Just because you didn’t graduate from college with a cum laude doesn’t mean you’re no longer deserving to get into a business school and acquire an MBA degree. On the contrary, some Admissions Committees of business schools focus more on MBA application essays that narrate what you did after college, and what you did with the knowledge and education you gained. Bad grades in college do not equate to disqualification from good MBA programs. All you have to do is show in your MBA application essays that the richness of your life experiences and business success more than make up for the average grades you got in college.
Don’t go on a tirade about how your college professors were highly subjective in giving grades, this will only be seen as a cowardly form of pointing fingers. Instead, your MBA application essays should show that despite poor academic records, you were able to effectively apply the knowledge you gained. If you were active in various business and economic organizations in college, you can also use this angle to explain in your MBA application essays why you got low grades. You can even mention in your MBA application essays that back when you were in college, you saw experience and application as equally important than theoretical learning in the classroom.
The key in drafting your MBA application essays is to write them in such a way that would work to your advantage. In this case, your MBA application essays should provide truthful explanations regarding your college experience and why you got low grades. If you had a class where you got a low grade because of a family emergency during the midterms, then you should tell the Committee about that in your MBA application essays. A lot of people may find this hard to believe, but some Admission Committees would actually even choose an applicant with a colorful and interesting background over someone who has squeaky clean records, but with boring MBA application essays. This is because Committees look for the ‘human’ factor in MBA application essays – the insights into your personality that no academic record nor test result can ever provide.
If your dream business school is one that places academic records over experiences and background, then the more effort you should put into writing your MBA application essays to justify your low college grades. One of the most important things to remember when writing MBA application essays is to remain truthful. Keep in mind that Admissions Committees have read gazillions of MBA application essays, and can easily tell whether an applicant is fabricating stories or telling the truth. Also, don’t whine. Own up to whatever mistakes you made, elaborate on how you learned from them, and how you plan to integrate these experience-derived learnings into all decisions you’ll be making in your MBA studies in their institution.
Photo Credit : Orin Optiglot
