One of the business schools I’m applying to has asked me to list every other program I’ve applied to or am planning to apply to in the future. I find this question strange and don’t know why they need to have that information (not a single other school has this on their application). This is also the institution that asked me to list every job I’ve had since high school (which I’m not het up about, but I thought the request was excessive).
I find this question odd and intrusive-how does an applicant’s choice of schools impact their candidacy? They have my gmat scores and grades-surely people don’t assume applicants are putting all their eggs in one basket.
Am I really required to provide an exhaustive list?
I worked in the admissions office at a business school, and we did not ask for this information in the application. The GMAT score report does tell us which other schools you’ve chosen to send your scores to, but that information was never used to make a decision on the candidate, and wasn’t even referred to during the admission process.
At most, we’d ask towards the end of an interview “What other schools are you considering?” to understand their constraints and preferences, either geographically, financially, or otherwise. They were under no obligation to answer, and their answers were not held against them in any way.
I think you should just leave that field blank. Or if you wish to play it safe, mention the name of one or two of their immediate competitors (such as schools of the same caliber in the same geographic region). And if asked in an interview, you could state that you were yet undecided on other schools.
Thanks for the heads up. Unfortunately, most of the applyyourself apps (seems like they have the monopoly, although I’ve found a few breakaway schools using their own inhouse software) do not let you submit the application without filling in certain fields. I guess this is some bizarre backwards test of honesty or something? I’m going to go ahead and tell them even though I think it’s a strange question to be asking at this stage.
Followup question, again for this particular school (rhymes with shmarnegie wellon), they will not allow me to type in my exact GPA. I have to choose from a scrolldown box of 3.0, 3.1, 3.3 and so on and so forth. How do I respond to this? My undergrad gpa ends in a number above 5 (as in 3.XY with Y greater than 5) whereas my law gpa ends in a number below 5 (3.XY with Y less than 5). My dad and I are impasse on this and the application is due tomorrow. I rounded them both down because I do not want to be accused of academic dishonesty but my dad thinks I should round the undergrad one up.
Seriously, I find this stuff strange-every single other school let me type in the exact value.
You have to upload your transcript and they’re going to see my exact GPA anyway
I wrote my bloody essays about corporate ethics!!!
I was just curious because my dad insists it’s okay to apply normal mathematical rounding tools to this while I have a hazy memory of law school career counselors saying to never, ever, ever do that.
Either way, I’m getting up at 5 in the morning to contact the admissions office. I’m pretty irritated about all of this. I partially went with your strategy on declaring the other schools though-in the sense that I only declared which schools I have formally applied to-given that round 2 is dependent on how round 1 went for me, I didn’t declare the “dependent” variable schools, so to speak.
That is correct. Admissions officers are not allowed to disclose the name of applicants, or even confirm if a certain applicant applied to the school.
However, it might be interesting to note that if your application is found to have information that is false, or if you make up some bizarre story about your application at another school, it is easy for admissions officers across schools to verify information, because they are friends (they travel to MBA fairs in the US and around the world multiple times a year, and meet pretty much the same officers from the other schools).
GameHat offers some excellent advice. Provide the information that best helps your application, while still being true.
In your case, going with the lower rounding would make more sense. Also, note that in the first round of applications, schools are not very concerned with the difference between, for example, a 3.57 and a 3.53 GPA (or a 3.6 and a 3.5 GPA, after rounding). The GPA field is more to gauge whether you fall within their range, to make the cut-off to the next round. And if the rest of your application is strong, and your GPA is within their range, then you might be selected for the next round. However, if your GPA is outside of their range (e.g. a 2.5 GPA), then even if you have an otherwise strong application, you may not be considered for the next round. So in your case, it’s OK to go with the lower rounding.
The other reason that business schools care about GPA (apart from assessing your academic record) is because the GPA of the entering class is a factor in business school rankings.
anu-la1979 truncate the figure if that’s how you want to go. It’s your application and decision. It’s one of those moving on to adult things parents have to live with. My opinion is always follow mathematical rules and 5 rounds up.
Thank you again for your input. I called Shmarnegie, they of the bizarre personal delcarations to whom I confessed all my temp jobs, and asked them what the deal was on the rounding. I thought I’d update in case any else ever found themselves in this situation-the admissions officer told me to round up on both the GPAs. Even without rounding they were in the “middle 80” range, so I wasn’t very upset about either situation, I just didn’t want to be accused of academic dishonesty and such. However, I got down her name and an official go-ahead on rounding up…so there you go. Either it varies by school or I have learned my first lesson in how the worlds of JD vs MBA differ because this is totally not kosher in my world. We either truncate or write out the full gpa.
Got the interview at Shmarnegie! Turned in my app Monday morning, got the email today. FTR, I declared every school to whom I’ve sent an app to date and after dithering and arguing with my dad about having gotten the go-ahead, I ended up rounding down. I just couldn’t risk it, even having gotten the admissions lady’s name so I used the optional essay they give you to explain the situation. In any case, I guess honesty does pay off, which makes me feel happy as I am definitely not that typical mercenary mba candidate and clearly the school placed some value on that (competitive, ambitious and social climby yes…willing to bend the truth, no).
