Believe it or not - schools welcome reapplicants! However, before you start on the application journey once again, take a hard look back. Diagnose every aspect of your approach and seek feedback from the schools where you applied. Many schools provide such feedback sessions. Suppose there are apparent concerns like a lower than average GMAT/GRE score ; correct that first. As you restart your journey, refine your approach on aspects other than explicit data-points. Here are some ideas.
Elevate the professional image you have portrayed
While adding new projects and facts to your resume, take time to revisit past bullet points and convey the impact of the work you have done. Demonstrate progression in your career – not only in terms of designations but also in the nature, scope and scale of your responsibilities. Ensure that your resume is more than just a description of your role.
Strengthen your career narrative
It would be risky to change your goals statement unless your professional journey has taken a new turn. Instead, give more purpose and clarity to your career vision. Speak to people who are currently in roles and jobs you want to be in after your MBA. Understand the roles and show the admissions committee that your career plan and your understanding of your gaps has improved since you last applied. For instance, if you merely said I want to be a strategy consultant, go deeper this time around. Speak to college seniors or people you know at top consulting firms and understand their work. Use LinkedIn to understand possible career transitions. Spend time reading the websites of consulting firms and how they are helping their clients. Integrate the new information in your reapplicant essay and your career goals essay. Share how you see yourself adding value to the target firm's clients and the firm's specific practices. If you have identified a problem, share what kind of solutions you might create for the industries and business functions with your current skills and professional experiences and the ones you gain at business school.
Get a new letter of Recommendation
Having someone share new facts and perspectives about your candidacy gives the admissions committee additional data points to evaluate your candidacy. Some schools specifically ask for you to submit an other recommendation letter. If you are applying from the same workplace, get a client, a new stakeholder or another manager you have worked with to provide a new recommendation. If you are applying from a new workplace, get a recommendation letter from current stakeholders and supervisors. Ensure that your letters of Recommendation share in-depth insights and anecdotes about your skills and interpersonal capabilities.
Help the admissions committee know you as a person more deeply
While you may have provided all the data-points in the past application year, re-think if you were able to help the admissions committee know you as an individual. If you did not, take the time to share anecdotes and instances about who you are, how you came to become the person you are, and what factors and events have shaped your habits and decisions. If you belong to a competitive applicant pool, these aspects are all the more critical and can be genuinely differentiating factors.
School Choices
The number of schools and the range of schools you apply to varies based on where you applied last year and how far you got. A good approach is to add new schools to the list. The second time around, it is also advisable to expand the safety net or add one.
We can help you incorporate these into your application for this year. Get a free consultation or our rejection analysis service to gain honest actionable advice on all components of your application.