MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: Do Alumni Connections Help You Gain Admission?
What have you been told about applying to business school? With the advent of chat rooms, blogs and forums, armchair “experts” often unintentionally propagate MBA admissions myths, which can linger and undermine an applicant’s confidence. Some applicants are led to believe that schools want a specific “type” of candidate and expect certain GMAT scores and GPAs, for example. Others are led to believe that they need to know alumni from their target schools and/or get a letter of reference from the CEO of their firm in order to get in. In this series, mbaMission debunks these and other myths and strives to take the anxiety out of the admissions process.
From time to time, we at mbaMission visit admissions officers at top-ranked business schools, which gives us the opportunity to ask rather frank questions. On one such visit to a prestigious MBA program, we pushed an admissions officer on the extent of alumni connections in the admissions process and ultimately received a surprising response: “We get ten letters each year from [a globally famous alumnus], telling us that this or that MBA candidate is the greatest thing since sliced bread. He gets upset when we don’t admit ‘his’ applicants, but what makes him think that he deserves ten spots in our class?”
Many applicants fret about their lack of personal alumni connections with their target schools, and the myth persists that admission to business school is about who you know, not who you are or what you can offer. Of course, these latter qualities are much more important, and a standout applicant who knows no graduates at all from the school he/she is targeting is still a standout applicant and should get in—just as a weak applicant who knows a large number of alumni or a particularly well-known graduate is still a weak applicant and should not get in. Clearly, some extreme exceptions exist where influence can be exerted, but “standard” applicants do not need to worry that every seat at the top programs has been claimed by someone with good alumni connections, before he/she even applies.
Keep in mind that the admissions committees want to ensure that a diversity of ideas and experiences is represented in the classroom. Every top MBA class includes people from various socioeconomic backgrounds, nationalities, religions, professional backgrounds, ages, etc. Harvard Business School, for example, has approximately 900 students in each incoming class, and the vast majority of these students do not personally know a CEO or the president of a country. And who knows—these days, such connections could even be a liability. ?
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