The criteria for acceptance to a top business school are somewhat intuitive; however, to our knowledge, no one has bothered to create a comprehensive list of the primary things MBA admissions officers are looking for when they review an application. In this article, we provide a list of criteria for MBA admissions.

When your admission interview is with a member of the MBA admissions committee, you should assume that your interviewer will have read your application. This article describes how to adapt your business school interview preparation to take this important difference into account.

If you plan on reapplying to business school, you need to identify the weak links in your application and take steps to increase your chances of getting in the next time around. This article will show you how.

In this article, we offer a few ideas for expanding your international experience even if you cannot land a job overseas pre-MBA.

Is an MBA worth the investment? In this article, the Prep Professor provides a number of tools to help you calculate the costs, benefits, and potential return on investment for yourself.

What are your chances of getting into a top business school? In this article, the Prep Professor provides a powerful diagnostic tool that MBA Prep School created to help you answer that question for yourself.

MBA Prep School’s analysis of Columbia Business School’s Essay 1 for the 2011/12 application season: Considering your post-MBA and long term professional goals, why are you pursuing an MBA at this point in your career? Additionally, why is Columbia Business School a good fit for you?

What distinguishes the one candidate who was accepted by Harvard Business School from the nine who are not? Find out what HBS is really looking for.

MBA Prep School’s analysis of Chicago Booth’s Essay 3 for the 2011/12 application season: Considering what you’ve already included in the application, what else should we know about you? In a maximum of four slides, tell us about yourself.

MBA Prep School’s analysis of Chicago Booth’s Essay 1 for the 2011/12 application season: What are your short and long-term goals, and how will a Chicago Booth MBA help you reach them?

The desire to pursue an MBA in your thirties to sharpen skills, expand career options, and super charge a professional network makes sense. The question is, are the early thirties a no-man’s/woman’s land between the full-time MBA program and the executive MBA programs?

Candidates stress out about asking the “right” questions in preparation for that terrifying moment when an MBA admission interviewer asks “Do you have any question for us?” Here’s some advice on what to ask to make a positive impression on your interviewer.

If there is one MBA recommendation letter question that terrifies almost all applicants and perhaps some reference letter writers too it is: “Tell us about the applicant’s weaknesses.” Here is some great advice to pass along to the people writing your MBA application recommendation letters.

In a Bloomberg BusinessWeek interview, Harvard Business School’s Deirdre Leopold explains that the best way for applicants to stand out is to avoid “overcrafting, overthinking, overwriting”

MBA Prep School’s advice and tips for the 2011 Wharton Essays.

What distinguishes the one candidate who was accepted by Harvard, Stanford, and/or Wharton from the nine who are not. What are the Harvard Business School, the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and Wharton really looking for?

I’ve heard that as many as a 1/3 of MBA applicants to top 10 schools are using MBA admissions consultants. Is hiring an admissions consultant for the application process prudent? Will it really make a difference?

If you are starting work on Stanford’s “What matters most” essay, chances are you are struggling. One thing you need to know right from the start is that struggling is essential to succeeding in this assignment. Read this post for help with the struggle.

I’m trying to narrow down my list of business schools to apply to. I am wondering, are there big differences in the academic environment of MBA schools or are all business schools pretty much the same?

Bloomberg Businessweek associate editor, Louis Lavelle, published an op-ed piece entitled “Scrap the B-School Admissions Essay.” While Mr. Lavelle makes a number of valid points regarding the shortcomings of admissions essays, we respectfully disagree.

If you are applying for an MBA, then we can safely assume that you have previously applied to college and for jobs. Consequently, you may have a sense for how much time you will need to spend on your MBA applications. We are fairly sure you’re wrong.

Many applicants wonder how their undergraduate grades will impact their competitiveness for business school. Learn about why the Admissions Committee cares about your undergraduate grades and what you should do — right now — if your grades might be working against you.

An acceptance letter to a top MBA program isn’t meant to be a blue ribbon for past achievements. Admissions committees are interested in your past achievements and that is because they are trying to gauge your future promise – your “potential.” Providing evidence of your leadership potential is one of the keys to earning an acceptance letter from one of the top MBA programs. Read on to learn how it’s done!

The Harvard Business School essay questions have long been the circuit training equivalent of business school essay writing assignments. This year, HBS has served up an exercise regime that will workout all of your MBA muscle groups and is sure to leave every applicant sore and winded. How does one tell an impressive life story when granted the word-diet equivalent of celery and seltzer water?

When it comes to choosing an MBA program, there is a dizzying array of choices – over 4,650 programs offering post-graduate degrees in business and management. This post provides guidance on how to choose between the four primary program types: 2-year full time, part-time, accelerated, and executive MBAs.

There are plenty of opinions about which application round is the best one to apply in. The straight answer is that there is certainly an advantage to applying in the first round, but never enough of an edge to make up for an application that is even a few degrees below the best one you are capable of given more time to prepare.

Your primary objective in writing your application essays is to provide evidence that you possess the qualities that admissions committees care about. A critical step in developing a sound application strategy is to decide which qualities to spotlight. We discuss three important qualities that we believe admission officers at the best business schools are specifically looking for in candidates.

So you’ve booked your ticket, packed your toothbrush, and tomorrow you’ll take your first step onto the campus of your dream school. How should you prepare?

All across the U.S. on Thursday, people will be getting together with family and friends for a no-holds barred feast. If you’re applying to business school this year, then after tucking into some turkey, sampling some pie, watching a little football, and taking a refreshing afternoon snooze, it will be time to brew a pot of coffee, sneak away to a back corner of the house, and get back to work on your MBA applications!

There is one reference letter question that terrifies almost all applicants and some references too: Tell us about the applicant’s weaknesses. What is a “good” weakness to pick that will satisfy the admissions officer without hurting the candidacy as a whole? While there is no magic “get out of jail free” answer to the infamous “weakness” question, we do have some advice to pass onto your references if they desire some direction on how to approach this question.

There is a common misconception that we want to clear up: that an acceptance letter to a top-tier business school is all about what you’ve achieved so far. An acceptance letter to a top tier MBA program is not a blue ribbon for past achievements. While it’s certainly true that admissions committees want to know what you’ve accomplished thus far, it’s because they are trying to assess your future promise – your potential. You must convince the admissions committee that you are just getting started and that you will achieve even greater things in the future!

School selection is a two-way street. Not only are the schools trying to identify and attract the “best” students for their classes but you need to be trying to identify and select the “best” school given your individual career goals, learning needs, and other considerations. We believe that in-depth research on your target schools is critical. Here are seven ways you can go beyond the norm to build your understanding of a particular school.

We frequently receive requests for profile evaluations (i.e., what are my chances of getting into School X given my profile?) … MBA Prep School has created an exercise called the Ding Diagnostic which helps applicants do some self-assessment on their candidacy. The more checkmarks (or “dings”) your profile earns on the checklist below the more of a reach a highly selective program will be for you.