Grad School Series: Wharton

Tanay Jagani graduated from IIT Kharagpur in 2020 with a dual degree in Agricultural and Food Engineering and a micro-specialization in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. He is an incoming Business Analyst at McKinsey & Company and has also received a deferred MBA admit From The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Can you shed some light on what deferred MBA programs are?

A deferred MBA program allows you to apply to the BSchools in your final year of undergrad or postgrad (only if you haven’t had any full-time work experience). If you are admitted, you work full-time for 2–4 years, and then join the program. During your deferment period, you get access to all the resources and the network of the school that helps you in your pre-MBA career. If you look at the traditional applicants, almost all the applicants work for a minimum of 4–5 years before applying to BSchool, and so these deferred programs not only give you the flexibility of choosing the year of enrollment but also help you in saving a year or two if you decide to enroll early. Almost all the top 10 US BSchools have started their deferred enrollment programs. This is a great article that goes into the details about what schools offer these programs:

https://www.clearadmit.com/mba-admissions-tips/top-deferred-enrollment-mba-programs/

How did you decide which schools to apply to and how many schools did you apply to?

I applied to six schools, looking back, I’d say 4 to 5 is the right number. There were a few things things that I kept in mind while deciding which schools to apply:

1. Ranking, Brand Image and Alumni Base
2. Career Opportunities: Wharton and Booth are both finance-oriented schools, so the opportunities there in finance are comparatively better than at Harvard or Stanford. Similarly Harvard is a general management school and Stanford, given that it is located in Silicon Valley, is good if you’re looking at Venture Capital or Entrepreneurship.
3. Complexity of the application process: Most of the Schools follow a standard Letter of recommendation pattern. I didn’t apply to Kellogg because it had a different letter of recommendation and both my recommenders were very busy owing to COVID-19.
4. Profile and chances: I also looked at my profile and tried to find my ‘resume twins’ — people who’ve made it to these BSchools with similar profiles as mine. It’s important to figure out what can be your target schools and apply accordingly.

Should you choose to apply to the program right out of college and (unfortunately) don’t make it, is the rejection likely to affect your chances if you choose to re-apply 3–4 years down the lane?

That’s also a concern that I had, and until February I wasn’t sure of applying, because I thought that in case I didn’t make it, it would hamper my chances of getting admitted in the future. Fortunately, I came across some people who had applied to the HBS 2+2 program (which had been there for a while) but didn’t get in. They told me that they re-applied 4–5 years later and then got in. After talking to them, and a few admissions consultants, I came to know that this is not going to negatively impact my chances later.

Can you comment on the relative importance of CGPA, essays, and Letters of Recommendations?

To be honest, the application process is like a black box, you do everything and you don’t know what they look for, you don’t know how they’ll evaluate it, so it wouldn’t be right to say that CGPA matters more than essays or essays matter more than LOR. A fact that I know is that a higher GMAT score can make up for a lesser CGPA. But, from what I’ve heard, essays are slightly more important than LoRs, but I can’t say that for sure because different schools might have different criterias.

The expectations of LoRs from the standpoint of MBA schools is objectively different from that of Tech Schools. How did you set this context to people that you requested to write your LoR?

The expectations are very different because in tech school applications, your recommender will talk about your technical skills and how you will be a great asset to the school for their research. As far as B-Schools are concerned, they want to see how great a leader you are or how great a leader you can be in the future. So the recommender doesn’t have to highlight your technical skills or your analytical skills but what they do have to highlight are your leadership skills that you have showcased during your internships, which largely includes taking initiatives, showcasing innovation and persuasion. I talked to my internship managers three months before the deadlines and briefly talked about the things that I had done during my internship. I believe that it is important to align with the recommenders so that through your essays and LoRs you portray a very coherent version of yourself in your applications.

How do you decide what to talk about in your application essays?

The central theme of most of the essays is: what your long term and short term goals and how the B-School you are applying to will help you achieve these goals.

As far as the central theme is concerned, I think that there are three important things when you look at this question:

1. Having an achievable goal: Since I do not have a lot of finance experience, I cannot talk about how I want to become an Investment Banker because I have nothing in my profile to prove that I can be an Investment Banker. Given the fact that these schools really care about their employment statistics, you need to pick a goal that they think you can achieve, because they want everyone to be employed otherwise this negatively impacts their rankings.
2. Having an ambitious goal: The top B-Schools expect their students to achieve great things in life, make the school famous, and also give back to the school. While the goal should be achievable, it should also be ambitious enough. So you should focus on how there’s a problem that you deeply care about, and how an MBA from their school will be a stepping stone for you to solve that problem.
3. Goals derived from your past experiences: You should have evidence to prove that you care about the problem that you wish to solve, and that you’ve demonstrated leadership in that direction. You should also focus on how the full time job that you’ll be starting will help you get closer to the long-term goal. The schools want to see a clear sense of direction, and you also need to show that you’ve made conscious choices.

For the second part of the essays where you talk about why the particular school will help you achieve those goals, make sure you talk about very specific school offerings, and show how these offerings will help you in your future career, and equip you with the skills and the leadership abilities to achieve your goals. No school wants to be a second choice, so make sure you’re able to sell them the idea that their school is the best choice for you.

From your experience, what kind of students are these schools looking for?

The core traits that any BSchool looks for is demonstrated leadership in your extracurricular involvements and professional experiences.

The deferred MBA programs were started to target those students who would normally not apply to B-Schools, such as journalists, researchers, entrepreneurs, or core engineers; who have done extremely well in their space but might not apply 4 years down the line. Looking at the people who’ve made it to these programs this year, it seems like Harvard and Stanford are still looking for non-traditional applicants. I’d say there’s a 50–50 split between people coming from non-traditional professional backgrounds vs non-traditional personal backgrounds (first generation college students, for example). Wharton, Booth, MIT Sloan have accepted tons of students from traditional backgrounds such as consulting, investment banking, etc. You can find the school specific statistics on their websites.

Does having lesser experience as compared to the students who have applied through the traditional process act as a negative filter for the post-MBA recruiters?

From the conversations I’ve had with people, 2 years is slightly on the lesser side since a lot of companies coming for recruitment require at least 3 years of experience. While traditionally one will be applying with 4–5 years of work experience, I think 3–4 years would be the sweet spot, since I’ll save a year and also not impact my recruitment odds.

After receiving offer letters from Wharton as well as Booth, how did you decide between the different schools?

There were a few things in my mind. Firstly, I knew I had to come back to India and although both of them are great schools, Wharton has a bigger alumni base and a better brand recognition in India which is one of the main reasons that made me choose Wharton. I also felt that Wharton is a better cultural fit for me. Booth has the most flexible curriculum in terms of picking what you want to do and how you choose to spend your 2 years, which is why extroverts thrive in that environment. Wharton provides the right balance of flexibility and rigidity, which is something I needed.

Can you comment on what kind of experience do these B-Schools expect you to gather during the deferment period?

Most of the schools ask for what your deferment period plans are. Booth had a 250-word essay about what you’re planning to do, and in Wharton’s interview I was asked what my plans are so that’s also something that they take into consideration while considering your profile. But, they also want you to take career risks that you would have otherwise not taken, such as starting your own company or working for a non-profit, simply doing anything different because you have an MBA admit to fall back upon. You must also keep in mind that in your essays, your deferment period plans should connect to your long term and short term goals.

Since an MBA at one of the Ivy Leagues is quite expensive, especially for Indian students, what all scholarships can one avail to finance the same?

Even though I come from a middle-class background, while applying I didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about scholarships because I knew that the B-Schools would be worth it, and my post-MBA job will help me pay back my loan in 2–3 years. Most of the schools offer scholarships: Wharton, MIT, Columbia and Booth, all have merit-based scholarships whereas Harvard and Stanford have need-based scholarships. For the deferred programs, Booth offered scholarships with their admission decisions, but at Wharton, I’ll be applying for scholarships the year I decide to join the program.

Any parting words for current undergraduates on how to approach the entire apping process?

My general advice would be, do not start optimizing your profile for BSchools in your initial few years, it’s super important to do things that you like doing. Don’t run after PoRs or Clubs or Internships if you think they are going to help you get a good placement. I had no PoRs, and I wasn’t even a governor of any society until my 5th year. If you think you’ll enjoy taking that responsibility and it will help you grow as a person then go for it. If you see PoRs or Internships as a means to an end, and if you don’t achieve what you desire to, you will end up feeling dejected. Moreover, you’re also not going to enjoy the work if you’re doing it just for the sake of a few bullet points on your CV. Make sure you pick experiences that you will enjoy, and experiences that will help you grow.

Specifically for B-School applications, since the application deadlines will be in April, you should take your GMAT in December-January, or even earlier because you will have to spend 2–3 months on your applications. The other thing to keep in mind, is that applying to these schools will also ruin your final semester. You will spend close to 5–6 hours everyday on your GMAT and applications, and your friends will be having the time of their lives. If that’s a tradeoff you’re willing to take then go ahead. If you think that you’re going to apply in the future then take your GMAT right away because you won’t get as much free time in the future, and the GMAT scores are valid for 5 years. So even if you don’t make it you’ll get to know what these schools are looking for, and the scores stay valid. Finally, throughout the application process, there was a lot of introspection and brainstorming involved, and it really helped me answer questions about my life choices and my goals that I had previously not thought about. The entire process will be very enriching, and will really help you focus your energy on the right things in your professional journey even before you start your MBA.

All the best and I hope this was helpful! You can go through my blog where I’ve talked a bit more about my personal journey on how I decided an MBA is the best choice for me, and some more tips on GMAT and the application process. Also feel free to reach out to me if you have any specific doubts.