Blog

How to Build the Ideal Resume for Your MBA Application

Present Both Responsibilities and Results

In your MBA resume, be sure to showcase your accomplishments, rather than merely stating the responsibilities of your position. When your responsibilities are presented with no accompanying results, the reader has no understanding of whether you were effective in the role you are describing. For example, consider the following entry, in which only responsibilities are offered:

2022–Present Household Products Group, Flocter & Gramble Cincinnati, Ohio

Brand Manager

  • Responsible for managing a $10M media campaign, supervising a staff of five junior brand managers, monitoring daily sales volumes, and ensuring the consistent supply of product from five production facilities in three countries.

The reader is left wondering, “Was the media campaign successful? Did the staff of five progress? Did sales volumes increase? Did the supply of products reach its destination?” When this one long bullet point is instead broken down into individual bulleted entries that elaborate on each task and show clear results, the reader learns not just about the candidate’s responsibilities but also about that person’s ultimate effectiveness and successes.

2022–Present Flocter & Gramble Cincinnati, Ohio

Brand Manager

  • Initiated $10M television/Internet “Island Vacation” promotion introducing new Shine brand detergent, surpassing first-year sales targets within three months.
  • Mentored and supervised five junior brand managers, each of whom was promoted to brand manager (company traditionally promotes 25%).
  • Analyzed daily sales volumes and identified opportunity to increase price point in Midwest, resulting in 26% margin improvement and $35M in new profits.
  • Secured “safety supply” of vital chemicals from alternate suppliers, ensuring 99% order fulfillment.

By comparing the first entry with the second, you can see how much more effective an accomplishment-driven resume is than one that simply lists responsibilities.

Demonstrate Nonquantifiable Results

Presenting quantifiable results in your resume is preferred because such results clearly convey your success in the actions you undertook. However, in some instances, you simply cannot quantify your success. In such cases, you can instead demonstrate nonquantifiable or even potential results. Consider the following examples:

  • Persuaded management to review existing operations; currently leading Manufacturing Review Committee, which will table its final report in June 2024.
  • Established divisional continuing education series, noted on review as “crucial” and “game changing.”
  • Initiated biweekly “Tuesday at Five” team social event, resulting in enhanced workplace morale.

In each of these bullet points, the results of the writer’s actions are not measurable, but they are nonetheless important. The accomplishments, while “soft,” are conveyed as clearly positive.

Keep It Concise

Ideally, your resume should be only one page long; admissions committees generally expect and appreciate the conciseness of this format. If you choose to submit a resume consisting of two pages or more, your reader may have difficulty scanning it and identifying (and remembering) important facts. With these space constraints in mind, we offer two fairly straightforward “space saver” ideas:

  • Do not include a mission statement at the beginning of your resume. Your mission in this case is to get into the MBA program to which you are applying—and, of course, the admissions committee already knows this! A mission statement will take up precious space that can be used more effectively for other purposes.
  • Your address should take up no more than one line of your resume. Many applicants will “stack” their address, using four, five, or even six lines, as if they were writing an address on an envelope. Consider how much space an address occupies when presented in the following format:

Ms. X
123 Y Street
1st Floor
City, State 10001
646-111-2222
[email protected]

You just wasted five lines of real estate! To help whittle your resume down to one page, try putting your address on just one line so you can save five others for valuable bullets.

And, while we are discussing the document’s length, resist the urge to shrink your font or margins to make your resume fit on one page. Your font should be no smaller than ten-point type, and your margins should be no smaller than 1″ on either side and 0.75″ at the top and bottom. Rather than trying to squeeze too much information onto the page, commit yourself to showcasing only your most important accomplishments that tell your story best.

Manhattan Prep

MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: The Open Waitlist Is a Flood

Have you heard the following admissions myth?

As we have discussed in the past, this is patently not true. Similarly, when programs tell their waitlisted candidates they are open to important additional communication, such applicants should not interpret this to mean constant communication. The difference is significant.

As is the case with any waitlist situation, before you do anything, carefully read the waitlist letter you received from the Admissions Office. Frequently, this will include a FAQ sheet or a hyperlink to one. If the school permits candidates to submit additional information but offers no guidance with respect to quantity, this does not mean that you should start flooding the committee with novel information and materials. If you have another potential recommender who can send a letter that highlights a new aspect of your profile, you can consider having them send one in, but you should not start a lobbying campaign with countless alumni and colleagues writing on your behalf.

Similarly, you could send the school an update email monthly, every six weeks, or even every two months—the key is not frequency or volume but materiality. If you have something important to tell the admissions committee that can help shape its perspective on your candidacy (e.g., a new project, a promotion, a new grade, an improved GMAT score, a campus visit), then you should share it. If you do not have such meaningful information to share, then a contrived letter with no real content will not help you. Just because you know others are sending letters, do not feel compelled to send empty correspondences for fear that your fellow candidates might be showing more interest. They just might be identifying themselves negatively via their waitlist approach.

Take a step back and imagine that you are on the admissions committee; you have one candidate who keeps you up to date with a few thoughtful correspondences and another who bombards you with empty updates, emails, and recommendations that do not offer anything substantive. Which candidate would you choose if a place opened up in your class? When you are on the waitlist, your goal is to remain in the good graces of the admissions committee. Remember, the committee members already deem you a strong enough candidate to take a place in their class, so be patient and prudent, as challenging as that may be.

MBA Application Tips for Nontraditional Candidates

If you want to go to business school but do not have a “traditional” background in consulting or finance, you might be worried that you will not be accepted to a top MBA program. Maybe you are a teacher, an athlete, or a journalist. Perhaps you are in the military or have a background as a chef. Nontraditional applicants like you are different, and believe it or not, admissions directors love that!

If you are a nontraditional MBA applicant, here are a few tips to help you navigate the application process and give you some confidence about your candidacy.

1. Do not try to be something you are not.

Although a large percentage MBA applicants come from finance and consulting, your unique background helps you stand out. Highlight what you are good at, and showcase accomplishments you have had in your field. No professor wants to be in front of a class that is made up entirely of bankers and consultants. Your experience adds diversity to the class and allows you to look at situations from a different perspective than that of others. Emphasize your distinctiveness!

Need more proof? Every year, schools release their Class Profiles, in which they present a breakdown of incoming students’ statistics and pre-MBA backgrounds. According to Harvard Business School’s Class Profile, for example, the program drew 44% of its Class of 2025 from consulting (17%), financial services (10%), and venture capital/private equity (17%). That means that the rest of the students in that class (56%) came from other industries, including technology, military service, consumer products/retail, healthcare, and nonprofits. 

When you look at the numbers this way, “nontraditional” suddenly looks pretty traditional.

2. Showcase your quantitative or analytical skills.

Business schools want you to succeed, and to succeed, you need to be able to handle the rigor of the MBA program. Most schools require heavy quantitative and analytical work, especially in classes such as “Corporate Finance,” “Statistics,” and “Data Analytics.” Even if such skills are not a major part of your work experience, showing the admissions committee that you can manage the quantitative demands of an MBA program is crucial. 

One way to do that is by performing well on your standardized test. A strong quantitative performance on the GMAT, GRE, or EA can help prove you are ready for MBA academics. You can also build an alternate transcript by taking quant-focused courses, such as HBS CORe or MBA Math, or a college class in statistics or economics. 

Also, look for opportunities to showcase your experiences. For example, a recent applicant who worked for a TV station had little quant experience, but she conducted an analytical study of the station’s social media impressions, which led to some programming changes and ultimately resulted in a boost in advertising sales. That story became an important part of her applications! 

3. Be clear about why you want an MBA and where it will lead you.

The good news if you are a nontraditional applicant is that you most likely do not have an undergraduate degree in business, so your reasons for needing an MBA are easy to establish in your applications. Still, articulating career goals that make sense for your specific background and skill set is important, meaning you want the admissions committee to feel confident that you will get a job after business school without a struggle. For example, a client who worked as a chef and TV food stylist built her career goals on moving into consumer products marketing, with a focus on food. This path made perfect sense to the admissions committee.

4. Highlight your best traits.

As a nontraditional applicant, you bring different experiences and skills to the table than others in the class, and that is something the schools like! Think about what sets you apart and how you can highlight these qualities in your applications.

For example, almost every career requires teamwork, so make sure that the admissions committee knows how well you work in a group or team setting. Think about your experiences in your work environment and extracurricular activities, and tell stories about times you have engaged positively and productively with others. For example, a teacher might write about how they collaborated with fellow staff members to develop programming that raised students’ test scores school-wide.

Another thing that might set you apart is your global experience. Business schools love to see applicants who have broad outlooks and perspectives, and who relish working alongside people who are different from them. Consider highlighting international opportunities and exposure you have had, whether via working abroad or on teams with members located around the world, and share how those experiences have enriched you.

If you have questions about your nontraditional background or wonder which schools you would be competitive at, sign up for a free 30-minute consultation with an mbaMission Consultant.

An Overview of Deferred Admissions MBA Programs

After you graduate from college, would you not love to know that you have a guaranteed spot at a top MBA program in a few years? If you had secured such a spot, you would likely pursue work that genuinely interested you in the interim. Deferred admissions programs, which allow candidates who have been accepted to leading business schools to postpone their actual enrollment, can provide this kind of opportunity. Individuals are eligible to apply if they are in their final year of college or a full-time master’s program they entered directly from college. Some business schools offer admission to third-year undergraduate students as well. If admitted, applicants will typically gain two to five years of work experience after graduation before enrolling in the MBA program.

The deferred admissions application mirrors the regular MBA application but has different deadlines. For example, the Harvard Business School (HBS) 2+2 deadline is in April, which is much later than the deadlines for the first two rounds of applications for the school’s regular MBA program. While the deadlines for all deferred admissions programs differ, they are generally in the spring.

Given the advantages—and absence of disadvantages—of applying to a deferred admissions program, these options can actually be more competitive than their respective regular MBA programs, which are of course already highly competitive! Admitted deferred applicants tend to have very high test scores and GPAs.

The HBS 2+2 program was the first and is now the largest and most well-known deferred admissions program. Other leading schools, including Columbia Business SchoolMIT Sloan, and UPenn Wharton, have created their own versions. All deferred admissions programs have a similar structure, and most are open to candidates from any undergraduate institution, though this was initially not the case.

Which Schools Have Deferred Admissions MBA Programs, and How Do They Compare?

The following deferred MBA admissions programs each require candidates to have approximately two to five years of work experience before starting the program:

  • Berkeley Haas Accelerated Access
  • Chicago Booth Scholars
  • Columbia Business School Deferred Enrollment
  • Harvard Business School 2+2
  • MIT Sloan Early Admission
  • Northwestern Kellogg Future Leaders
  • NYU Stern NYU x NYU/Stern
  • Stanford GSB Deferred Enrollment
  • UVA Darden Future Year Scholars
  • Wharton Moelis Advance Access
  • Yale SOM Silver Scholars

Applying to these programs is not much different than applying to typical full-time MBA programs—however, you will not have much, if any, career experience to draw from and use in your application essays. So, rather than focusing on your professional accomplishments (or lack thereof), look at your community and volunteer endeavors, club involvements, college athletics, academic engagements such as teaching assistantships, and personal accomplishments. Be sure to highlight your depth of achievement in your resume and essays. For your recommendations, consider an internship manager, a professor you are particularly close with, a coach or mentor, or even a faculty supervisor from a student group you belong to. One more piece of advice is to try to have full-time post-college work lined up. This will signal to the admissions committee that you are already positioned for success.

For more details on these programs, you can view our resource page, check out this shareable PDF, download our free guide, and watch this video:

Application Tips

Comments Off on An Overview of Deferred Admissions MBA Programs

Tags:

MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Need to Tell It All! (Part 2)

Recently, we discussed observing limits with your resume. This time, we take a similar approach with your essays—in particular, your goals essay. Some business schools ask applicants to discuss their career progress first in a classic goals essay:

Briefly asses your career progress to date. Elaborate on your future career plans and your motivation for pursuing an MBA.

Whereas other schools do not request any professional context:

What are your short-term and long-term post-MBA goals? How will our school help you achieve these goals?

Applicants tend to seize on these broad, open-ended questions as opportunities to discuss their entire career history in depth, offering far more than mere context for their goals. In response to a question like the first one here, some candidates will mistakenly use 75% or more of the word space provided just discussing their career progression to date. Although this may seem “brief” to you, the truth is that focusing so extensively on your past minimizes your opportunity to discuss other crucial aspects of your candidacy.

If you devote too much of your essay to detailing your past career progress, you will be unable to thoroughly address your reasons for wanting an MBA and your interest in the school. Providing context for your goals by giving an overview of your professional life to date is unquestionably important, but you must be sure to balance the different sections of your essay. Clearly conveying your goals and your reasons for choosing a particular school is crucial so that you connect with your target, rather than miss it entirely.

Admissions Myths Destroyed

Comments Off on MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Need to Tell It All! (Part 2)

Tags:



Upcoming Events


Upcoming Deadlines

  • Duke Fuqua (Round 3)
  • Ohio Fisher (Round 3)
  • Vanderbilt Owen (Round 3)
  • USC Marshall (Round 3)
  • Carnegie Mellon Tepper (Round 3)
  • Toronto Rotman (Round 3)
  • INSEAD (Round 4)
  • Cambridge Judge (Round 4)
  • UW Foster (Round 3)
  • Notre Dame Mendoza (Round 3)
  • Emory Goizueta (Round 3)
  • Oxford Saïd (Round 3)
  • IESE (Round 3)
  • Dartmouth Tuck (Round 3)
  • London Business School (Round 3)
  • Texas McCombs (Round 3)
  • Vanderbilt Owen (Round 4)
  • Berkeley Haas (Round 4)

Click here to see the complete deadlines


2023–2024 MBA Essay Tips

Click here for the 2022–2023 MBA Essay Tips


MBA Program Updates