Flirt with them, but be subtle

Are schools obsessed with being “the one”, almost like a jealous love partner? The reality is that they know you will flirt with other schools during applications, but the main thing they want to check is that you will be happily married to them once they ask for your hand. Ok we’ll stop there with the silly metaphors!

Schools basically want to check you’ll accept their offer and be happy with your experience and promote the MBA. Validating cultural fit ensures that you have done your research and you are at least considering joining the school and not just applying as a backup choice. 

Sometimes there will be a dedicated essay to test this in the application process. Sometimes you will have to sprinkle references throughout your essays. We recommend that you do the latter in any case if you really want a school. The more non-obvious your references to the school are, the more genuine and powerful they will seem. 

Show that you know how the school is unique, but don’t be boring!

Here you really need to show you’ve done your research. There are many ways to show that you know the school, by mentioning classes, professors, current students, clubs, alumni, press articles, career services etc.
The thing to keep in mind, is that the easier for you to find that information, the more likely that another applicant competing with you will use the same example. Mentioning rankings, for example, should be avoided completely. 

One easy thing to do, is to check recent news or future plans for the school. By doing this you are likely to mention something that wasn’t mentioned the previous years / rounds, meaning you will stand out at least a bit.

Avoid shallow “name dropping” or “keyword dropping”

Some applicants think they can demonstrate Cultural Fit by mentioning 2-3 names in their application. Yes you should do your research by talking to students, alumni and clubs, but only namedrop people if you’ve had a meaningful conversation with them. A 30 seconds conversation at an event is typically not enough to mention someone, especially if there are lots of other applicants present. You probably need to interact with someone for at least 10-15mins for them to remember you! 

It’s also not as simple as just taking school values from their website and saying you meet them. Knowing what these are can help, but it’s much better to show those values in the examples you use to show your “Employability Skills”. 

Link the references to you and integrate them into your stories

The best way to avoid being generic (and boring) when speaking about your interest in a school, is to find authentic links with your personality/skills or personal situation.

“I want to join the school to take part in club X” or “I loved my visit of your campus”, are boring and can be stated by anybody.

A better example would be: “I’ve always had a passion for building things. When I discovered that I wanted to go into renewable energy, I started building and testing solar panels in my garden – until the day I started a fire and my husband forbid me from continuing! You can imagine why I was so thrilled to see that your Energy club has an in-house laboratory equipped with fire extinguishers!”

In a couple of sentences, that candidate showed passion, an insight into her personal life, and detailed research about the school, all in a funny and memorable way. 

Don’t forget to check that the school makes sense for your career path

Check the graduate employment stats from your target school to see if they have many people doing what you want to do and compare them to other schools. But also check pre-MBA career stats! For example a school may have a lot of graduates in consulting, but a lot of these may already have been consultants and may have been sponsored by their firm. Another good indication comes from the list of usual on-campus recruiters. Do many of the firms you are targeting come to the school’s career fairs? If yes, that’s a good sign and something you can use in your application. If your career vision is all about finance then you’ll be a lot more credible applying to Chicago or Colombia rather than MIT. 

Desired career location can also be a good argument for school fit. If you want to work in Spain, you can’t beat a Spanish MBA for career opportunities. But keep in mind you will probably not be the only one to mention that! At the very least you would need to explain why you are so interested in Spain, somewhere in your application. 

Finally, you may actually prefer a school that is not the best for your career, because you feel there is a stronger cultural fit than others. This is also fine, but you have to show you are aware of this and explain it, otherwise you will lose credibility. 

Read on

This post is part of the Application Strategy Guide. Click the link to return to it.

• How to show Employability Skills (link).
• How to show Career Vision (link).
• How to show “Pitching Factor” & Final Application Strategy Tips (link). 

Or if you’re tired with strategy, and want to switch to execution, have a look at the following:

• CV Tips (link).
• Essay Tips (link).
• Interview Tips (link).