How to select your B-school: Part III

In this three-part series, Vivek Sankaran of TopMyTest will share how to select the right B-school to study MBA. Here is the third article of this series.

By Vivek Sankaran

In the previous editions of this three-part series, we have discussed the key factors to consider while applying for B-schools. In this last part of the series, we will look at how to apply those principles. Let me reiterate the purpose of this exercise. Our aim is to ensure that we have about four to five interview calls scheduled at different B-Schools. And, these colleges should be commensurate to your academic and work experience profile, your eventual performance in the written examination and most importantly provide you a platform to achieve your career goals.

Unlike the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) and Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) scores, valid for up to five years, Common Aptitude Test (CAT) and other management entrance exams scores last just one admission cycle. So you will have to work through one more admission cycle, go through the grind of mocks, application process etc.

Think of this as insurance. We buy a vehicle insurance not because we are not confident of our driving skills, but for it to come handy in case of some unforeseen circumstances that might result in damage to the car.

Even if you do decide to go through this process one more time, you will have the confidence of knowing what lies ahead in the second stage of the process as well. From my past experience, I can say that it is a great pleasure to reject a final admission offer from a top B-School.

Which Exams to Appear For?

One should definitely write CAT as well as Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT). A lot of colleges such as Bharatiya Vidya Bhavans S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR), XIMB - Xavier Institute of Management, Xavier University Bhubaneswar, IMT Ghaziabad - Institute of Management & Technology Ghaziabad, T.A Pai Management Institute, etc., consider scores of both these exams. So you get two bites of the cherry. Beyond this, a lot of personal preferences come into play.

Beyond CAT and XAT exams, there are some colleges that have standalone examinations. In other words, the written test can be used to apply to either a single college, or a few select colleges only -- for instance, Indian Institute Of Fashion Technology (IIFT), Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, MICA- The School of Ideas, etc. This is applicable to a lesser extent to the NMAT - Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies Management Aptitude Test as well. One should apply to these colleges only if one has researched in-depth. If you are planning to write the Symbiosis National Aptitude Test (SNAP), it makes financial sense to apply to as many colleges as possible as it will bring down the average cost of application to these colleges.

How many colleges to apply?

In the previous article, we had discussed the three factors that will help you decide the number of colleges to apply to viz, your professional life-cycle stage, profile and your mock scores. We will start off with your professional life-cycle stage as your base number and will then overlay your profile and mock scores on this.

If you are in the final year of graduation, you should apply to up to five colleges. If you have graduated but do not have never worked, you should apply to up to eight colleges. If you are working with around 24 months of work experience, apply to up to six colleges and if you have greater than 30 months of work experience apply to up to five colleges.

The next factor is your professional profile. I would suggest the following :

If you do not have 80 per cent throughout school and undergraduate studies add at least two colleges to the number of colleges you have to apply to. If you are an engineer, add at least two colleges to the number of colleges that you have to apply.

The final factor to work with are your mock scores. Let us look at the mock scores of two students. Let us call them Karan and Arjun.

Both of them have a similar average of around 88 percentile. However, if you look carefully, Karan has a more stable score. We would be much more confident that Karan will score around 85 percentile in the actual exam as well. While with Arjun the variation is much more. If your scores are fluctuating too much, you will need to add more colleges since you will be unsure where you will end up in the actual examination. If your scores are fluctuating in a 10 to 12 percentile range, you can get away with adding just one additional college. However, if your score is fluctuating beyond 15 percentile you might have to add at least two colleges.

Which colleges to apply to?

Here is a matrix of the top 40 non-IIMs that you can to consider - 

Note:

How to apply?

c) Best case scenario: Just as there are some players who suddenly up their game during crunch matches, you too might perform better than expected. So we need to balance conservatism with some exuberance as well. Around 20 per cent of the colleges should be in a score band higher than what you are scoring at present.

Extending the example from earlier, assuming Karan is planning to apply to eight colleges. Here is how he might distribute his applications.

And here is an example of how Arjun, who is planning to apply to 12 colleges might distribute his applications.

Budgeting for colleges:

Given the cost of application forms the number of exams you have to write and the quality of colleges on offer, I would suggest that apply to at least seven colleges and at most a dozen colleges. Further, if you think that this might be your last attempt at preparation, you might want to add one or two more colleges to the list. As mentioned earlier, some colleges have their application dates open after the examination results as well. So you might want to have some money left over for two to three colleges after the exam results come out.

To end, I would leave you with a personal example.

Two of my former students, let us call them Sita and Gita were scoring in the same range in their mocks. Gita was more practical in terms of applying to colleges while Sita concentrated only on her dream college. When the results came up, Sita ended up scoring more than Gita, but since she had not applied to some of the colleges that Gita had, Gita ended up getting into a college that ranked higher ranked than the college Sita got in. It is about six years that they graduated from their respective colleges and while they are employed in the same sector, Gita earns about 50 to 60% higher than what Sita earns.

The college application process is a crucial, yet oft-neglected part of your preparation to get into a B-School of your dreams. When in doubt, err on the side of applying to more colleges.

Also Read:

How to select your B-School: Part I

How to select your B-School: Part II

About the Author:

Vivek is the co-founder of TOPMYTEST – an online test prep website specialising in training students for CAT and other MBA entrance exams. Vivek was also the founding director of T.I.M.E Goa Center from 2009 to 2016. He cracked IIM Ahmedabad - Indian Institute of Management (IIMA) (PGP) when he appeared for CAT 2010 but declined to join. Prior to working in the test prep industry, he worked in GE Capital (now GENPACT) and HSBC Bank Middle East in various roles – Product Management, Financial Planning and Analysis, Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing.