Planning your MBA Journey

How to manage timelines for your MBA application in 2022-23

12 Minute Read

So you’ve decided to take the plunge and are committed to getting through to a top B-school. You’ve convinced yourself you’ve got what it takes, and you’re willing to grit your teeth for this whole MBA grindset. You’ve done your due-diligence, and have already zeroed in on a shortlist of dream, target and safety schools you’d like to aim for. Well, then, what’s next? What’s next is figuring out your timelines – which involves understanding all your specific “deliverables” and their respective deadlines. There’s a lot of balls to juggle in a typical MBA application, from SOPs and LORs, to identifying and networking with the right alumni.

And, of course, there’s the looming spectre of the GRE/GMAT… how much time should you be setting aside for that? In this article, we’ll explore how you might approach these different demands on your time and energy, and how you can best navigate the many steps of the MBA application process.

And while LORs (Letters of Recommendation) are usually the first candidates for this kind of learning curve advantage, even Statements of Purpose (SOPs)/essays can often overlap, especially in the broad themes they cover (such as post-MBA goals, community engagement style or demonstrations of transferable skills). All this is to say: the MBA application journey is one where the first application is the hardest, and it gets easier and easier as you go along. What I’ve seen during my practice is that, where the first two applications can take anywhere between 2-3 months to perfect, the applications towards the end of your submission/intake cycle will usually only take you a few days, or a week at most. There’s definitely a huge learning curve advantage, so even if it feels difficult or even overwhelming in the beginning, stick with the suck, and you’re sure to see better days.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these requirements in the MBA checklist, starting with the big one – the essays.

Essays:

MBA application essays, usually two to five per application, have a word limit ranging from 300 to 600 words, with some outliers resembling free-form statements of purpose up to 1500 words or more. MBA application essays usually fall into one of three categories – firstly, they could be one among a series of “Why” questions, aimed at figuring out the underlying (and/or overt) motivations driving your desire to pursue an MBA; your goals, professional and personal. The second category of questions are competence-based questions, or “How” questions. These questions will typically ask you to reflect upon some of the transferrable skills you’ve gained over the course of your work history, and how you will leverage these during your time at the business school to move closer to your stated goals.

The third notable category of MBA essay questions can be though of as “Fit”-based questions, which are designed to glean your cultural alignment with the school – whether you have the right mix of values, soft-skills and ‘personality’. Fit questions can ask you how you plan to contribute to your peers at B-school, how you view leadership or failure, or, as was the case for many schools last year, how you’ve contributed to DEI initiatives at your previous workplace. Fit questions can also be behavioral, asking you to articulate how you might react and respond to challenging but not atypical business scenarios.

Essay Timelines

Having understood what you’re up against, let’s talk about how much time you might want to dedicate to the project of writing your essays and bringing them to a finished (or near-finished) state.

I like to recommend all my clients start their essay writing/ narrative building process by taking a certain period of time to simply reflect and introspect on some of the deep factors motivating them to pursue an MBA – what do they hope to gain? what specific improvements do they hope to see in their careers? Why now?

If one is to do real justice to this part of the process, the ideal scenario is to allocate a wide berth on your calendar to exploring and mulling over these questions. I would like to put the number at around 6 weeks, give or take, and though this might seem excessive, I’ve found investing extra time and energy at this point of the application process makes the rest of it significantly easier, because your core narrative is in place. The good part is that a lot of this thinking is best done obliquely, as a sort of background radiation, allowing onself to tackle the questions almost automatically or subconsciously.

Tldr; Sleep on the big questions for a month or so before putting pen to paper.

If you’ve done a good enough job here, then the next bit, actually writing your essays and then obsessively meticulously finalizing them, should take another 4-6 weeks for the first set of application essays. I’m leaving room for a couple of rounds of review and revision. Your second set of essays will be quicker, since you’ll already have a working model to go off of, but you might have to deal with a totally new question or two. By the time your fourth app rolls around, there will be fewer surprises and a deeper war-chest of ready-to-go narratives. Turns out increasing returns to scale, that darling dynamic of learning-by-doing, isn’t just a boon for technology and SAAS companies.

So, if you’re looking to push out 5-8 applications in a season, then setting 12-14 weeks aside should do the job, plus 4-6 weeks for the introspection stage. Now let’s turn our attention to the next big time-sink: the GMAT/GRE.

Common Aptitude Tests (GMAT/GRE)

If you’re already in possession of a ‘beauty-contest-winning’ score on the GMAT or GRE (or both), then you’ve already crossed one of the bigger hurdles on your way to your dream B-school. While your GMAT/GRE scores certainly don’t dictate whether you’re in or out, they are a major factor in the selection process, and, if you think about it, it’s the only signal that you send the school that’s both quantitative and immediately comparable across geographies, industries, functions and academic backgrounds.

Moreover, it’s a factor according to which the B-schools themselves are judged – and ranked. And, boy, is it a buyer’s market right now: average GMAT/GRE scores are skyrocketing at most prestige schools since the uptick in applications post-pandemic.

For those who haven’t started their GMAT or GRE preparation yet, the best way I’ve found to figure out how much time to allocate to the GMAT/GRE is to start by taking up to three mock tests – but absolutely unprepped or raw. Taking a few mock GMATs (you can find free sample tests on Kaplan, GMAC, etc) will give you a baseline off of which you can build the rest of your strategy. Let’s say your raw scores over three mocks averaged out to 650 (Q42, V37). In 2022, this would put you just under the 75 percentile spot in terms of overall score.

GMAT Timelines

The usual suggestion is that it takes about three months of dedicated prep to achieve a 30-50 point jump in scores (of course, YMMV). Now if your target GMAT is a 750, then you’re looking to set aside 6 months or more to hit that 100-point increase, and keep in mind that there’s a squeeze the higher you aim – it’s a whole lot easier getting from 650 to 700, than the next step of getting from 700 to 750.

So, to recap, set a raw ability benchmark by giving a few mocks, then allow for about 3 months of serious prep for every 30 to 50 point increase you’d like to see. And, lastly, the piece-de-resistance, my ‘chef’s special secret sauce’ to acing the GMAT (or GRE)- aim to give at least 10 mock tests before you go up against the real deal, 15 if you can manage it.

Language Proficiency Tests (IELTS/TOEFL)

While you might be relieved to know that a fair number of business schools will exempt you from having to sit for a language assessment if your undergraduate education was an English-speaking program, it’s still pretty typical for those who want to apply to a wide range of MBA programs to be asked to sit for either the TOEFL or the IELTS. There are other options too, of course, but let’s pull focus to these two.

The IELTS or TOEFL is a credential that’s valid for two years, as opposed to the five-year validity of the GMAT and GRE. Both the IELTS and TOEFL can be converted to the European CEFR language framework as well, with a 6.5-7.5 on the IELTS being equivalent to a B2 on the CEFR (this is also what most MBA programs will expect as a qualifying minimum). For most people, these tests are best dealt with quickly – and early. Don’t leave this to the last minute, because hiccups do tend to happen. A good approach would be to set aside a month to 45 days to get your language proficiency scores in place.

IELTS/TOEFL Timeline

One to two months; make sure you’re taking at least three mock assessments before you go for the actual test.

Letters of Recommendation (LORs)

How many letters of recommendation do you usually have to provide a B-school? While the vast majority of schools expect you to furnish them with two LORS, there are those exceptional outliers who will ask for just one, or even three letters of recommendation (with a third LOR typically reserved for an alum or client recommendation).

The difficulty in planning how long the process of getting your LORs in place is exactly that you have to rely on other people- and work around their packed schedules – to get what you need. Your referee may have the best intentions, but it’s on you to make sure you’re informing/intimating them with enough time to spare. After all, your bosses and mentors are busy people, and it’s only proper to give them a clear heads-up.

Giving your referees a ‘lead time’ of a month seems like a reasonable peg to hang your coat on, and, of course, if you’re in an industry notorious for its demands on one’s time, you might even want to give your referees a full two months or more to respond.    

Managing Your MBA Application Timelines: Putting It All Together

In this last section, let’s look at how you might bring all these various time requirements together – thankfully you can tackle a lot of these in a parallel fashion. If you’re already in possession of an adequate GMAT/GRE and know which schools you’re targeting, then you have to plan for four major requirements: Essays, LORs, IELTS/TOEFL, and your College Transcripts.

Start the process with organizing your transcripts (marksheets) and reaching out to your referees for your letters of recommendation. This time can also be used to ask yourself the big questions – and do the introspective due-diligence that is the foundation of your application and narratives.

Once you’ve got your marksheets and other supporting documents in place, and you’ve sent out the emails to your referees, then it’s time to start thinking about the essays. One approach is to write down a ‘master answer key’, a series of answers to the most typical MBA essay questions. For instance, you can commit a 500-word answer to each of the questions: Why MBA; Why Now; What are your Post-MBA Career Goals; What are your Strengths/Weaknesses/Failures/Accomplishments; How will you contribute to the Cohort or Culture at your target school? Of course, you could expand upon this list as you see fit, and given that you know which schools you’re applying to, you can also begin in a more structured fashion: collate all the essay questions across all your target programmes, understand and highlight the common themes, and then write down your master answer key. Language assessments can be undertaken two or three months before the application submission deadlines.

However, if you don’t have a valid GMAT/GRE in hand, the situation gets slightly more complicated, since you’re looking at a process that is anywhere between three to six months long (or more, depending on your raw baseline scores). If you have more than 6 months to a year to spare, then I would strongly recommend getting your GMAT/GRE scores in place before you begin the process of writing your essays. You can still arrange your transcripts and do the process of introspection in pursuit of goal-clarity, but not knowing your GMAT/GRE score means you won’t realistically know which schools to target.

Without clarity as to which MBA programmes you can realistically aim for, it’s difficult to take the next steps – reaching out for recommendation letters, school short-listing, and essay writing. For those with just 6 months to spare (or less, which really isn’t ideal), the GMAT/GRE gauntlet has to be taken up parallel to the first few steps of the goal-clarity process, i.e., get your narratives and story in place. Then, as soon as you have a score in hand, you move full-steam ahead to writing down the application essay requirements.

At the end, I’d like to reiterate that all the advice given above isn’t meant to be taken as gospel, and it really isn’t meant to be. The MBA application process has tons of room for subjectivity and personal interpretation – and I think that’s by design – in other words, the subjectivity is a feature, not a bug. And while this element of YMMV is perhaps more salient when it comes to deciding what your core narratives might look like, I do think it applies to how you’d like to approach the general application process too. The timelines and framework I’ve shared above is simply what I’ve seen has been helpful to my clients when they were at the “how to” stage of their application process – as I hope they will be to you.

Ultimately, however, a great MBA application is unique not just in the stories or credentials it holds, but in how it captures the sides of your personality that are utterly you. I hope that as you reflect on the framework shared here, you will also think about changing and molding it to better suit your individual situation, capabilities, limitations and needs. All the best on undertaking this challenging and exciting adventure of the mind!