{"id":6152,"date":"2011-06-28T08:53:59","date_gmt":"2011-06-28T12:53:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/?p=6152"},"modified":"2022-01-29T12:02:18","modified_gmt":"2022-01-29T17:02:18","slug":"mission-admission-what-are-they-looking-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-what-are-they-looking-for\/","title":{"rendered":"Mission Admission: What Are They Looking For?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>One of the most common questions that we hear from applicants is &#8220;What type of candidate is HBS\/Stanford\/Wharton\/Chicago\/etc. looking for?&#8221; Of course, the answer to that question is that schools do not want <strong>one<\/strong> type of applicant. In fact, each school is seeking to assemble a remarkably diverse  class and thus wants to be able to identify distinct qualities in\u00a0<strong>each<\/strong> candidate.<\/p>\n<p>Although trying to simplify a school&#8217;s approach to  admissions (&#8220;Kellogg wants team players!&#8221;) can be appealing, you should avoid trying to fit some perceived mold, because doing so will only mask your true distinct qualities.  Rather than pandering to a stereotype with regard to your personal\/professional experiences or changing your stated goals to match an imagined bias of an MBA admissions committee, you should spend a great deal of  time brainstorming to best understand how you can showcase your  unique traits. By showing that you offer something different\u00a0than other candidates, you have the greatest chance of succeeding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday. One of the most common questions that we hear from applicants is &#8220;What type of candidate is HBS\/Stanford\/Wharton\/Chicago\/etc. looking for?&#8221; Of course, the answer to that question is that schools do not want one type of applicant. In fact, &hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-what-are-they-looking-for\/\">Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;<i class=\"fal fa-sm fa-angle-right\"><\/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":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mission-admission"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Mission Admission: What Are They Looking For? | 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\/mission-admission-what-are-they-looking-for\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mission Admission: What Are They Looking For? | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday. One of the most common questions that we hear from applicants is &#8220;What type of candidate is HBS\/Stanford\/Wharton\/Chicago\/etc. looking for?&#8221; Of course, the answer to that question is that schools do not want one type of applicant. In fact, &hellip; Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-what-are-they-looking-for\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-06-28T12:53:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-01-29T17:02:18+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=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mission Admission: What Are They Looking For? | 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\/mission-admission-what-are-they-looking-for\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mission Admission: What Are They Looking For? | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","og_description":"Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday. One of the most common questions that we hear from applicants is &#8220;What type of candidate is HBS\/Stanford\/Wharton\/Chicago\/etc. looking for?&#8221; Of course, the answer to that question is that schools do not want one type of applicant. In fact, &hellip; Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-what-are-they-looking-for\/","og_site_name":"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","article_published_time":"2011-06-28T12:53:59+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-01-29T17:02:18+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":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":["Article","BlogPosting"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-what-are-they-looking-for\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-what-are-they-looking-for\/"},"author":{"name":"Jeremy Shinewald","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/74216774a1761e746e2426c9c8171f5f"},"headline":"Mission Admission: What Are They Looking For?","datePublished":"2011-06-28T12:53:59+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-29T17:02:18+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-what-are-they-looking-for\/"},"wordCount":189,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Mission Admission"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-what-are-they-looking-for\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-what-are-they-looking-for\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-what-are-they-looking-for\/","name":"Mission Admission: What Are They Looking For? | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-06-28T12:53:59+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-29T17:02:18+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-what-are-they-looking-for\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-what-are-they-looking-for\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-what-are-they-looking-for\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Mission Admission: What Are They Looking For?"}]},{"@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\/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&amp;Quants\u2019 Lifetime Achievement Award in MBA Admissions Consulting. 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