{"id":23220,"date":"2017-02-11T10:00:08","date_gmt":"2017-02-11T15:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/?p=23220"},"modified":"2022-01-27T06:35:56","modified_gmt":"2022-01-27T11:35:56","slug":"mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-i-have-a-gap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-i-have-a-gap\/","title":{"rendered":"MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Have a Gap!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The perfect MBA applicant does not exist. However, a\u00a0<em>perception<\/em>\u00a0of the perfect applicant does\u2014an individual who is scaling greater and greater personal, community, and professional peaks unabated until he\/she finally applies to business school. So, those who take time off at any point perceive themselves as disadvantaged. They worry that the admissions committees will see the gap(s) in their professional timeline and dismiss them outright. After all, they probably have numerous more determined individuals they could admit, right?<\/p>\n<p>Time off can be destructive, true. If you spent a year sitting on your couch watching reality TV, you may be\u00a0in trouble. If you have a strong professional history and spent one month between jobs sitting on your couch watching reality TV, your record should still speak for itself. But even if you do take (or have taken) an extended leave, as long as you are productive during that time and grow personally, you should still be just fine. In fact, an adventure may even add to your story and help you differentiate yourself.<\/p>\n<p>If you spend six months or a year traveling before you start your professional career, you are certainly still eligible for a top MBA program. If you take personal leave to care for a family member, do charity work, or even pursue a personal passion\u2014an art form, for example\u2014as long as you can show purpose and reveal a broad record of competency, an admissions officer should still see your merits.<br \/>\nAdmissions officers are\u2014and this may be surprising to some\u2014human beings. They understand that applicants are not robots and that they have interests, passions, and personal lives. If you make good use of your time, they will not condemn you. They just might envy you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The perfect MBA applicant does not exist. However, a\u00a0perception\u00a0of the perfect applicant does\u2014an individual who is scaling greater and greater personal, community, and professional peaks unabated until he\/she finally applies to business school. So, those who take time off at any point perceive themselves as disadvantaged. They worry that the admissions committees will see the &hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-i-have-a-gap\/\">Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;<i class=\"fal fa-sm fa-angle-right\"><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"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-23220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-admissions-myths-destroyed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Have a Gap! | 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-i-have-a-gap\/\" \/>\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: I Have a Gap! | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The perfect MBA applicant does not exist. However, a\u00a0perception\u00a0of the perfect applicant does\u2014an individual who is scaling greater and greater personal, community, and professional peaks unabated until he\/she finally applies to business school. So, those who take time off at any point perceive themselves as disadvantaged. They worry that the admissions committees will see the &hellip; Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-i-have-a-gap\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-02-11T15:00:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-01-27T11:35:56+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=\"Erika V\u00e4\u00e4t\u00e4inen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Erika V\u00e4\u00e4t\u00e4inen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Have a Gap! | 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-i-have-a-gap\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Have a Gap! | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","og_description":"The perfect MBA applicant does not exist. However, a\u00a0perception\u00a0of the perfect applicant does\u2014an individual who is scaling greater and greater personal, community, and professional peaks unabated until he\/she finally applies to business school. So, those who take time off at any point perceive themselves as disadvantaged. They worry that the admissions committees will see the &hellip; Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-i-have-a-gap\/","og_site_name":"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","article_published_time":"2017-02-11T15:00:08+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-01-27T11:35:56+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":"Erika V\u00e4\u00e4t\u00e4inen","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Erika V\u00e4\u00e4t\u00e4inen","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":["Article","BlogPosting"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-i-have-a-gap\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-i-have-a-gap\/"},"author":{"name":"Erika V\u00e4\u00e4t\u00e4inen","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8239bb74f0e5086e58417043b2ff94c6"},"headline":"MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Have a Gap!","datePublished":"2017-02-11T15:00:08+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-27T11:35:56+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-i-have-a-gap\/"},"wordCount":303,"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-i-have-a-gap\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-i-have-a-gap\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-i-have-a-gap\/","name":"MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Have a Gap! | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-02-11T15:00:08+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-27T11:35:56+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-i-have-a-gap\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-i-have-a-gap\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-i-have-a-gap\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Have a Gap!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/","name":"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","description":"World&#039;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\/8239bb74f0e5086e58417043b2ff94c6","name":"Erika V\u00e4\u00e4t\u00e4inen","description":"Erika V\u00e4\u00e4t\u00e4inen has been mbaMission\u2019s Writer\/Researcher since 2015. She is in charge of updating and revamping most of our publication materials, ranging from the extensive Insider\u2019s Guides series, the Interview Guides, and the International Program Guides to our shorter publications, including the HBS 2+2 and Deferred Admissions Guide and numerous blog posts.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/who-we-are\/team\/erika-vaatainen\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/erikavaatainen\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/author\/erika\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23220","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\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23220\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}