Must read for reapplicants a word of advice

http://www.amerasiaconsulting.com/
Must Read for Reapplicants –
A Word of Advice

By the Amerasia Consulting Group,
Boutique MBA Admissions Consulting
Must Read for Reapplicants –
A Word of Advice
MBA Admissions Consultant | http://www.amerasiaconsulting.com

This time of year, we get a huge number of inquiries from
students gearing up for the reapplication process.
This makes sense, as this subset of students is often
driven to succeed, still hurting from the sting of getting
rejection letters, and aware that going at it alone all over
again might not make much sense. And truth be told,
hiring a vetted admissions consultant is rarely a better
investment than when you are reapplying to business
school. However, there are a few techniques and things
we have discovered that can help all reapplicants, not just
those who become our clients:

Nearly every school can be "reapplicant friendly" so don't
be afraid to reapply anywhere and everywhere.
The biggest mistake we see people make on the second
go-round is they avoid all the schools they just got dinged
at. This is not a good strategy.
Can you fold in some new ideas? Of course. But do try
to have a fresh start is a big mistake.
For starters, you might lose the bonus points that many
reapplicants receive for tenacity and demonstrated
interest.

Second, you might be compromising your list of schools
for something that won't ever hurt you.
Even a school that is not known to be reapplicant friendly,
like HBS, usually has a larger reason. For Harvard, they
tend to favor younger students and rock stars, so getting
dinged can hurt your case on the latter point (even if it is
subconscious for the reader) and simply make you a year
older on the former.
Don't read into application format. Columbia and UCLA
Anderson feature reapplicant essays only, where you
provide "new" information, but not a fresh application. So
surely they must be down on reapplicants, right? Nope.

We've seen Columbia respond very favorably to
reapplicants - especially those who apply very early for
Early Decision (we're talking July here).
So don't read into the fact that Kellogg lets you submit a
whole new application and a reapplicant essay, while
UCLA doesn't.
They require different approaches, but one's not more
likely to admit you than the other on those grounds alone.

There are many forms of "updates." So many
reapplicants get hung up on not having enough to
"update" the school on - especially when they were
dinged in Round 2 of one year and then apply Round 1 of
the next year.
Don't sweat this. In addition to new test scores, work
promotions, new experiences (life and work), and even
classes taken on the side, you also can have an updated
perspective.
Better formed career goals, a better insight into the
specific school, better stated themes ... it's all updated
and improved.

And if they can tell you spent more time, did more
research, and maybe got some assistance in improving
those areas?
They will be happy, because you understand your own
candidacy better and are more prepared for b school.
Don't fear the overhaul. Another weird myth that seems
to persist among reapplicants is that you can't
dramatically change your narrative in the new application.

The idea goes something like this: they will see my
application from last year and know that I changed
everything.
For starters, no, they probably won't. Admissions officers
have thousands of files to read - rarely are they going to
double down for one person. But even if they did ... so
what? People can't grow? Evolve? Better themselves?
Improvement is not a bad thing, whether in understanding
of self, writing style, or even the packaging of your story.
You do every single person a favor when you get better.
Never, ever run from improvement because you think it
will somehow reflect poorly. It's pretty much impossible.

Don't panic. The most common type of reapplicant we
work with is someone who got oh-so-close and barely
missed. (Full disclosure: this is partly because of our
philosophy of only working with candidates we believe we
can help reach their goals, so it is self-selecting.)
The hardest thing about working with this type of student
is keeping them calm.
They all want to retake the GMAT, no matter their score.

They want to take four new extension classes and join
five new organizations and generally transform
themselves.
Going back to #3 on this list, the best updates are usually
in perspective and presentation.
In all likelihood, if you got close (getting waitlisted,
interviews without an admit, etc.), it means you don't
need to transform, you just need to tweak.

In almost every case, essay structure needs to be fixed
(business school applicants are the worst at structure, no
offense), career goals need to be better articulated (our
best guess is that 95 of every 100 MBA candidates do not
correctly lay out career goals and articulate the
appropriateness of the degree in question) and school fit
better demonstrated (more like 99 out of 100 candidates
miss critical DNA elements of the schools to which they
are applying, instead hitting only the shallow, basic, and
easily-researched aspects).
THAT is usually the way to a new result ... NOT trying to
become a new person.

We hope that everyone who reapplies this year reads this post and
is helped by these rules of thumb.
If you are interested in a free initial consultation, please email
mba@amerasiaconsulting.com. Our boutique approach pairs you with a
consultant capable of walking you through the above steps and
perfecting your application.
Finally, make sure to download our free How to Apply guides.
http://www.amerasiaconsulting.com/

Must read for reapplicants a word of advice

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Must read for reapplicants a word of advice