Over the past few years, the rules to the business school application game have changed drastically. As a result of the increase in applications, the competition among applicants has intensified. The average GMAT® score and undergraduate GPA of admitted students to top business schools have risen to almost 700 and 3.5, respectively, and continue to climb. Meanwhile, the number of seats at most schools is not climbing, and in fact some top schools are making their classes smaller. The result is that schools are more closely examining all aspects of the MBA application beyond the basic statistics.
Many applicants, however, are responding to this increased competition by merely focusing on improving their GMAT® scores and other "hard" stats. Any popular periodical's business school rankings prominently feature a school's average GMAT® score next to its name, so it is only natural that applicants focus on this obvious component of the application. But while the GMAT® may be the first challenge in the application process that must be navigated, high scores alone certainly won't win the business school application game.
Traditional strategic analysis examines the approach of a decision-maker given his environment and the tactics of other decision-makers who are in pursuit of similar objectives. As an applicant, you must succeed in an environment that demands differentiation against the competition and proper fit with the programs to which you apply. The ultimate questions that you as an applicant must answer are:
