mbaMission hosts a weekly blog series, “Admissions Myths Destroyed,” for our friends at Beat the GMAT. Check out the BTG site for fresh material and ours for “reprints.” The following piece was penned by mbaMission Founder, Jeremy Shinewald:
After submitting your application, you endure weeks of nervous anticipation and then you finally get that invitation to interview. You start to prepare for the interview itself and you book your flight to campus, ready to prove yourself to the admissions committee. You take your tour, sit in on a class and head down to the admissions office only to find…. (gasp!) a second year MBA student waiting to interview you and he is wearing jeans, nonetheless! “How could they be taking me seriously? I must be in some second tier that the school really does not care about!” Take a deep breath and reconsider.
Question: What is the MBA admissions committee’s job? Answer: The AdCom strives to find the best candidates for their program. So, whether you interview with an admissions committee member, an alumnus or a current student (and the types of interviews vary from school to school), your interview will be treated equally by the admissions committees. Why would an admissions committee, which typically interviews thousands of applicants, disadvantage a huge group of their applicants? What would be the point of interviewing a candidate if the admissions committee did not find their alumni to be reliable interviewers? Why would the admissions committee solicit the help of their students, if they sincerely felt that these students were not capable of rendering an appropriate judgment?
So, if you find yourself on campus and do not get to interview with an admissions committee member, you should maintain your focus. If you are distracted, then your interviewer won’t matter at all. Remember, your story and your ability to connect with your interviewer are far more important than anything else.