{"id":11123,"date":"2016-03-08T15:45:41","date_gmt":"2016-03-08T15:45:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/?p=11123"},"modified":"2019-09-05T16:00:07","modified_gmt":"2019-09-05T16:00:07","slug":"mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-my-months-of-work-experience-will-not-be-counted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-my-months-of-work-experience-will-not-be-counted\/","title":{"rendered":"MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: My Months of Work Experience Will Not Be Counted!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ManhattanWhat have you been told about applying to business school?<\/i><\/b> With the advent of chat rooms, blogs and forums, armchair \u201cexperts\u201d 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 \u201ctype\u201d 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 weekly series, <\/span><\/i>mbaMission<\/span><\/i><\/a> debunks these and other myths and strives to take the anxiety out of the admissions process.<\/span><\/i><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI had an internship from June to August of 2014. Will the MBA admissions committee count it as work experience<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was running a lab during my Master\u2019s program\u2014is that part of my total number of months of work experience<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI ran a small business that ultimately failed\u2014will I get credit for my time as an entrepreneur<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n

Business schools have not seriously considered a candidate\u2019s number of months of work experience as a factor in admissions decisions for a long time. In fact, with Harvard Business School and the Stanford Graduate School of Business increasingly open to younger candidates, work experience on a strictly quantitative level is actually being devalued at some schools. A candidate\u2019s quantity<\/em> of work experience is just not relevant\u2014quality<\/em> is, of course, what is important. An \u201caverage\u201d employee\u00a0who has merely fulfilled expectations during a five-year stint at a Fortune 500 company could certainly be said to be at a disadvantage compared with an individual who has made the most of a three-year stint elsewhere and has been promoted ahead of schedule. Think about it\u2014which of the two would you admit?<\/p>\n

So, if you are asked on an application how many months of work experience you will have prior to matriculating, you should simply answer honestly. If you have any gray areas or are unsure about any aspect of your professional experience as it pertains to your application, you can always call the admissions office for guidance\u2014most admissions offices are actually surprisingly helpful with this kind of simple technical question. Thereafter, stop worrying about the number of months you do or do not have and instead focus on revealing that\u2014and how\u2014you have had an impact in your professional life. Your essays, recommendations, interviews, resume, and other application elements will ultimately make a qualitative impact that will outweigh any quantitative data.<\/p>\n

\n

mbaMission<\/b><\/a><\/em> is the leader in MBA admissions consulting with a full-time and comprehensively trained staff of consultants, all with profound communications and MBA experience. <\/em><\/b>mbaMission has helped thousands of candidates fulfill their dream of attending prominent MBA programs around the world.<\/em> Take your first step toward a more successful MBA application experience with a free 30-minute consultation with one of mbaMission\u2019s senior consultants. Sign up today<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What have you been told about applying to business school? With the advent of chat rooms, blogs and forums, armchair \u201cexperts\u201d 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 \u201ctype\u201d of candidate and expect certain GMAT scores and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,4,6],"tags":[101,52768,52742],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-11123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-admissions-tips","category-mba-b-school","category-mbamission","tag-business-school","tag-mba-admissions-myths-destroyed","tag-mbamission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11123"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11670,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11123\/revisions\/11670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11123"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=11123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}