Tips for a successful MBA APPLICATION

• Research schools well. Not all schools have the same strenghts in terms of course offerings, placements, and faculty. Identify your needs, and find a school that caters to those needs. Then idea is to be in their top-of-mind awareness.
• Take entrance exams seriously. The trends, patterns and formats keep changing. Keep abreast of the latest news. Use mba.com and other associated websites, and tune in to the official agencies that sponsor these tests.
• After pre-applications and initial reesearch, make a grid with relevant parameters, and fill in the boxes. For instance, have columns like school name. ranking, number of students per MBA class, percentage of international students, availability of scholarship, tuition and associated costs, placement statistics etc. From this grid, you get the big picture, which will go a long way in choosing your final 5 or 8 schools.
• Network well. Most schools will be happy to furnish alumni information. Talk to those who went before you, to get a first hand feel of the institution. Ask questions, talk to people and gather as much information as you can, about a particular school of your choice.
• Spend a lot of time on your application packet. While most information can be filled easily, most schools will want GPA, proof of community work, extracurricular activity records, and the like. Keep in constant touch with schools regard to their requirements, and explain to them if there are gaps in your application. A lot of times, web forms won't work, online application processes will have bugs. Deal with them with patience, and explain your actions in greqat detail.
• During the interview process, keep essays and statement of purpose handy. Schools want to see a consonance between what you think and what you write. Prepare for questions like "Why this school, why now and why MBA". If you do not have answers to a particular question, be honest and say that you do not know. Do not PRETEND.
• Last but not the least, believe in yourself.