{"id":15972,"date":"2014-11-15T09:17:26","date_gmt":"2014-11-15T14:17:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/?p=15972"},"modified":"2022-01-26T10:32:33","modified_gmt":"2022-01-26T15:32:33","slug":"mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-alumni-get-you-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-alumni-get-you-in\/","title":{"rendered":"MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: Alumni Get You In!"},"content":{"rendered":"

From time to time, we at mbaMission visit admissions officers at the leading business schools, which gives us the opportunity to ask rather frank questions. On one such visit, we pushed an admissions officer on the extent of alumni influence in the admissions process and ultimately received a surprising response: \u201cWe get ten letters each year from [globally famous alumnus whose name mbaMission is withholding<\/em>], telling us that this or that MBA candidate is the greatest thing since sliced bread. He gets upset when we don\u2019t admit \u2018his\u2019 applicants, but what makes him think that he deserves ten spots in our class?\u201d<\/p>\n

Many MBA applicants fret about their lack of alumni connection with their target schools, and the myth abounds that\u00a0admission to business school\u00a0is about\u00a0who you know, not who you are or what you can offer. Of course, these latter qualities are more important, and a standout applicant who knows no graduates at all from the program he\/she is targeting is still a standout applicant and should get in\u2014just as a weak applicant who knows a large number of alumni or a particularly well-known or successful graduate is still a weak applicant and should not be admitted. Clearly, some extreme exceptions exist where influence can be exerted, but the \u201cstandard\u201d applicant need not worry that every seat at the top MBA programs has already been claimed by someone with good connections.<\/p>\n

Remember, the admissions committees want to ensure that a diversity of ideas and experiences is represented in the classroom. Every top MBA class includes\u00a0people with different socioeconomic backgrounds, nationalities, religions, professional backgrounds, and ages.\u00a0 Harvard Business School has more than 900 students in each incoming class, and the vast majority of these students do not have a personal connection with a CEO or the president of a country. And who knows? These days, such connections\u00a0could even be a liability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From time to time, we at mbaMission visit admissions officers at the leading business schools, which gives us the opportunity to ask rather frank questions. On one such visit, we pushed an admissions officer on the extent of alumni influence in the admissions process and ultimately received a surprising response: \u201cWe get ten letters each … Read More  <\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-admissions-myths-destroyed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: Alumni Get You In! | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-alumni-get-you-in\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: Alumni Get You In! | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From time to time, we at mbaMission visit admissions officers at the leading business schools, which gives us the opportunity to ask rather frank questions. On one such visit, we pushed an admissions officer on the extent of alumni influence in the admissions process and ultimately received a surprising response: \u201cWe get ten letters each … Read More  \" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-alumni-get-you-in\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-11-15T14:17:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-01-26T15:32:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-fallback-image.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeremy Shinewald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeremy Shinewald\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: Alumni Get You In! | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-alumni-get-you-in\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: Alumni Get You In! | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","og_description":"From time to time, we at mbaMission visit admissions officers at the leading business schools, which gives us the opportunity to ask rather frank questions. On one such visit, we pushed an admissions officer on the extent of alumni influence in the admissions process and ultimately received a surprising response: \u201cWe get ten letters each … Read More  ","og_url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-alumni-get-you-in\/","og_site_name":"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","article_published_time":"2014-11-15T14:17:26+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-01-26T15:32:33+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":675,"url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-fallback-image.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Jeremy Shinewald","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jeremy Shinewald","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":["Article","BlogPosting"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-alumni-get-you-in\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-alumni-get-you-in\/"},"author":{"name":"Jeremy Shinewald","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/74216774a1761e746e2426c9c8171f5f"},"headline":"MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: Alumni Get You In!","datePublished":"2014-11-15T14:17:26+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-26T15:32:33+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-alumni-get-you-in\/"},"wordCount":325,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Admissions Myths Destroyed"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-alumni-get-you-in\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-alumni-get-you-in\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-alumni-get-you-in\/","name":"MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: Alumni Get You In! | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-11-15T14:17:26+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-26T15:32:33+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-alumni-get-you-in\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-alumni-get-you-in\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-alumni-get-you-in\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: Alumni Get You In!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/","name":"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","description":"World's Leading MBA Admissions Consulting Firm","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"mbaMission","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-organization-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-organization-logo.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"mbaMission"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/74216774a1761e746e2426c9c8171f5f","name":"Jeremy Shinewald","description":"In addition to being Founder and President of mbaMission, Jeremy Shinewald is a Darden MBA, published author, and the recipient of Poets&Quants\u2019 Lifetime Achievement Award in MBA Admissions Consulting. With more than 20 years of experience and a background as a professional speechwriter, he combines deep industry insight and exceptional storytelling skills to help applicants create powerful, distinctive MBA applications.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/who-we-are\/team\/jeremy-shinewald\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jeremyshinewald\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/author\/jeremy\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15972\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}