{"id":18411,"date":"2020-01-03T14:08:40","date_gmt":"2020-01-03T14:08:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/?p=18411"},"modified":"2020-01-03T14:11:17","modified_gmt":"2020-01-03T14:11:17","slug":"how-to-succeed-in-business-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/blog\/how-to-succeed-in-business-school\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Succeed in Business School"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"succeed<\/p>\n

Your business school wants you to have a successful career. There\u2019s one cynical reason and one neutral reason why: the cynical one is that if you do have a successful career, you will tell everyone you know that you went to, say, the Rady School of Management, and then those people will then want to send their application fees, and ultimately their tuition checks, to said institution, and if you have a <\/span>really<\/span><\/i> successful career, you may even get in touch with your philanthropic side and get a building named after you at your alma mater. The neutral one is that business schools exist to help you grow the national economy, and your success is the school\u2019s (and ultimately the nation\u2019s) success. Whatever your personal outlook is on the matter, your business school does want you to succeed, and knowing that can help you in a few ways.<\/span><\/p>\n

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How to Succeed in Business School: The Application<\/b><\/h3>\n

Let\u2019s start with <\/span>the application process<\/span><\/a>. One of the best tools business schools have at their disposal for ensuring their students succeed after graduation is the ability to select students whom they believe will succeed. This seems like an obvious point, but it completely explains the Olympic athlete with <\/span>a GMAT score<\/span><\/a> that\u2019s 100 points lower than yours in the chair next to you when you go to do campus visits. I don\u2019t care if she doesn\u2019t know how many factors 441 has, that young woman can do a gainer with two and a half somersaults like nobody\u2019s business, and more to the point, she had to work for years with single-minded focus towards a goal that very few people ever achieve. I think she\u2019s sufficiently demonstrated the skills to succeed in the workforce; wouldn\u2019t you agree? Now, you may not be an Olympic athlete, but you have certainly persevered through adversity before. You may have gotten a promotion at your job, or even been charged with leading a new team at your company. You have done something in your life that will show an admissions committee that you will be successful in your career; your best bet is to figure out what that is and highlight it.<\/span><\/p>\n

How to Succeed in Business School: Once You\u2019re In<\/b><\/h3>\n

Once you\u2019re done with your applications, you\u2019ve been accepted, and you arrive on campus, your school will be there to support you. At most schools, you\u2019ll be placed in a study group of around 4 or 5 students, and you\u2019ll turn in all your homework as a group; your school is trying to prepare you to work with diverse teams. You\u2019ll take a core curriculum for a large part of your first year; your school wants you to have a basic understanding of accounting, operations, economics, marketing, finance, and organizational strategy. A criticism I\u2019ve read of business schools is that classes are not as academically rigorous as they would be in other graduate-level programs, but I think that criticism might be somewhat beside the point since business school serves a slightly different purpose: you should go to your classes not necessarily because you want to become an expert in one particular subject, but rather you should go because you will learn the language of business, and you will gain insights that will help you better manage your team or organization down the road. You\u2019ll also have access to school clubs, trips, networking events\u2014you name it. Again, all of this is intended to give you a leg up in your career.<\/span><\/p>\n

Takeaways<\/b><\/h3>\n

Here\u2019s the point: your school wants you to succeed, and the way to do that is:<\/span><\/p>\n