From Reapplicant to HBS: How a Nontraditional Candidate Turned Doubt into MBA Admission

Applying to business school as a nontraditional candidate or reapplicant can come with unique challenges—and unique opportunities. In this conversation, Senior MBA Admissions Consultant Heidi Wiese Granner sits down with Harvard Business School (HBS) 2023 graduate Zoe, who shares her journey to the elite program after building a career in education and consulting. As both an older applicant and a reapplicant, Zoe faced important challenges related to timing, positioning, and narrative. Together, Heidi and Zoe explore what ultimately resonated with the admissions committee, what life at HBS is really like, and how candidates with unconventional paths can turn perceived weaknesses into strengths.

A Nontraditional Path to Business School

Zoe: After I graduated from Vanderbilt, I joined Teach For America [TFA]. So I taught sixth-grade English for two years in Dallas. Two years became four years. And at that fourth-year mark, I started to think about what I wanted to do next. And consulting felt like an appropriate next step, as many of us in TFA pursue consulting after. So I was in consulting for about six years after I finished my TFA commitment.

Heidi Wiese Granner: I was thinking back from our initial conversation, one thing you were worried about a little bit was the amount of work experience, the tenure you had when you were applying. As you think back on the admissions process, did you feel like that was a big anxiety for you? And I’m curious to hear how it’s been at HBS.

Applying to Business School as an Older Candidate

Zoe: It was definitely a source of anxiety for me. So I think when you check on most of those class profiles for all the top programs, usually, students have about five years of work experience, and I was coming in with just over ten. And so I was worried (A), that I had sort of missed the boat on getting into an MBA program at that right time, quote unquote. And that (B), admissions committees would see my application and say, “She’s too old. Why is she not thinking about an Exec Ed program?”

But I will say at HBS, there are certainly a lot of students that are in their 30s. And so for me, I actually am grateful that I went when I did, because I do feel like I was able to add a lot to the case conversations and to my learning in general. And so I think, definitely do not be dissuaded from applying to business school for a full-time program, even if you don’t have the five years of typical experience, because there’s a lot of value that you can add even with having additional experience [compared to] your peers.

Heidi Wiese Granner: Others I’m sure will be very reassured hearing that. I do feel like very frequently that is a topic of conversation and anxiety among applicants. Why did you decide to go to business school?

Why Zoe Chose to Pursue an MBA

Zoe: I was sort of at an inflection point towards the end of my third-ish year in consulting at the firm I was at. And I was noticing, number one, I was getting paid less than the MBAs that were coming in with no consulting experience. And number two, I was really starting to question whether consulting was something that I wanted to do in the long term. And given that I had a nontraditional career path, again, starting in education, I wasn’t sure that I had the acumen or the skills to pivot into something else—and to be fully transparent, I wasn’t really sure what that something else was. And so for me, it felt, you know, most logical to pursue getting an MBA and going back full-time so I could dedicate myself fully to my personal and professional development to be ready for whatever that next step was.

Heidi Wiese Granner: We talked some about applying as a bit older applicant. And another thing I get a lot of questions around is how to approach the process as a reapplicant. What were your concerns as you were going into the process, and what advice would you have for others?

Reapplying to Business School—and Aiming Higher

Zoe: Great question. So I am one of the students that applied for business school right before COVID. So I would have submitted my first round application in January of 2020. And so I found out that I had gotten accepted to business school right when COVID was starting in March. I got into seven schools. I was so thrilled, so excited. But ultimately, HBS was the only school that was offering a blanket deferral for any students that didn’t want to pursue their MBA during those uncertain times. And I actually did not get in.

So I had gotten into Wharton, gotten into some other schools, and none of those schools were offering that blanket deferral. And so basically, my option was you either go to business school now or you reapply to business school in the fall. And so I decided to reapply. And when we had our first conversation, I said to you, “Hey, I am not applying to HBS. I don’t want to waste my time.” I think a lot of that came from imposter syndrome. Wharton was where my heart was at. I was like, just get me into Wharton for the second time in a couple of months. Help me, Heidi.

And in our first conversation, you said to me, “Why are you not applying to HBS?” And I think that was so important and something that I’m so grateful to you for, because you helped me unpack that imposter syndrome in our very first call. And that’s how I knew that you were the consultant that I wanted to work with. Because I think had you not pushed me on that, Wharton would have been the only school that I was focused on getting back into. And I would not have had any desire to apply to HBS.

Now I’m here as an HBS graduate, so I’m so grateful for you pushing me and more importantly, helping me understand that I’m enough and that I could produce a fantastic application and I’d be a great addition to the Class of 2023. So thank you.

Writing a Standout Harvard Business School Essay

Heidi Wiese Granner: Well, thank you so much for sharing that with me. I feel very emotional right now. I do feel like that is my favorite part of the role and a lot of what I focus on is helping bring forward people’s strengths and helping them develop the confidence to attack some of these really scary and daunting schools. And it is so common to look up profiles of people in the classes and then feel like, “Okay, I’m not even going to apply there. How do I even have a chance?” I always see so many beautiful things to share with the admissions officers. And yeah, I felt like when you submitted your application, I just remember very vividly, I can’t imagine that they do not accept her. Like they would be crazy to not do so. So yeah, so thank you for sharing that with me.

What do you think were some of the things, as you think about the HBS essay—which can be so daunting for applicants, and I felt like our process of working together was very memorable—what did you think was helpful in terms of our work together and the approach you took with the essay?

Vulnerability, Risk, and Authenticity in MBA Essays

Zoe: The individualized support that I got from you. So to your point, the HBS essay is incredibly daunting. It’s essentially an open prompt. And I think I really needed to figure out what part of my story did I want to share with the admissions committee. And most importantly, how do I convey that in about 1,000 words—even though there’s no word limit, but still? And so I think in our conversations, it became abundantly clear that I needed to talk about DEI and how that had impacted me throughout the course of my life. And so I think, again, so grateful for your guidance, because my original essay and what I thought I was going to write about versus what I actually ended up writing about were two very, very different things, and I think your line of questioning, the way that you kept pushing me to dig deeper, one step further, one step further, be more vulnerable, was so, so helpful for me. And when I actually sat down to write the essay that we discussed in our conversation, it came right out of me, versus the other essays that I wrote for some of my other packages felt like, all right, another prompt, you know, let me get this one out, versus this one felt like my real, true, authentic story of me. And so, yeah, I’m, again, I think it was that line of questioning and you sort of pushing me to think deeper and think bigger as I approached that essay.

Heidi Wiese Granner: I really admired the level of reflection you took towards that and also the strength in your language and vulnerability. Those are all hard things to get. Are there any other resources that you felt like were helpful or approaches that you took as you were going through the admissions process?

Resources That Supported Zoe’s MBA Journey

Zoe: Yes, I was in an organization called Management Leadership for Tomorrow [MLT], which is a group that helps students of color get into top MBA programs. Highly recommend it. The reason that I ended up seeking out your help was just for that additional individualized attention. And so I think as a woman of color, I had, as I mentioned before, a lot of imposter syndrome going through the application process. And so for me, MLT was a really good first step to figure out, hey, what schools am I interested in? Where do I add something I should be targeting? But then my work with you, I think, helped me really take my package to the next level, which was absolutely amazing.

Heidi Wiese Granner: What advice do you give or what do you say when people ask what makes for a good fit with HBS? Having been a student now.

What HBS Is Really Like

Zoe: I would say you have to be really comfortable being super uncomfortable. So many of you know HBS, we learn solely through the case method. The first time that you get your very first cold call in front of your 92 sectionmates is a daunting moment for sure. But it doesn’t have to be as harrowing of an experience as many think it is. And so I think you need to lean into the fact that sure, this is uncomfortable, but we’re all here to learn. And I think one great thing that the professors do at HBS is create a really safe environment for us to have important conversations and dialogues. Your sectionmates are not going to make fun of you. You just need to be comfortable, though, with the fact that when you hear your name and you are opening up a case, it’s go time.

And I would also say being open, right? So I think so many times when you start the business school experience, you’re terrified, right? Am I going to make friends? Am I going to fit in? And then add the fact that you’re at HBS. I was a black woman, afraid that no one is going to want to be my friend, or am I even meant to be here? I have no quantitative background. I don’t come from a wealthy family. And so I couldn’t have been more wrong. My classmates were so open, so welcoming. I’ve made some of the closest friends that I’ve ever made in my entire life at HBS. I have fantastic relationships with faculty and with administration at the school. And it has been one of the best experiences of my whole life. So I think be open to the experience, and then be comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Heidi Wiese Granner: I love that, too. I think it also really nicely connects with advice for the essay. I think if you could demonstrate some of those things in the essay, I think that is a nice layer to bring on. I also wanted to ask if you could share a little bit about your HBS interview experience.

Preparing for the HBS Interview

Zoe: The HBS interview is dissimilar from any other business school interview that you’ll sit through. For most of my other interviews, it was clear to me that my interviewer may have just looked over my resume maybe a few minutes before the call. But the HBS interviewer, that individual has done a deep dive. They’ve likely spent hours researching your background, your entire package, and they know who you are. And so I think my greatest advice there is if they know who you are, you need to know who you are even better than they do. So you should know every single thing that you put in your package, whether it’s on your resume, in your essay, in your short answers, and be able to speak to it and then speak to it like five levels deeper. Because that’s what I found at least in my interview was my interviewer knew high level who I was—and I would say even like three levels down who I was as an individual. And she wanted to get even deeper. And so it felt like she was asking very intentional questions. And every question she asked was “And?” I mean, it just kept going—tell me more, tell me more. And so I think you just have to be comfortable telling your story. And again, if you reference it in any part of your package, it is fair game.

Finding the Right Admissions Consultant

Heidi Wiese Granner: Would you mind sharing with me if you felt like there was something that connected during our initial call or what made you ultimately decide that you were excited to work with me and mbaMission?

Zoe: Oh my goodness. Yes, I can absolutely speak to this. So on the website, there are videos of each of the consultants. And so the bottom line is this, every consultant has a great background. You all clearly know what you’re doing. You have expertise in this field, but I sat and watched your video, and the warmth that you were radiating from the video—I was just so thrilled to get to meet you, Heidi. So for me, as someone that, like I said before, I had confidence issues, I’ll be honest with you about that. I knew that, you know, this was something that had been a daunting experience to me the first time that I’d gone through a few months earlier, the application process. And so it was really important to me that I found someone that had really high emotional intelligence and was going to be able to ask me sort of those right questions to pull out the best that I could for this package. And so after I watched your video, like, I need to meet her, because again, that warmth, that kindness, the empathy that you radiated through the video, I felt like was going to help me get to that next step.

And in our first conversation, I felt so free, almost, being able to reflect and be honest with you about my experiences. And you were able to pull out, I think, the depths and the vulnerability that I needed to put into my application. And I don’t know that I would have felt safe going there with every other consultant. And so again, I think those videos were so helpful, and working with you was really a game changer for me personally.

Heidi Wiese Granner: I view it as almost sacred how much people share with me in the process, so on that point, I did want to dig in a little. I remember working on your HBS essay, we were kind of going back and forth, there was particularly one line in the essay that felt really vulnerable. Can you walk me through a little bit how you felt about making that decision about whether to include it or not and then what your thoughts are now about taking some risks in that essay?

Zoe: I know exactly which sentence you’re talking about, Heidi, and I wrote that essay years ago. I think that I’m so grateful that we took the risk. Here’s kind of my thought process on this. You have to put it all out on the table. One thing that I will say about HBS, these admissions folks, they want to hear who you are. They don’t want to hear the BS. They don’t want fluff. They want you to be authentically you.

And I felt like that sentence that you’re referencing was me truly being authentically me and telling whoever was reading my essay exactly how I felt in that moment for those first several years of my life. And so I’m so grateful we took the risk. I know at the time, we went back and forth. I talked to my parents about it. I talked to several of my friends about it who’ve known me, who’ve worked with me, my mentors about it. And folks were a little nervous. They were like, “Are you going to include that?” And I was like, “I kind of feel like I gotta do this.”

And so I’m so thankful that you pushed me to do it. And it’s actually one of the sentences that when you get—you get a phone call from your admissions person once you get accepted to HBS—and it’s one of the sentences that she referenced, actually. It’s one of those things where it hit her. And I think it’s like, okay, then that’s what I was meant to do. I mean, clearly, she remembers it, and she’s referencing it on the day I’ve gotten into my dream school. And I’m grateful again that you pushed me and I was able to unpack and feel safe enough to take that risk.

Heidi Wiese Granner: I think it was a nice illustration of how we also work as a team at mbaMission. It’s mostly one-on-one work, but I think I checked with you and was like, “You know what? Let me run this by some of my colleagues as well and make sure we’re all feeling comfortable that this isn’t too aggressive.”

Final Advice for MBA Applicants

Heidi Wiese Granner: Another thing that I hear that a lot of people have anxiety around is how do I differentiate [myself] as one more consultant applying to business school? Do you have anything that you felt was helpful in the process that you did or tips that you give? I’m sure you talk to a lot of consultants applying to business school who are looking for your advice.

Zoe: Every business school class has several consultants in it. And I think you have to figure out, and I don’t know—like, I hate the word differentiate, but I know why you’re using it. You have to figure out what makes you authentically you and why you believe that you deserve a seat in that class. And so for me, I feel like I just spoke about my authentic self, and I just tried to be as real as possible.

Again, I always come back to at HBS, I feel like they can read through the BS—like, they hate it. They can read through it like that. And so I think if you’re just going to business school for it to be a checkbox with the intent of returning to your consulting firm, that’s totally fine. But what else? Like there’s something else that makes you you. And I think unless you’re willing to do the work to unpack who you really are and why you want a seat at that school, I don’t know that you’re ready to go to business school yet. It’s sort of my thing. Like, absolutely, I know for a lot of us, business school is a checkbox. I get that. But there’s something that makes you uniquely you, and you’ve got to put in the work to figure that out. So I think every consultant absolutely stands a chance of getting into HBS or any other business school. You’ve just got to do the work to figure out what makes you unique.

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