks for your application. It’s strengths assessment, self-assessment, thinking about what makes you unique as an applicant. So these could be your life experiences, your personality, your values, what have you accomplished as a leader, thinking about the different leadership experiences you’ve had. All of these things will ultimately be building blocks that you’re going to put together later in the application process.

Yue Xu, Host, MBA PodTV: One your strength are identified, weeks 2 and 3 are devoted to defining your career goals.

Chris Aitken, Co-founder, MBA Prep School: Almost every school is going to want to know what your career goals are and defining a power set of career goals is actually very challenging. What you need to do is you need to find that intersection point between your strengths, your passion, and a sense of purpose to be able articulate something that’s both compelling and coherent. The application officers don’t have a crystal ball so they’re relying on you to shed some light on what your career goals are and where you’re trying to go. That’s why every school is going to ask you the career goals question.

Columbia Business School

Adeem Fenster, Columbia MBA, Class of 2012: Before MBA Prep School, my plans were essentially to go be a country manger in a large multinational company. My goals were to go international and really become a CEO of a very, very large multinational. After MBA Prep School, I really thought about it and realized that what I really like is companies that are basically information based, that are fast-moving and creative, something that really never occurred to me but working with MBA Prep School, thinking about my real strengths and what I like as far as culture made me think about that.

Yue Xu, Host, MBA PodTV: After identifying your strengths and mapping your career goals, you’ll now be in the best position to select your schools.

Tyler Cormney, Co-founder, MBA Prep School: So many applicants come into the process with preconceived notions about where they want to go to school based on the magazine rankings or what others have told them about a school, and we really feel it’s important to do school research for yourself. You need to look beyond the marketing messages and look beyond the rankings and even the opinions of others. This is a major life decision, a major investment decision and you really need to do your legwork to make sure that you make the best decision for you.

 Yue Xu, Host, MBA PodTV: Step 5, the final one in creating an application strategy is to identify what Chris and Tyler refer to as the school’s fit qualities.

Tyler Cormney, Co-founder, MBA Prep School: So what are fit qualities? Fit qualities are the attributes that the school you’re applying to is looking for and in order to prove you’re a better fit than the competition, you need to understand what those qualities are and then use your application to emphasize and feature the qualities that you posses. Customizing your application, your resume, your essays, your interview answers to ensure that you highlight those things is the key to building a great application.

 Chris Aitken, Co-founder, MBA Prep School: Knowing what a school is looking for is really important because what you need to do is actually tailor your specific application and the points you emphasize to the fit qualities that that school thinks is important. We’re not sort of saying create a false sort of impression of who you are. It’s actually very important to understand if that school isn’t a good fit for who you are and what you’re trying to do then you should be crossing them off your list.

 Yue Xu, Host, MBA PodTV: The first five steps in the MBA Prep School’s work plan are about creating an application strategy and gathering the building blocks for the applications you’re about to complete. At about four weeks in, they recommend that you start putting those building blocks together. The first step of the execution phase is creating your application resume.

 Tyler Cormney, Co-founder, MBA Prep School: Most schools will expect you to submit a one to two-page resume as part of your application package and when you’re creating your MBA application resume, you have to keep in mind that the selection criteria for an admissions officer is a little different than that of a corporate recruiter. They’re interested in different things. A corporate recruiter might be interested in your technical skills or the general role you played. But in a way you’re interviewing for the job or applying for the job of an MBA student so that means the admissions committee wants to see that you have the ability to work collaboratively, that you can come up with creative solutions, that you can lead teams to achieving goals. These are the kinds of things that an MBA application resume needs to emphasize.

Chris Aitken, Co-founder, MBA Prep School: You know, it’s leadership. Top business schools are training grounds for future leaders and when they’re reading your resume, they need to be convinced of your potential to be a leader of consequence in the future.

Yue Xu, Host, MBA PodTV: At the midpoint of the process, the real fun begins. It’s time to write your essays.

Tyler Cormney, Co-founder, MBA Prep School: Creating a great set of application essays is incredibly demanding from topic selection to brainstorming and outlining all the way through to the final draft. You’re going to have to put a lot of time into the essays if you want a great output. Our time estimates are on a timeline that assume you’re going to be applying to three schools and that you’ll write four to five drafts of every essay. The process that I found works really well is to start with a single school’s essays, really focus on those at the beginning and then about second draft once you’ve got the content lock down, weave in the next school and start the outlining and brainstorming process for that second school.

Adeem Fenster, Columbia MBA, Class of 2012: Do not discount the essays by any means in terms of pushing that to the last step. That is by far more important than the GMAT and more important than anything else in your application. Make sure that you start planning early on in terms of figuring out exactly what you want to do three years, five years out. Nobody has answers right up front, but it really takes a lot of time digging within yourself figuring out what you’re good at, your strengths, and then what you what you want to do later and that planning process I cannot stress enough how early you have to start.

 Yue Xu, Host, MBA PodTV: While you’re engaged in writing your masterpiece, it’s time to start thinking about sourcing topnotch letters of recommendation. So in step 8, it’s time to select and support your references.

 Chris Aitken, Co-founder, MBA Prep School: Yeah, selecting your references and supporting them along the way are really critical to a successful application. Some people really hurt their chances because they’re not thoughtful about who they ask to write their reference letters. They choose people with a lofty title, but those people often don’t have any insight into you as a candidate and can’t provide the kind of examples that the admissions committees are actually looking for.

Tyler Cormney, Co-founder, MBA Prep School: Under ideal circumstances, you’re going to have mentors who will be willing to write your reference letters, people who are in a way are invested in your success. Writing a great reference letter, it isn’t easy so selection is the first part. You have to select those folks that really see you as a rock star employee and second, that they’re willing to put the time it takes to create a rock star recommendation letter.

Chris Aitken, Co-founder, MBA Prep School: You want to be as supportive and as helpful as you can be to your reference. Help them understand where does this letter fit into your overall applications strategy and of course you want them to have a copy of your resume. We find that a little direction goes a long way in ensuring that you get a reference letter in your application.

 Yue Xu, Host, MBA PodTV: Now, you’re almost at the finish line, but make sure not to stumble during your last steps, do not pull your application forms together at the last minute.

 Tyler Cormney, Co-founder, MBA Prep School: The application forms maybe the first look that the admissions office has of you so of course you want them to sparkle. That means not putting them off until the last minute. The bigger picture is how does the application form support your overall application story? There’s going to be short answers, honors and awards, achievements, why you left a job, the point is this application form can be another opportunity to differentiate yourself.

Yue Xu, Host, MBA PodTV: Now that you made it through 12 weeks of blood, sweat, and tears, you’ll probably feel like a vacation, but before you start packing your bags, make sure you prepare for admission interviews.

Chris Aitken, Co-founder, MBA Prep School: You know, the admissions interview really is like the final exam in the application process. We didn’t include the preparation time in our primary work plan because you do this after you’ve already submitted your applications, but we recommend that you’re going to spend another 20 or 30 hours to prepare for your interviews.

Tyler Cormney, Co-founder, MBA Prep School: In an admissions interview, the admissions officer could ask you just about anything. It’s a free for all. So we recommend going back to the basics, the fit qualities, really reminding yourself what these schools are going to be looking for as they’re interviewing you. In addition to preparing for the classic questions, so tell me about your career goals or walk me through your resume, having those stories at the ready is the best way to prepare.

 Yue Xu, Host, MBA PodTV: A step-by-step work plan will ensure that you stay on track and devote sufficient to every element of the application. Now you can’t control the outcome when you’re applying for an MBA, but you can control the process.

MBA Prep School has created on-demand admissions consulting videos that show their students how to complete every step in the application process. The MBA Prep Steps program are developed by MBA Prep School’s faculty of experienced MBA admissions experts to provide applicants with a powerful step-by-step approach for building an outstanding application.

Adeem Fenster, Columbia MBA, Class of 2012: I worked with MBA Prep School because I realized that I have a very demanding job, I didn’t have the time to dedicate and truthfully I didn’t have the frameworks. MBA Prep School was instrumental in developing that framework step by step with me where they gave me the homework every single day and I can tell you I devoted way more time to that versus preparing for the GMAT.

 Yue Xu, Host, MBA PodTV: Well that’s it for this episode of MBA PodTV. I’m your host Yue Xu. Visit us at mbapodcaster.com to register for our videos and audio shows and join us on Twitter and Facebook to get the latest news and insights when it comes to your MBA application process. Good luck.