MBA Application Tips—Letters of Recommendation (Part 1)

Let's be real: Recommendation letters are not going to be what makes or breaks your MBA applications. Most don’t differentiate prospective students from one another in the minds of admissions committees. Ninety-nine percent of the time, they are filled with glowing reviews of an applicant’s leadership and/or innovation abilities and potential. No applicant asks a supervisor to write them a letter if there is any question the content of the letter could cast doubt on their candidacy.

But, if done right, a letter of recommendation can reinforce and expand upon key themes presented in other application components like your resume, essays, and short answers. Here are some actions to take to make sure that happens.

Select the Best Recommenders

Most schools require two letters of recommendation from supervisors who have overseen your work in full-time post-baccalaureate employment. Of course, you will want to choose those you know will sing your praises, but also who can back up their claims on your abilities in the areas such as innovation, leadership, and teamwork with specific examples. The writers of your recommendation letters should know you well. Don’t ask the CEO you’ve seen in the elevator a few times because you think his title will impress admissions committees. Save requests to very senior colleagues with significant influence at a specific school (say, they're donors or members of the board) for letters of support, which they can send separate from your application to the Dean of the business school. 

Take a Strategic Viewpoint

If one of your essays is anchored in a story that shows the reader your critical thinking and problem-solving aptitude on a significant project, one of your recommenders could provide additional insight on this project in their letter. And, if this first letter of recommendation further emphasizes your innovation potential, the second should focus on other qualities, such as your ability to thrive in a collaborative environment. Furthermore, if you see gaps in your application, you may want to speak with one of your recommenders who could address them in his or her letter and share how you’ve grown from specific challenges.  

Guidelines for Adding Hobbies to Your AMCAS Application

Hobbies. They are not a make or break component of the medical school (and later, residency) application, but they are an opportunity to provide the admissions committee with a view of the person beyond the test scores. Hobbies are also an effective way to demonstrate how you will add to the diversity of the incoming class, showcase qualities you will need as a medical student/physician, and/or provide insight into how you may relieve stress during medical school. 

Within the AMCAS application, hobbies belong in the Work & Activities section under the extracurriculars category. Applicants can provide up to four experiences under each category type, with a 700 character (with spaces) count, unless the experience is designated “most meaningful” (requires an additional 1,325 characters with spaces). 

Below are our guidelines for adding hobbies to your AMCAS application:

• Be current. If you played the trumpet in the high school band, but haven’t picked it up since then, consider what hobbies are more relevant to your life now. What do you turn to for fun, and what do you see yourself doing for stress relief in medical school?

• Be specific in your description. Provide a sense of how often, and how long you have been pursuing the hobby, as well as what the hobby entails. It’s great that you love to read, do yoga, and travel, but so do many others. In what unique ways have you engaged with your interests? Did you launch a monthly book club for discussing the NYT best sellers? Write book reviews for the school paper? Did you gain a yoga teaching certification or take part in a unique yoga retreat? Do you travel to particular destinations or participate in medical experiences abroad?

• State how your hobby has impacted your personal growth. Did an experience within your hobby contribute to a change in your perspective or influence your decision to apply to medical school? What attributes have you developed through your hobby that will benefit you as a medical student and physician (resilience, effective communication and collaboration skills, empathy, the ability to thrive in a diverse environment, etc.)? 

• When possible, provide an experience or milestone that differentiates your involvement in the hobby. Many people play an instrument, but fewer start a quartet or play in the university band. Many people enjoy running or fitness, fewer run the NY marathon to support a favorite cause/organization or start a running club. Providing the specific way(s) that you’ve engaged with your hobby will demonstrate to the admissions committee what you may offer to your incoming class. 

Your Medical School Application: Trust the (Writing) Process

We know that as the Secondary prompts start coming in, you’ll be tempted to sit down and start writing. Fight this urge. Instead, we encourage you to follow a writing process for each new prompt that comes in. Investing time in the pre-writing stages will result in a stronger essay and a better return on your time. 

Below is a writing process that we recommend. You will want to return your responses within two weeks of receipt, so start early to give yourself enough time to work through this iterative process and create your most compelling work. 

Begin with a brainstorm. Do not underestimate the importance of this step. If you have not yet created your brainstorm document, it’s not too late. This document will be immensely useful for writing Secondaries (and later, for interview prep!). 

Document your experiences, positive and negative, that prompted an evolution in your perspective—you know, those “ah-ha!” moments without which you would be a different student and/or person today. Then, record those experiences that will show the reader your abilities in critical thinking and problem solving, leadership, teamwork/collaboration, and empathy/connection, as well as those experiences that reinforced your interest in medical school. Capture as many details as possible, paying particular attention to what you thought, felt, said, and did in each situation. Your focus should be on adult experiences (from the start of college and later), though stories from your youth could comprise up to 20 percent of this brainstorm.

During your brainstorm, don’t limit yourself by worrying about a cohesive narrative, the quality of your writing, and/or the number/length of your stories. Simply focus on collecting those situations that helped to guide your path to this point and impacted your decision to apply to medical school.

Craft an outline. Select the key stories you will use to anchor your narratives. Remember that you’ll use your essays to go deep into experiences that demonstrate the traits you want to emphasize. Consider also your essay’s structure and how you can tell your stories in a way that will capture and hold the reader’s attention. 

Write. Keep in mind that you must be showing, not telling the reader who you are. In contrast to your Work and Activities section, which provides an overview of your experiences, your Secondary Essay responses should go deep into a story that allows the reader to come to their own conclusions about some of your character traits and abilities. Highlight how you’ve struggled, triumphed, learned, and how these experiences have developed you into the person you are now. Remember that what you’ve done and accomplished in the past is how you will prove to the admissions committee that you will be able to accomplish your future goals. 

Review. Revise. Repeat. Confirm your word count and read your essay aloud noting where you stumble. Make revisions as necessary. Once it reads smoothly, set it down and walk away for at least 24 hours. Then re-read it. Is it you? Is it personal and authentic? You want the reader to see the real person behind the applicant number. While we caution against “oversharing,” being appropriately vulnerable will create connection.

The MBA Application: A Results-Driven Resume (Part 2)

Keep the following tips in mind as you craft your resume: 

Focus on results. We can’t emphasize this enough. Make use of active verbs to showcase your contributions. And, where possible, provide hard numbers that exhibit the results you’ve achieved and the impact you’ve made. 

Keep it relevant. Your resume should only include experiences from the start of college onward, and should showcase your abilities in innovation, leadership, and teamwork. 

Review the Guidance. Some MBA programs instruct you to “submit a resume,” while others such as MIT Sloan or UPenn Wharton, provide specifications for your submission. Review the school’s admissions page to confirm any instruction on page limits, font, and format. 

If the school does not provide formatting guidance, you should keep it simple. Opt for left-justified text in an easy-to-read font—we prefer Garamond—sized between 10 and 12. Additionally, while it may be customary in some cultures to add a headshot to the resume, this is not recommended for U.S.-based MBA programs. 

Use proper grammar. Even the best writers can get worked up about creating resume text. Don’t overthink it. Use proper punctuation and the appropriate tense (present for current activities, past for past activities). Read each line aloud and make sure that it flows smoothly. Do not lean on corporate jargon, rather you will want to ensure that you explain what you did and your results in a way that a fellow MBA classmate in a different field would understand. 

The MBA Application: A Results-Driven Resume (Part 1)

A key piece of the MBA application is a resume. It should showcase the breadth of your experiences and accomplishments. But remember, it should not merely communicate what you did in each role and extracurricular endeavor; each entry should explore WHY what you did and accomplished was so important to you and/or your team and/or the organization as a whole. What results did you achieve?  What impact did you have?  What did you learn?

MBA resumes should include the following components and should be no longer than one page:

1. Education. List all degrees and include a bulleted list in the Education section of internships and extracurricular involvements you participated in while in college. 

2. Work Experience. Using results-oriented bullets, show your progression in responsibility throughout your career. Elaborate on the impact you’ve had and/or lessons you’ve learned. Note also any awards and/or honors and/or significant recognition that you have received.

3. Additional Information. This section can include significant extracurricular and charitable involvements you’ve participated in, languages you speak, as well as noteworthy skills, certifications, and memberships.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Your Personal Statement (Part 5)

In this blog series, we’ll be highlighting some of the most common mistakes we see applicants make as they approach the Personal Statement. Try your best to avoid them.

Having too many readers: Having too many readers review your Personal Statement is a common mistake. If you're an Apply Point client, consider asking two people besides your two Apply Point advisors (who work as a team) to read your essays. If you're not working with a consultant, you could ask up to four people to read your work but make that the maximum just so you won't be overwhelmed by input.

This is certainly not us saying that you shouldn't have any readers at all. You want eyes or ears on this, especially if they're attached to someone you respect who knows you well. In fact, the top question you should ask them is: "Does this sound like me?" Friends, family members, or a mentor can confirm if your essay gets your personality and best qualities across. That said, send them the edited, polished draft rather than your raw first draft. This way their suggestions and questions won't psych you out because you already have a good idea of what you want to present in your statement.

One more note on having too many readers: Never post your essay in an online forum, such as Reddit. Sharing thoughts and advice on the overall application process online with other prospective students is great, but if you post your essay, you'll have too many strangers giving input and you’ll be vulnerable to plagiarizers. 

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Common Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Your Personal Statement (Part 4)

In this blog series, we’ll be highlighting some of the most common mistakes we see applicants make as they approach the Personal Statement. Try your best to avoid them.

Using long quotes: A short conversation you had in an intense circumstance can be illustrative in a Personal Statement. It helps a reader picture the event. But making the point of your essay completely revolve around a long quote of someone else's thoughts about medicine, leadership, integrity, or whatever, makes it their essay, not yours. No literary celebrity, professor, professional you worked with, or dad is supposed to be the star of this show. 

Dwelling on childhood stories: Saying you played lawyer / doctor / businessman as a kid should not feature prominently in your Personal Statement. In fact, we'd skip it: It's not a unique sentiment. Schools don't care how long you've dreamed of taking this step—they care if you have the potential and drive to make it happen.

This doesn't mean that a flashback scene is never relevant. If your mom had cancer when you were eight years old, you grew up fast, and you learned things about the healthcare system and doctor-patient interactions that influenced your professional goals. That is noteworthy. But you need this essay to focus on your recent impactful experiences. Ones that reinforced your interest in this career path and gave you the skills applicable to excelling in a program. 

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Common Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Your Personal Statement (Part 3)

In this blog series, we’ll be highlighting some of the most common mistakes we see applicants make as they approach the Personal Statement. Try your best to avoid them.

Staying linear: You don’t need the essay to be linear. Imagine your intro paragraph as the opening sequence of a movie—the most thrilling ones start mid-scene. You want to see an action star in action, not waking up to a buzzing alarm clock. Don't save the excitement for many scenes later. Show yourself there, then explain how you got there. 

Overusing passive voice: Keep most of your sentences active. Passive voice can minimize your contributions and slow down your essay's momentum. Active sentences move the statement forward. 

There is flexibility, of course. Some passive sentences aren't slow-going or unnatural. Take the passive "My research has been accepted for an oral presentation at the National Impressive Conference." vs. the active "The National Impressive Conference has accepted my research for an oral presentation." Honestly, both sentences are fine. Neither goes on too long nor is confusing. Both read as a natural way of speaking—the passive one might be a little more natural. 

There are also times when you'll use passive voice for effect, accuracy, clarity, or flow. Just be mindful of how often you're doing it. 

If you missed Part 1, Click here.

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Common Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Your Personal Statement (Part 2)

In this blog series, we’ll be highlighting some of the most common mistakes we see applicants make as they approach the Personal Statement. Try your best to avoid them.

Being uptight: A personal essay is more like journalism than an academic paper. You're telling a story, and this one is about you. You want to sound intelligent and respectful but being a bit colloquial makes you appear confident and relaxed. As if to say, "This is who I am. This is who I plan to become." Boom.

Also, a profound statement is often a simple one. We've heard more than one app reader complain about needing to consult a dictionary because an applicant had been over-consulting a thesaurus. Another reason to write less formally: You're going to interview at these schools. (Hopefully!) If you don't speak at all how you write, they're going to be confused about who you really are. 

Getting too poetic: Being a little poetic can show style, but if your point isn't clear, a beautiful turn of phrase is meaningless. One of our mottos is: "Clarity above all things." Leave no room for misinterpretation. The reader needs to see the story how you do. Crisp and untangled writing is also best given the character count limitation and how much you need to share. There is room for imagery but there isn't a lot of room for showiness. 

Spouting off clichés: Nothing says, "I don't think outside of the box" quite like the phrase "I think outside of the box." We also read a lot of first drafts that include "puzzle pieces"—skip 'em, they're going to be in a thousand other essays. 

If you missed Part 1, Click here.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Your Personal Statement (Part 1)

Writing a Personal Statement is a massive undertaking. In a relatively short document, you’re trying to show the admissions committee who you are and what you value, while simultaneously building a case for why you will succeed in the program and, later, in your career. It’s a lot. But we can help. 

In this blog series, we’ll be highlighting some of the most common mistakes we see applicants make as they approach the Personal Statement. Try your best to avoid them.

Trying to include everything: You cannot fit every experience you've ever had into this essay—and hey, that's why you also submit a Resume or a Work and Activities section. Stick to one or two key experiences that prompted growth and reinforced your interest in the program. The Personal Statement is about showing depth. 

Telling instead of showing: The admissions committee is looking for more than a list of your strengths and traits. Not only is that boring, it is unreliable. A good rule of writing is: “Show, don't tell." Listing off your qualities is meaningless if you're not backing them up with real-life examples. Instead of telling the reader, “I am a good leader because I am diligent and organized,” provide a leadership anecdote that will show you empowering your team. 

Similarly, don’t tell the school what you will do in the future without showing them why you are capable of achieving such things. We've said it before: Sharing goals works when what comes before it exemplifies your strengths and abilities. More than what you want to do, what you have done tells us who you are.

Generating Strong W&A Entries: Shadowing

Approaching Your W&A Entry. Shadowing is great introductory clinical exposure and prevalent among applicants—88% of Johns Hopkins' 2018 accepted students had shadowing experience. But to med schools, shadowing weighs less than volunteering at free clinics, doing clinical research, or working as a medical scribe, etc. That's because it typically doesn't lead to significant patient interactions. Still, shadowing someone in a field you're very interested in is informative, and you can have poignant experiences. We had one client who shadowed an infectious disease doctor abroad and learned that potential life-altering treatments regularly can't cross international lines.

Since patient interaction isn't common in these scenarios, you want to emphasize how else a shadowing experience helped you build clinical skills or expanded your knowledge of a medical specialty, preferably one you're interested in pursuing after medical school. If these things don't apply to your shadowing experience, here are some other things to consider: What did you see—and how did it affect you? Did a doctor calmly handle an angry patient? Did you seek more information on any condition a physician diagnosed in front of you? Did you learn something about a doctor's day-to-day life that you didn't know before? Unless you had one incredible experience or really need to fill up your W&A, grouping your shadowing experiences in one entry is a great idea.

Connect Your Shadowing to Your Future. If you know what area of medicine you'd like to study, having multiple shadowing experiences with different physicians practicing the same specialty shows the depth of that interest. That makes for a powerful shadowing entry. Who you shadow should be relevant to your goals. If you're interested in congenital heart disease because you worked on a clinical research study related to it or your dad survived a heart attack, try to shadow multiple cardiologists. Shadowing a broad range of specialties is exciting and may indeed be a part of your deciding what field you're most interested in—that makes for a strong entry. But there's something sturdy and assuring about a med school candidate who has pursued one area in depth. A consistent interest is compelling.

Build a Strong Foundation for Your MBA Application (and Beyond) with a Brainstorm Document

Before you begin work on your business school application, we recommend that you create a brainstorm document where you will explore your formative experiences—what you thought, felt, said, and did. This brainstorm will be your touchstone for everything about this application process. It will help you discover what meaningful experiences and qualities you want to highlight in your essays and discuss during your interviews. 

Putting meaningful experiences into different "buckets" helps a lot. You might have some crossover with experiences technically fitting into two buckets or more—don't worry about that; put them in one bucket, for now, to keep things grouped. Maybe write: "This is also a leadership experience" or "Innovation/Critical Thinking" in your notes.

An important note: Eighty percent of these experiences should be from adulthood (college and beyond). Twenty percent can be from before then if they established foundational skills or led to evolutions in perspective. For example, if a family member’s illness during your high school years inspired your desire to work in a healthcare start-up. 

Bucket 1: A-ha Moments. What meaningful experiences changed your mind about or expanded your perspective on something? Some could be spectacular successes, others, catastrophic failures. Have you learned from a mistake? What skills of yours did you discover in a challenging time? What did you think about these things at the time? How did you feel? (Prepare yourself, we're going to ask those last two repeatedly.) 

Bucket 2: Leadership. In what meaningful experiences did you show your leadership abilities? Did leadership come naturally to you, or did you work to get to this place? (Both things are great!) How did you support your team? Did you encourage collaboration or independence? Did you feel supported by your team? Did you experience any pushback, and how did you handle that if you did? What did you think about these things at the time? How did you feel? 

Bucket 3: Teamwork and Collaboration. During what meaningful experiences did you work with a team or collaborate with others? Were you working with people unlike yourself? Was there a struggle for balance in the beginning? Any confusion? What did you appreciate about your team members? How did they influence and impact you and your actions? Did one or two team members step up in a way you admired? What did you think about these things at the time? How did you feel? 

Bucket 4: Innovation. In what meaningful experiences did you utilize critical thinking and problem-solving skills? How did you determine the best course of action? Did you approach something one way at first and then correct yourself? What did you think about these things at the time? How did you feel? 

Bucket 5: Experiences that Reinforced Your Commitment to an MBA. What meaningful experiences reinforced your commitment to pursuing an MBA and your post-MBA goals? Was it meeting a professional you admired? Was it accomplishing something at work or in a volunteer setting? What did you think of these things at the time? How did you feel?

Bucket 6: Miscellaneous. What experiences have you had that you can't quite categorize? What else should we know about you? What do you think we don't necessarily have to know? Don’t be afraid to expose some vulnerability and use everything you’ve got. You should even include things about yourself and what you care about that you don't imagine will be a factor in an essay (e.g., your quest to make the perfect chocolate cake, your passion for wordle). You might be able to weave aspects of your personality or some fun facts into your essays and interviews to add some color—or something even better.

Your Work & Activities Section: Two Problems You Don't Really Have

"Help, I have too many experiences!" 

We've heard it before: "How am I going to keep this at 15 entries? I have 20 options." Here's the thing, you probably don't. You can and should bundle certain activities. Doing so reduces repetition and allows you to include a wider variety of experiences. Say, you were secretary of your student council for one year and vice president for two—that's material for one entry. Even if one of those roles produced one of your Most Meaningful experiences, you can likely cover both in one write-up.

"Help, I Don't Have Enough Experiences!" 

You may insist: "I have had three clinical experiences, two volunteer posts, and was in one club in college. I don't have 15 options!" 

Here's the thing, you probably do. Did you take a weekend long improv class with some friends? It might have teased out a braver you or helped you to think on your feet. Do or did you have a non-medical job? Obviously, you're going to include all medical work or volunteering experiences as well as impressive internships or jobs in any industry. But even working as an office temp, swiping cards at the college food court, and ringing up retail at the local bookstore exemplifies your work ethic and commitment. It also implies that you're not spoiled. Facts are facts: A lot of med school applicants are privileged. Earning your own money can set you apart because it shows personal responsibility and that you know how to balance work and studying. 

Hobbies count too. It is not a waste of space to share that you're an artist or love to garden. You can angle these activities to be more relevant to your application by explaining what transferable qualities—creativity, dedication, patience—you can apply to medicine. Your hobby write-ups also can highlight different strengths than your other entries, have a passionate delivery, and show some personality. 

"No, I really don't have enough experiences."

If you don't have enough experiences, now is the time to get them. Put together a group to clean up tree pits in your neighborhood to practice leadership. Take a hip-hop dance class to become less stiff and stern. If you're interested in mental health, volunteer for a crisis hotline. Exercising empathy and learning to talk to people on the worst days of their lives is useful for a future physician. Last-minute shadowing experiences are an option, too. They in no way should replace clinical experiences, but, if you are light on clinical experience or want to get some career goal-related shadowing experiences in, this is the ticket. Attending a conference or volunteering at a community health fair are one-day events that can lead to impactful encounters. Pursuing and sharing education is very valuable to medical schools.

Your Work & Activities Section: Where to Begin

To improve your W&A writing experience and the quality of your entries, try this: 

Raid your brainstorm. As we’ve frequently mentioned, your brainstorm serves every part of your application process. If you're having a hard time with W&A entries, copy and paste info directly from a brainstorm bucket or two and cut and sew together the first draft of an entry from that material.

One client began a W&A entry on her time as an EMT by briefly sharing salient details about things she did and skills she acquired while working on an ambulance. She then copied (literally control-C) a poignant story from her brainstorm's ah-ha bucket wherein she showed compassion for a patient who had miscarried. She pasted it directly into her W&A draft document. She proceeded to trim unnecessary parts of the story (what day it was, what her partner was doing), and add a takeaway about seeing the importance of caring for a patient's mental health.

Start with the easy ones. Do you know what your takeaway was from shadowing a pediatrician? Did working on a poster presentation with a group help you learn to manage conflict? Have you been swimming competitively since you were a guppy? Instead of writing W&A entries in the order of their occurrence or importance, start with whatever comes naturally.

Do a dirty draft—and re-read it later. You don't have to refine your first draft text right away. In fact, we’d recommend that you write all 15 first drafts (that doesn't have to happen in one sitting) and then go back to the entries with fresh eyes later. Sometimes when you're reading one entry repeatedly back-to-back, you see what's in your head and not what is on the page. So, you might think a description makes perfect sense. But later, you'll read it, discover issues, and revise it accordingly.

Craft your stories. You'll always share some basic duties and details; and they can be pretty cut and dry. For example, "At the free clinic, I checked in patients and learned how to take vitals. I interacted with approximately 20 patients during every four-hour shift." But you must also include what you got out of this experience, preferably using an engaging anecdote. "One patient, Linda…" If you don't think you have a specific story to tell, schedule time with an Apply Point consultant and we'll talk things over and find one. You'll be surprised at how much of a story you can fit into 700 characters. But don't worry about going over the word count in your first draft. We're here to help you pare down, if necessary.

Your Work & Activities Section: Before You Start

Before we make a case for the kinds of experiences you should include in your W&A and get into the deep details you should be sharing, we're going to give you three super-basic tips for writing these entries. Bookmark/screenshot this page and keep it accessible because you are going to want to check that you're doing these three things in each entry that you write.

1. Use complete sentences. This is not a resume. You might have done an activity log when presenting your candidacy to your pre-med committee. That will be an excellent resource, but it's probably not polished, and these entries must be.

2. Go beyond the "what." Don't just describe a job you did. Share details about how this experience challenged, changed, or motivated you. Through anecdotes, show the qualities that medical schools are looking for, which include leadership and critical thinking abilities, empathy, strong communication skills, resilience, intellectual curiosity, and maturity.

3. Utilize your space well. For general entries, you'll have 700 characters with spaces to tell your story. Aim to max out that character count. Each experience should warrant it—700 is not that many characters. For the Most Meaningful entries, you'll have 700 characters with spaces, followed by an additional 1,325 with spaces. If you come up short on either section of the Most Meaningful entries, don't worry about it, so long as you have something compelling in each section.

Your Law School Application: Create a Brainstorm Document

Before you can begin work on your personal statement, resume, and school-specific essays, you’ll want to create a brainstorm document where you will explore your formative experiences—what you thought, felt, said, and did. While your brainstorm text does not need to be polished, your unfinished thoughts should be organized for greater ease when writing. Putting meaningful experiences into different "buckets" helps a lot. You might have some crossover with experiences technically fitting into two buckets or more—don't worry about that; put them in one bucket, for now, to keep things grouped. Maybe write: "This is also a leadership experience" or "Integrity/Critical Thinking" in your notes.

Bucket 1: A-ha Moments: What meaningful experiences changed your mind about or expanded your perspective on something? Some could be spectacular successes, others, catastrophic failures. Have you learned from a mistake? What skills of yours did you discover in a challenging time? What did you think about these things at the time? How did you feel? (Prepare yourself, we're going to ask those last two repeatedly.)

Bucket 2: Intellectual Curiosity: What experiences have prompted you to seek out additional learning or research? What ideas or issues are you most passionate about? Why? Do you have related academic or professional experience?

Bucket 3: Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving: In what meaningful experiences did you utilize critical thinking and problem-solving skills? How did you determine the best course of action? Did you approach something one way at first and then correct yourself? What did you think about these things at the time? How did you feel?

Bucket 4: Leadership Abilities: In what meaningful experiences did you show your leadership abilities? Did leadership come naturally to you, or did you work to get to this place? (Both things are great!) How did you support your team? Did you encourage collaboration or independence? Did you feel supported by your team? Did you experience any pushback, and how did you handle that if you did? What did you think about these things at the time? How did you feel?

Bucket 5: Teamwork and Collaboration: During what meaningful experiences did you work with a team or collaborate with others? Were you working with people unlike yourself? Was there a struggle for balance in the beginning? Any confusion? What did you appreciate about your team members? How did they influence and impact you and your actions? Did one or two team members step up in a way you admired? What did you think about these things at the time? How did you feel?

Bucket 6: Ethical Behavior: Fill this bucket. In what meaningful experiences did you showcase your ability to stand strong and make the right decision? How have you demonstrated your personal ethical code? What did you think about these things at the time? How did you feel?

Bucket 7: Experiences that Reinforced Your Commitment to the Study of Law: What meaningful experiences reinforced your commitment to studying law? Have you known that you wanted to go to law school for some time? What situations let you know that you were on the right track? Was it meeting a judge or lawyer you admired? Was it accomplishing something academically? While volunteering? What did you think of these things at the time? How did you feel?

Bucket 8: Miscellaneous: What experiences have you had that you can't quite categorize? What else should we know about you? What do you think we don't necessarily have to know? Don’t be afraid to expose some vulnerability and use everything you’ve got. You should even include things about yourself and what you care about that you don't imagine will be a factor in an essay. You might be able to weave aspects of your personality or some fun facts into your Personal Statement or school-specific essays to add some color—or something even better.

Your Round One MBA Application Timeline: Fall 2025

MBA Round One application deadlines will be released this summer, but It’s never too early to create your business school application strategy. We’ll share Apply Point's ideal schedule in posts throughout this week.

September - October 2025

• Submit your applications no later than the deadline (confirm the submission time and time zone).  

• Update your social media accounts to ensure that your profiles reflect you in a positive and appropriate way.

September-December 2025

• Prepare for and participate in interviews. Your brainstorming document will continue to be useful here. Interviews are a great way for the admissions committee to get to know you as a person (beyond your application) and for you to learn more about a program’s student experience, experiential learning opportunities, and/or alumni network.

Your Round One MBA Application Timeline: Summer 2025

MBA Round One application deadlines will be released this summer, but It’s never too early to create your business school application strategy. We’ll share Apply Point's ideal schedule in posts throughout this week.

June 2025

• Be all about GMAT / GRE preparation. Take a prep course and/or work with a tutor to prepare for the test. 

• Reach out to your recommenders. We'd like you to get two letters of recommendation, one from a current supervisor (if possible) and another from a supervisor who can speak to your performance in full-time post-baccalaureate employment.  

• Visit MBA programs of interest, and gain an understanding of their offerings and how they align with your goals. 

• Continue keeping a journal. This is repetitive for a reason—never stop doing this. It is so helpful. 

July 2025

• Take the GMAT or GRE.

• Finalize your school list. You want a hearty list of "I could go here" schools and you’ll ultimately want to apply to between six and eight schools. 

• Move all of your journaled experiences into a brainstorming document. 

• Update your resume to showcase the results you’ve achieved and impact you’ve had. 

August 2025

• Request your transcripts—and this includes those from schools abroad. 

• Start drafting your essays. This is going to take a while. If you blast through them all in one week, you haven't done it right. Give yourself time for outlining, writing, revisions, and re-writing. 

• Fill out the school applications. 

• Follow up with your recommenders to ensure that they have plans to submit their Letters of Recommendation prior to the deadlines.

Your Round One MBA Application Timeline: Never Too Early

MBA Round One application deadlines will be released this summer, but It’s never too early to create your business school application strategy. We’ll share Apply Point's ideal schedule in posts throughout this week.

Never too early 

• If you haven't connected with us yet, do it as soon as you can. We can guide you on school selection, provide an initial assessment of your transcripts and work experience, and advise you on ways to bolster your candidacy. 

• Solidify your plans to take the GMAT or GRE. Taking your standardized test in the spring or early summer before your application deadline gives you some wiggle room if you must retake it. The latest you should retake this test is two weeks prior to the application submission date. We recommend no later than mid-August for Round One applicants and December for Round Two applicants.  

• Start a journal. You'll raid your journal for details for your School-Specific Essays and, later, for interview preparation. Make notes on your current experiences as they happen and past ones whenever you have a moment to ponder them. You can keep a paper or digital diary or even record audio and text notes on your phone as they come to you, and organize them into a document later. (You will eventually want all of your experiences in one place.) 

• Gain meaningful professional experiences and seek out leadership opportunities in internship and/or volunteer settings. 

The 2025-2026 Allopathic Medical School Application Overview: Medical School Interviews

If you’re looking to start medical school in the Fall of 2026, now is the time to get started with the application process! Throughout this week, we’ll post blogs that focus on each component of the application and provide suggested timing and resources.

Medical School Interviews: 

Fall 2025 through Spring 2026 (by invitation only)

Many applicants receive invitations to interview following their submission of secondary applications and/or CASPer or Preview Exam scores. Schedule yours as early as possible. And before solidifying your travel plans, you should contact nearby schools to which you’ve applied and let them know you have an interview in the area in case they have availability. This serves the dual purpose of letting the other school know that you are “in demand,” while also showcasing your strong interest in their program.

Review our blog posts on medical school interviews:

• Blog Series: Preparing for the Traditional Medical School Interview

• Blog Series: Preparing for the MMI

• Your Medical School Group Interview: A Team Sport

• The Medical School Interview: Don’t Forget, You’re Interviewing Them Too.

• The Medical School Post-Interview Thank You Note