What does baking bread and applying to Business Schools have in common?
Bread: Flour + Water + Salt.
Baking bread requires the simplest of ingredients; things that all of us have in our pantries, yet not everyone can put them together cohesively. During the pandemic-necessitated lockdown, I decided to set out on a journey to bake my own bread.
In my first attempt, I approached bread making as a science - I figured if I used the right quantity of flour and water and followed all the steps prescribed in a recipe, I would get a happy, shiny loaf. But I failed; I realized that having the right ingredients wasn’t enough – I needed to approach it as an art where I tweaked the recipe as I went along and worked on it persistently.
So, with a renewed focus and determined resilience, I set out to give it another shot. I read many recipes online, watched experts on YouTube, discussed the process with friends, and was not afraid of throwing away bad batches and starting from scratch. After many, many attempts, I finally baked a pretty good loaf of bread (pictured above).
Writing an MBA application is no different - everyone has the ingredients, but how do you combine them successfully?
Start out with a vision for yourself: What do you see yourself achieving? What is the goal? Develop a single-minded focus towards it.
Attend information sessions offered by schools: Keep an open mind. Consider schools that may not seem to fit your ‘recipe’ (ranking, location, brand name), but once you dig deeper, are actually better suited to the ingredients and goals you have.
Talk to alums and current students: Learn from their experiences! Network on LinkedIn, find old seniors from your college or high school, ex-colleagues. Trust me – the information they can share with you, no school website can.
Discuss the process with your peers who have done this in the past or are considering it currently: Applying to B-schools is a long, drawn-out process and you don’t have to do it alone! Exchange notes, share information, be each other’s sounding boards. Just ensure that you are surrounding yourself with people who are supportive (and that’s just good practice in life, in general)
Speak to experts: Seek guidance. Getting into a top MBA program is not just a scientific combination of having the right stats and numbers– you have to engage your audience as a storyteller. And that, my friends, is an art. This is an introspective process, so it’s critical that you choose to work with someone who will spend time with you to help you do that; someone who will mentor you through the writing process, supporting you as you tell YOUR unique story using YOUR ingredients.
Be fearless: If you’ll take away just one thing from this piece, then let it be this. Don’t be afraid to tear up an essay and start from scratch. Be open to feedback. Let your story evolve over time so it stands out among a sea of applications.
And hopefully, by the end of it, you’ll have your shiny acceptance letters, that you can enjoy reading while sipping a cup of coffee and eating a slice of freshly baked bread!