What kind of Chinese candidates are Oversean leading business school looking for? How to win admission from the World Top 10 B-School?

William Davila, Director for Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa, IE Business School

We live in a world of constant change. Sometimes we don´t realize how much the world has changed in the last 10 years. Can you imagine your life without your Smartphone, your ipod, and all the social networks? Even the classification of nations is not the same. China is today the second largest economy of the world, and the west is involved in an economic crisis with no precedence.

Today, more than ever, you have to learn how to manage your personal and professional life. In a world of change, you have to be the CEO of your life. An MBA program is an ideal tool to do so. In the short-term, an MBA program will give you credibility with your business peers. It will help you communicate better and you will be better prepared to solve business problems. All these skills will empower you to speed up your career, make a career change, or start your own business. You will get the chance to learn global business practices and meet people from different cultures. You will discover new challenges; it will be the experience of your life!  

However, not every MBA program is the same. There are many things that you have to consider when applying. First of all, you should think about your career objectives; where you want to be in 5 or 10 years and how this program can help you to get there. What is your area of focus? Are you interested in a school that prepares only consultants or you want to be in a more creative environment where you are taught to be an expert in every business area aka an entrepreneur? What kind of programs do you want to follow? Short and intense programs where you get to go back to the job market in one year, or the two years programs? And the most important point is the personal experience that you want to have. Whether you want to be in an international environment, in a new city, with people from different backgrounds? Or you prefer to stay in your own usual environment.

Some people think that all the Top 10 Business Schools are more or less equal. Probably, the only thing they have in common is that they are part of the top 10 list. However, each one of them is different, not necessarily from the academic side but in terms of the values over which the school has been created. Matching your values with the values of the school is probably the most important thing when searching for the right program. I can guarantee that if your values fit with those of the school, the admission process will be just a logistic issue. For instance, the values of our school, IE Business School, are those of Innovation, Diversity, and Entrepreneurship. The reason is that we were founded by entrepreneurs. We grown around this concept, and with this entrepreneurial spirit we have designed our programs, hired our professors, and it is what drives our research. Our values is what have made us a top 10 school.

At IE Business School we believe that Innovation, Diversity and Entrepreneurship are all inter-related. Innovation has two parts; one is creativity and the other is entrepreneurship.  Creativity is the ability to generate new ideas, and we think that creativity is driven by diversity, because the more diverse a group is, the more ideas you could get from that group. Diversity for us is strategic! The second part of innovation is putting those ideas into practice, and this is what Entrepreneurship is.

Today more than ever, societies need entrepreneurs. Even big corporations need entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship is an attitude; it is not an academic concept or a science. These are our values and the people that we are looking for are those who also have those values.

An admission process to a top school is all about values. Once you share the values of the university, you would feel identified with it and then, you know that you can start your admission process. You should make the admission department feel your passion and motivation to join this school and that specific program. How do you do that? Be yourself. Show them who you really are. Essays, admissions tests, language proficiency, recommendation letters, etc. are important. However, we review all of the applications following a holistic approach. This means that a 780 score in the Gmat will not guarantee you an admission. It is important to have a good result, but it is not the only thing. Be suspicious if a school admits you and even gives you a scholarship just based on your Gmat score. They are doing this without considering the persona, they are reducing applicants to just a score. For us, it is not only about academic excellence, we want to know our applicants and we are interested in their character, attitude and values.

The Chinese society has strong values, and this is what top schools are searching for. These are times of change and what the current crisis has taught us is that businesses need ethical people with strong values. What we are looking for are Chinese students with an ambition to change things. We look for entrepreneurs to create new business models, entrepreneurs that could solve social inequalities, move economies, entrepreneurs that can change the world.

China is a leading economy and we want Chinese students to share their experience. They must be able to add value to the discussion and at the same time learn from their colleagues and teachers. We look for open minded people, able to digest different points of view.

You have to take into account that the most used methodology in a top business school is the ¨case method¨. A case method requires you to share and defend your ideas. It is an environment in which you will be trained to convince others. So, good communication skills are a must. The program will help you to further develop those skills, as well as your negotiation ability, presentations, and other personal competencies.

An MBA is about the future. My recommendation is to be open to the experience that you are going to live and to all the possibilities that such a degree could offer you. The future is in front of you, your future starts here!!!!