{"id":30077,"date":"2025-09-08T10:05:25","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T14:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/?p=30077"},"modified":"2025-09-08T10:07:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T14:07:14","slug":"mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-the-admissions-committees-glass-is-99-empty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-the-admissions-committees-glass-is-99-empty\/","title":{"rendered":"MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: The Admissions Committee\u2019s Glass Is 99% Empty"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u201cI was the first in my class to be promoted at McKinsey. I have a 665 GMAT Focus score and completed Level 1 of the CFA exam, but I had a B- in calculus during my freshman year. Will that grade ruin my chances for admission?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u201cMy company has been under a hiring and promotion freeze for the past three years, but during that time, I have earned pay increases and survived successive rounds of layoffs. Will the admissions committee accept someone who has not been promoted?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u201cI have been promoted, but my company changed names. Will the admissions committee think I am going somewhere at a sketchy company?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although these questions may seem somewhat silly\u2014the individuals\u2019 strengths are obvious and their \u201cweaknesses\u201d comparatively innocuous\u2014we get asked about scenarios like these every day. In short, we can assure you that your candidacy, even at vaunted schools like Harvard and Stanford, is not rendered tenuous by such trivial \u201cshortcomings.\u201d The admissions officers do not consider you guilty until proven innocent, and they are not looking for little reasons to exclude you from contention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Many candidates have mythologized the \u201cperfect\u201d applicant and fear that any small area of concern means that they do not measure up to this myth\u2014and thus that their candidacy is insufficient. Rather than fixating on small details that in truth are inconsequential, you should think about the big picture with respect to your overall competitiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You can take us at our word on this. Or, if you prefer, heed the words of a former admissions officer at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, who explained to mbaMission that \u201ceveryone has something, or more than one thing, in their application that they need to overcome.\u201d But he added, \u201cWe read with an eye toward wanting to find all the good things about an applicant. We look for their strengths. We look for things that make them stand out, that make them unique. We look for their accomplishments. We look for positive parts of the application.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cI was the first in my class to be promoted at McKinsey. I have a 665 GMAT Focus score and completed Level 1 of the CFA exam, but I had a B- in calculus during my freshman year. Will that grade ruin my chances for admission?\u201d \u201cMy company has been under a hiring and promotion &hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-the-admissions-committees-glass-is-99-empty\/\">Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;<i class=\"fal fa-sm fa-angle-right\"><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":35949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[263,179],"class_list":["post-30077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-admissions-myths-destroyed","tag-admissions-committee","tag-admissions-myths"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Admission Committee\u2019s Glass Is 99% Empty<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Many MBA admissions candidates believe the myth of the \u201cperfect\u201d applicant and that the admissions committee&#039;s glass is 99% empty.\" \/>\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-the-admissions-committees-glass-is-99-empty\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Admission Committee\u2019s Glass Is 99% Empty\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Many MBA admissions candidates believe the myth of the \u201cperfect\u201d applicant and that the admissions committee&#039;s glass is 99% empty.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-the-admissions-committees-glass-is-99-empty\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-08T14:05:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-08T14:07:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/MBA-Admissions-Myths-Destroyed-The-Admissions-Committees-Glass-Is-99-Empty.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"360\" \/>\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=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Admission Committee\u2019s Glass Is 99% Empty","description":"Many MBA admissions candidates believe the myth of the \u201cperfect\u201d applicant and that the admissions committee's glass is 99% empty.","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-the-admissions-committees-glass-is-99-empty\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Admission Committee\u2019s Glass Is 99% Empty","og_description":"Many MBA admissions candidates believe the myth of the \u201cperfect\u201d applicant and that the admissions committee's glass is 99% empty.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-the-admissions-committees-glass-is-99-empty\/","og_site_name":"mbaMission - 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