6 KEY POINTS WHEN STARTING TO REACH OUT TO YOUR TARGET MBA PROGRAMS
Once you’ve created and read the online applications to each of your 7-12 target business schools, and have worked yourself backwards from dialing in your realistic and specific goals, you are now ready to narrow your school selection list to 3-5 target MBA programs by reaching out to them. This may sound intimidating, but let’s break it down to baby steps.
1. Check the admissions committee website from each target school. Most of them will have some sort of ambassador program where they will get currents students to email you back.
You can schedule a nice Skype, zoom or phone call to ask questions and establish relationships with current students. Reach out and get on their radar, this is the most simple and straight forward way to establish contact. Here is an example of the Tuck's admissions committees' student ambassadors contact sheet.
2. Start reaching out to ambassador programs to engage current MBA students early.
Do this NOW. There are two reasons for this. A) you need to whittle down your school selection and see if this is really the school for you as soon as possible. The best time to start is now (in May) and then continue to engage students over the summer months. B) Current students are in class in September, October and November. They will get slammed with work by the end of the year, and their bandwidth will be severely limited by fall.
3. Before reaching out, you should have an idea of what clubs you want to engage in. And then engage in them.
4. The response rate may not be as high when sending cold emails. But you have nothing to loose when sending a cold email to relevant officers or members with similar backgrounds.
Don’t ask all eight of officers at once, you want to avoid potentially having the same conversation eight times. Start with one or two contact attempts and see what the response rate is. A great starting point is to mention if you went to the same school or worked at the same place as they did. If for instance, you have something to offer. You are into supply chain management and you’re reaching out to the Supply Chain Management Club and it’s part of your goals - email the club officers. Or if that student potentially wants to get a job at the company you currently work at, they’ll definitely reach back.
Another relevant thing to take into consideration, is that if you did send a bunch of emails to a particular school and you did not get any response, that is also a telling sign of the school environment. If you email Tuck and everyone gets back to you, and you email Columbia and nobody gets back to you — maybe that should tell you something.
5. Take a look at your work colleagues, who are the alumni?
Can you go grab a cup of coffee or take them to lunch if they’re in a different department? Also consider that you don’t want to let the cat out of your work bag. You want to avoid letting as many people know that you are applying to business school. So proceed with caution, even though that person may be in a different department, things have a way of getting out.
6. The pandemic will end and things will pick back up again in the US soon. Will you physically visit schools? If not, will you sign up for any and every online event, such as information sessions?
Just show up. Even to the sessions that aren’t that relevant to you. For example you attended an online session for international students, but you are a domestic candidate, you can still get something out of it. You may not learn much that is new and relevant to you. But you can say to the admissions committee, “Hey, I engaged with you and your school five times.”
Aim for at least three or four touch points. For example, 1) reaching out to clubs and getting a response, 2) doing an online tour, and 3) speaking with a current student or an alumni. It is more powerful speaking with a current student and/or alumni for your own benefit when waddling down your MBA target programs. At the same time, it is also benefits the admissions committee's decision. Every Tom, Dick, Harry and Mary can show up for an online session, but fewer candidates will have the courage to reach out personally to a current student or alumni.
When you do meet up with them virtually or physically, have a conversation about what the school is like. What is the environment like? What do the clubs have to offer? This will be a telling sign if your target MBA programs are in alignment with who you are and your goals.
At this point, you should more or less have a final list of target MBA programs. You may still add some or loose some. You may still need to take the GMAT as you’re doing all of this. For example, when you eventually do write your GMAT and get a 650 score, you may want to cross Wharton off your list. This is a blueprint or template to your final list of about 5 target schools.
Keep an eye out for the next blog post on what step to take after narrowing down your MBA target programs on your MBA application journey.