Ad-Coms deconstructed

While it's no surprise that applicants aren't really on the level in their essays, it should come as even less of a surprise that the ad-coms are worse (or better !) at obfuscation.

Here are a few things that people should know...

Spin : Your stats don't matter. You as an individual matter.
Fact : The colour of your skin, your gender, and your ethnicity/nationality matter. BIG TIME!

Spin : Leadership potential is valued.
Fact : B-schools are actually truthful here. And nothing shouts out leadership potential louder than having daddy dearest rolling in greenbacks! After all, which B-school would refuse admission to a scion of a major industrial houses? Someone who is bound to become the CEO sooner rather than later. Who is bound to land up on the 'prominent alumni' section of the website.

Spin : Diversity is good.
Fact : It is good. But it's used as a convenient excuse to get rid of one conventional applicant, to bring in another with the right gender / ethnicity / nationality. That boosts the rankings. That bring in more money. That helps you improve your ranking further. That gets you more money. And so it goes...

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Ad-Coms - Getting Gamed

Fact : Almost all applicants to B-schools dedicate a good part of their application to proving how 'different' they are.
Fact : Each of the top B-schools claims to handpick a 'diverse' student body, diverse in their backgrounds as well as their career plans.

Inference : There should be a good amount of diversity in the jobs taken by MBA graduates.

Fact : The top B-schools place the bulk of their outgoing classes in Consulting and Finance. Industry, Marketing, and Entrepreneurship are pretty much looked down upon.

Doesn't really make sense, eh?

The most important reason would be that most people graduate from B-school laden with debt. Finance and Consulting are the best paymasters (a generalization, but fairly true). Ergo, these are the easiest way out to financial independence.

Another reason, many applicants have their hearts set on joining Consulting/Finance, but they mask their true intentions in their applications. Just long enough to get admitted. Interests in entrepreneurship, working for a non-profit materialize overnight, only to be cast aside on the first day in college.

Having seen so many of such frauds making it to B-school, I wonder, why don't the admission commitees chuck these applications out! They're fairly easy to spot too!

Such stinkers can be spotted from miles off. There are always a few tell-tale signs -
* social service undertaken just a year or two before applying
* unverfiable claims of holding leadership positions in organizations
* tall claims of leading large teams with little experience/qualification
* interested in Finance, yet unable to tell buy-side from sell-side
* unable to give a convincing reason for choosing one post-MBA career path

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