You have worked painstakingly on your application. You have checked and rechecked your work. You finally press the Submit button only to realize—to your horror—that you are missing a comma, and you inadvertently used “too” instead of “to.” The admissions committee is obviously going to just throw your application out, right? Wrong!
Making a typo and pervasive sloppiness are two very different things. If you have multiple typos and grammatical errors throughout your essays and application, you send a negative message about your level of professionalism and desire to represent yourself—and potentially the target school—in a positive way. But if you have a minor mistake or two in your text, you have an unfortunate situation on your hands, but not a devastating one. Admissions representatives understand that you are only human, and if you are a strong candidate, the entirety of your professional, community, personal, and academic endeavors will outweigh these blips.
Do not dwell on the mistakes. Do not send new essays. Just accept your own fallibility and move on.
In the past, we have discussed how challenging competing against a faceless mass of fellow applicants can be and how disadvantaged people can feel if they do not seize every opportunity to do so. Although we want you to make the most of every possible chance to set yourself apart, you also need to be judicious in choosing those opportunities. Some can actually work against you and thereby turn into negatives. Allow us to elaborate…
A bucolic college town, a smaller MBA program, a tightly knit community, an alumni network known for really taking care of its own, access to countless outdoor adventures in the surrounding areas (not to mention picturesque views), and a curriculum with a mandatory international component. Are we describing the Darden School at the University of Virginia (UVA)? Or maybe Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business? In fact, all these descriptors apply to both of these renowned MBA programs, which consistently find themselves among the top ten in various business school rankings and often battle for the same students.
Sometimes, MBAs are so eager to land their next role that they say yes to the first job offer they get, but we want to caution you to be more intentional with your career. Your goal is not to find just any job, it is to find the right job for you. And, to be clear, you could very likely find multiple jobs that would be right for you. So how do you avoid the wrong ones?
In the past, we have addressed (and debunked!) the myth that you must personally know alumni from the top MBA programs to gain acceptance into those schools. Another admissions myth that is somewhat similar—in that it pertains to who you know instead of who you are—is that your recommendation must be written by someone with a flashy title. Each year, many candidates will persuade either someone from outside their workplace (e.g., a congressperson) or an insider who does not know their work all that well (e.g., a managing director or CEO) to write a recommendation on their behalf.
Unfortunately, when you obtain a recommendation from someone because of their title and not because that person actually knows you and your work, the result is a vague endorsement. Consequently, the admissions committee will not get to know you better through this individual’s recommendation letter, and this undermines the very purpose of recommendations. Even if you can educate someone far above you in the corporate hierarchy about your achievements and that person can write a seemingly personal letter, it still will not make sense that a CEO, for example, knows what you—one of possibly hundreds of employees—are doing on a daily basis. So, the intimacy of this person’s letter just might seem absurd. Of course, if your CEO does actually know you and can write a personal letter that makes a logical connection between your position and theirs, that could be helpful.
Rather than focusing on titles when considering possible sources for your recommendations, strive to identify an individual who knows you well and can write about your strengths—and even your weaknesses—with sincerity. If your supervisor has a less than impressive title, this will not reflect negatively on you; what will matter is what they write about you. If that person can discuss your performance while providing powerful examples of standout achievements, they will help you to the fullest.
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