So You’re Applying for an MBA in 2025-2026? Here’s What You Should Be Doing Now

If you’re planning to apply for an MBA in Fall 2025 or Early 2026, congratulations! You’re already ahead of most applicants, who will wake up in August 2025, open a blank Word document, and wonder why their personal statement sounds like a LinkedIn post gone wrong. To ensure that isn’t you, here’s what you should be doing now to set yourself up for success.

Step 1: Clarify Your Goals & Research Schools (Now – Spring/Summer 2025)

• Figure Out Your Why. “I want to pursue consulting” is a popular answer, but admissions officers will want more than that. Be able to articulate why you need an MBA and how it fits into your long-term goals.

• Find Your Best-Fit Schools. Think beyond rankings and look at class profiles, career outcomes, and school culture. Would you thrive in a tight-knit community or a massive global network? Would you rather be in a city or a place where “going out” means hiking?

• Attend Events & Network. Sign up for school webinars, visit campuses if possible, and connect with students or alumni to get the inside scoop.

• Take a Hard Look at Your Profile. Are your academics strong? Do you have leadership experience? Any glaring weaknesses you need to address before applying? Better to fix them now than panic later.

Step 2: GMAT/GRE—The Fun (Just Kidding) Standardized Test (Now – Summer 2025)

• Take a Diagnostic Test. It might be painful, but it’ll tell you where you stand and whether the GMAT or GRE is a better fit.

• Make a Study Plan. Most people need 2-4 months of dedicated prep. If you know you’re not great at self-studying, consider a tutor or course before you spiral into YouTube loopholes on “how to hack the GMAT.” If you want a few recommendations, please reach out.

• Take the Test Early. Because life happens. Let’s be honest, nobody wants to be juggling essay writing and a retake in August.

Step 3: Strengthen Your Resume & Professional Impact

• Take on More Responsibility. You don’t need a C-suite title, but showing leadership—whether through managing a project, mentoring colleagues, or driving impact—is key.

• Position Yourself for a Promotion. Nothing screams “future business leader” like getting a well-timed step up before applying.

• Do Something Outside of Work. Schools love well-rounded candidates. Volunteer, start a side project, or at least develop a hobby (ideally one that connects to your long-term vision).

Step 4: Cultivate Strong Recommenders

• Identify Your Champions. Your direct supervisor is ideal, but if that’s not an option, choose someone who can speak specifically about your strengths. “Alex is great” is not the kind of recommendation you want.

• Nurture the Relationship. Keep them updated on your work and goals so when the time comes, they’ll write something glowing instead of something generic.

Step 5: Start Thinking About Essays (Summer 2024)

• Develop Your Story. Schools aren’t just looking for impressive résumés; they want compelling, authentic applicants. Think about what makes your journey unique.

• Brainstorm Early. Even though prompts won’t be out until mid-2025, reflecting on your experiences and values now will make writing easier later.

Step 6: Consider School Visits (If Possible)

• Visiting a campus can help you gauge culture and fit—plus, it gives you great material to mention in essays and interviews (beyond “I love this school because it’s ranked highly”).

If you’re interested in speaking about your MBA candidacy with a skilled and experienced admissions consultant, please fill out the linked form (https://www.amerasiaconsulting.com/contact) or email drewhoff@gmail.com.

How to Approach the HBS Interview

HOW TO APPROACH THE HBS INTERVIEW

The past couple of weeks on the calendar tend to stop everyone in their tracks and dominates the headlines. It’s all about the final HBS interview notification deadline. Interview or ding? Rather, interview or ding or deferral? Seeming as that appears to be a popular option too. Let’s make sense of things and offer some advice on how to respond from here.

Let’s discuss the HBS interview process:

THE HBS INTERVIEW

Congratulations, you got the interview! HBS loves to test confidence and dare people to panic. So here’s how you want to approach this part of the admission process:

1. Don’t change your plans

An HBS interview is obviously not an admission. Even if you are amazing in interviews and exude the charisma and confidence of George Clooney, don’t change a thing about what you are doing. Stick to whatever plan you laid out for yourself at the beginning.

2. Bunch your preparation

Set your interview date and then set up your preparation to take place within a window fairly near that date. You want to set up your prep work about 7-10 days before the real thing. It helps you to keep the preparation work fresh, but far enough so that you can incorporate any feedback.

3. Own your goals, and get to know HBS

Due to the open-ended nature of the HBS essays, you might not exactly know why you want to go to HBS. If you walk into an HBS interview and don’t know exactly what you want to do with your life (and why). And if you don’t have a really deep and detailed understanding of HBS and what makes it special, you are at a severe disadvantage. If you did not build up to this point with a good consultant, you are starting from scratch.

4. Start thinking about the post-interview writing assignment

You don’t want this to be too polished, but you do want it to be well thought out. Brainstorm about what you might want to voice in the interview. What you have said so far in your HBS application? Consider what might be left for you to say? Think about talking points you want to bring with you to the HBS interview. When the interview is over, you will be able to see which points are left out. You can build upon something unsaid to bring real depth and meaning to a tricky assignment.

IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR AN EXTENSIVE BREAKDOWN OF THE HBS INTERVIEW, CHECK OUT AMERASIA CEO PAUL LANZILLOTTI’S DETAILED GMAT CLUB YOUTUBE DISCUSSION: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAd5sI4OiMA

IF YOU’D LIKE TO DISCUSS YOUR MBA CANDIDACY AND/OR INTERVIEW PREPARATION, PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SET UP AN INITIAL CONSULTATION WITH ONE OF AMERASIA’S TALENTED MBA CONSULTANTS AND COACHES.

To Build a Successful GSB Essay #1 You Have to Dig

Over the last few years, my GSB clients have achieved remarkable success (with over a 50% success rate) and the key has been to create real, honest, and authentic essays. To do this YOU HAVE TO DIG... and DIG DEEP!

The DIGGING PROCESS goes like this:

• Take the thesis (“I care about sustainability”) and ask WHY. A lot of people don't care about sustainability, some pay it lip service, but few people truly care and want to devote their lives to it. So why are you different? You can’t just say that you care more than others or observe more closely or are more in tune. There has to be an underlying reason that set the stage. We are starting to dig…

• Next layer down, we ask questions to see if there was a “moment of influence” that directly connects to the topic at hand:
o Did someone teach you to value this?
o Did you go on a trip that showed you we have to care about this stuff?
o Did you read a book or watch a movie that made the lightbulb go on?

• It’s possible that you will solve this in the above series of questions, but it’s also possible that nothing jumps out from the above and you find yourself going "I don't know, it's weird, I guess I'm just inclined to see the big-picture and not getting dragged down by short-sighting thinking, and that just leads me to sustainability, naturally," then consider this:
o WHY are you inclined to be the sort of person who thinks big-picture and avoids the "sha, la, la, la, live for today" traps of most of your peers? And we dive back into our questions:
 Did anything early in life teach you to think big picture and consider the long view?
 Did you ever have an analogous experience that taught you this lesson (committing to fitness, finishing a novel, etc., something that took a long time and required maintaining sight of a far-off goal)?
 Were you ever rewarded for thinking this way?
 Or, conversely, did you ever double down on this point of view because someone tried to shame or chastise it?

See where this kind of thinking takes you. I coach all of my clients to peel back several layers - or many more feet down in the dirt, to use the digging example - to get at some of these rich, interesting WHY elements. The “why” behind what matters most to you is almost never the first thing that pops into your head. Sometimes it can be a person or experience that informs your value (and that is fine, by the way – some of the best essays I’ve ever seen landed here; sometimes you hit paydirt earlier in the digging process), but other times you have to figure out why you are the kind of person who might have grown to care about what you do – and that takes even more digging. So get your shovel ready.

For more in-depth insights into the GBS essays and application process, as well as other MBA programs, I invite you to reach out and schedule a free initial consultation at https://www.amerasiaconsulting.com/contact. You can also contact me directly at drewhoff@gmail.com.

I am here to assist you and provide guidance throughout your application journey.

Changes to the Columbia Business School Application

This year, CBS made a significant change to its MBA application essays. In previous years, applicants were asked to respond to a prompt that required them to discuss their favorite book, movie, or song and explain why it resonated with them. However, this year, CBS decided to replace that essay with an optional essay from two years ago, which focuses on the Phillips Pathway for Inclusive Leadership (PPIL).

The decision to jettison the previous essay prompt indicates that CBS was not obtaining the desired insights from MBA candidates with the "fun" prompt. It seems that many applicants were overly focused on the book, movie, or song itself, rather than emphasizing the applicant's perspective and transferable skills, such as leadership, teamwork, and innovation. While we coached our clients to successfully connect their favorite cultural work to a pivotal personal moment that demonstrated leadership and community impact, it is clear that a significant number missed the mark.

This year, CBS is taking a more explicit approach and explicitly stating that they want applicants to share an experience that exemplifies the mission of the PPIL program, highlighting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). To craft a compelling essay, it is essential to reflect on a defining moment in your life that relates to DEI and showcases your leadership abilities. Describe the situation you encountered, the challenges or complications you faced, the actions you took to overcome those obstacles, and the outcomes you achieved. The outcomes should encompass both the practical results and your personal growth and development.

By following this simple approach, you can create an essay that resonates with the new prompt and effectively highlights your leadership and community impact. For more in-depth insights into the CBS essays and application process, as well as other MBA programs, I invite you to reach out and schedule a free initial consultation at https://www.amerasiaconsulting.com/contact. You can also contact me directly at drewhoff@gmail.com.

I am here to assist you and provide guidance throughout your application journey.