The 3 Best Tips to Prep for the GMAT
Maria |
October 24, 2020

I was torn: I knew that the GMAT was going to be the single most important element that was still under my control in the admissions process — after all, it’s the closest thing to an “equalizer” in admissions* — and yet, I didn’t have money to pay for a class. So what was a scrappy candidate to do? Here are the three things I did to self-study my way to a strong score — but they apply to anyone, regardless of how they’re prepping (and these tips also work for the GRE!!!!)(in fact, if the GMAT isn’t working out for you, please consider switching to the GRE instead). I hope they help you too!

1) Use the “Official Guide” – read their explanations

2) Take ENTIRE full-length practice tests, in test-like conditions

3) “Personify” the test-maker to motivate you <– (this is my weirdest but most unique – and popular – tip)

Bonus tip: Always Be Practicing

1) USE THE “OFFICIAL GUIDE” – read their explanations

There seem to be a million books, blogs, and services to prep for the test. And they do have value.

But you know what has the MOST value?

Learning to think HOW the TEST-MAKERS THINK.

The “Official Guide” is written by GMAC, the same organization that creates, manages, and administers the GMAT test…. similarly, the “Official Guide to the GRE General Test” from ETS is written *BY* the people who are CREATING THESE TESTS…   

The reason these books are so valuable is that they explain,

step by step,

EXACTLY HOW they arrived at every answer!

Any question you might find on the test? You will find a “clone” of that question in the Official Guide. Sure, on the actual test, the numbers might be different; the passage might vary; the sentence might be on a different topic. But the guide covers every type of question you might find.

(I actually almost laughed out loud on test day when a beast of a quant question — one of those trig ones at the very end — appeared, and it was an almost identical twin of a question I had stumbled upon in the Official Guide two days before!)

And it’s not just for the quant questions — getting the “insider’s view” on what the test makers think about verbal questions too — helps take some of the subjectivity (and therefore some of the doubt) out of your answer choices there.

2) Take ENTIRE full-length practice tests, in test-like conditions

Here’s a secret that high-scoring test-takers know: simplying knowing “how” to answer a question is actually only a small part of test success.

The truth is, two people might both know EXACTLY how to answer the question — but the difference between a 720 and a 550 score is that the person with the 720 can answer the question, accurately, in under two minutes, while the person with the lower score simply ran out of time.

Once you learn the material, the GMAT is actually testing your endurance.

Probably the biggest mistake test-takers make is only prepping in bits and pieces, here and there:

– “I’ll just do twenty minutes of study each night for a month; that should do it!“

– “I’ll do a full-length quant section tonight, then a verbal section tomorrow.”

– “I’ll take a practice test, but I’ll skip the A.W.A. (since writing is easy) and the I.R. section, since it doesn’t really count.”

Here’s the problem. On test day, your adrenaline and stress levels are going to be through the roof. The test is going to have ALL of the sections that you need to plow through…and if you don’t practice doing the whole enchilada in advance, you are not going to have as much energy as you did during your practice sessions. Even if those sections do not require as much energy as the quant & verbal sections, they DO require some energy.

Have you ever watched an Olympic race on t.v., and see a runner initially SPRINT out of the starting blocks, only to quickly lose steam and fall to last place by the end? This is exactly what happens to people who DON’T do FULL LENGTH prep tests. To keep with the race analogy: a marathon is 26 miles. Most people who train for marathons will train for very long distances, in order to prepare their bodies to endure THAT much running, ALL in one day.

NOT taking full-length practice GMAT tests is like training

for a 26-mile marathon by running 1 mile each, on 26 separate days.

Is it the same total distance? Sure.

But will you fall apart on the real “race” (test) day? Absolutely.

Most people can run (or at least walk!) one mile. Very few people can run twenty-six miles, back-to-back.  Similarly, many people spend months practicing, but if they only do it piecemeal, they won’t have the stamina to finish the race when it counts. 

So here’s what you need to do:

– Find a place that most closely mimics the testing environment. A public library, or perhaps your office on a weekend, can be a great place. Your home is an OK alternative if you have nothing else, but resist the temptation to answer e-mail or get a snack.

– Take the FULL practice test, as though it were the real thing. If you tell yourself, “Well, this is just a practice”, then you won’t get practice in managing your stress levels. Relaxed test prep will NOT be enough come test day, when your heart is racing and you need to force yourself to focus! Try to convince yourself that this is The Real Thing. And don’t just breeze through the A.W.A. section in a half-baked way: actually think about it and write it as though it were the real test. Make the breaks between sections the same length as in real life, too.

– I don’t want you to wear yourself out by doing too many of these, but I want you to aim for at least two full tests before your real test.

This will help you build endurance, AND get better with pacing.

3) “Personify” the test-maker to motivate yourself (and yes, this one is a bit weird)

So, this last bit of advice is a bit on the weird side, but hear me out: you might find it helpful to develop a picture in your head of who the “Test Maker” is.

Sure, in real life, the test is created by many different people. But if you’re even remotely competitive (which: if you’re applying to business school, you are!), it might help you start to picture one particular person who is on the other side of that screen, throwing these questions at you.

It could be someone you actually know or it could be a made-up person. Doesn’t matter.

Picture a “Test Maker” persona

that will motivate you in a unique way.

For me, I can’t stand being “tricked”, so when I was practicing and I got tripped up on a trick question, instead of blaming myself and wallowing in self-loathing, I’d get indignant at the Test Maker: “Oh yeah? Think you’re gonna fool me with THAT one next time? GOOD LUCK, BUDDY! Next time, I’ll be ready.” On test day, I would mentally pat myself on the back when I’d identify (and avoid!) a trick.

For YOU, maybe you respond better to supportive, nurturing types. In THAT case, YOUR “Test Maker” could be more of a kindly teacher type — picture the best teacher or coach you’ve ever had. Imagine them giving you the question, gently smiling at you, and saying: “Now, I know you know how to do this. You’ve trained for it! Just think!”

YOU know which sorts of “triggers” can get the best performance out of you:

maybe it’s the thrill of competition; maybe it’s a love of solving puzzles; maybe it’s working with a supportive coach; maybe you once had some jerk put you down, and now you’re going to show them; maybe imagine it’s your best friend, rooting you on!

If you can identify those triggers, see if you can use them to add an extra boost to your training.

The other benefit of this technique, as I alluded to above, is that it might help you you stop blaming yourself, and start blaming the Test Maker when you make a mistake during practice.

This can help prevent “internalizing” mistakes: it’s not that YOU are [stupid / lazy / sloppy], it’s that the TEST MAKER is [devious / cunning / only wants what’s best for you (and so the tough questions are meant to help)].

I know it’s a subtle, and again — probably super-weird sounding! — mental shift, but part of the Mental Toughness that’s needed to get your best score possible during this 3.5 hour test is to keep bouncing back and not engage in self-fulfilling negative prophecies.

BonusTip: Always Be Practicing

You know, I wrote up this post and made that cute little graphic up at the top and everything… and then realized that I actually have a fourth mini-tip! But “3” is a nicer sounding number, so let’s call this the “bonus tip” instead of “tip #4” 🙂 To get your best score possible, you need to be fitting practice in WHEREVER you can, throughout your day:

Stuck in line at the grocery store?

Waiting for a friend for lunch?

Have five minutes to kill before your next meeting?

Do a practice question.

Don’t have pen/paper to work the whole question out? Then at least silently walk yourself through HOW you’d attack the problem.

I also want you to live and breathe the test, especially in the 2 – 3 weeks leading up to it (if not sooner).

Maybe you usually meet up with friends after work a couple times a week. Well, not now. Not for a few weeks, at least. Maybe you give up going out to lunch 1 or 2 times per week and instead eat lunch at your desk and study instead. Maybe instead of watching four tv shows per week, you temporarily cut it down to two. Your DVR / Netflix account is on your side – those shows can wait until another day, but the test day is carved in stone!

I often talk to people who are like: “But Maria, I don’t have TIME to study!!!” (this is a close cousin of: “But Maria, I don’t have TIME to write good application essays or do informational interviews or sit down with my recomenders!”). But: be honest. Take a brutal look at how you spend your time. Is that REALLY true? On the one hand, I’m not trying to FREAK YOU OUT or cause burn-out. You DO need to keep SOME parts of “non-GMAT life” in your life in order to stay balanced and sane.

On the other hand, your competitors to business school are,

in fact, probably making these sacrifices.

Hey: maybe if picturing a “Test Maker” isn’t quite the right motivation….maybe picturing “Your Competition” is? 🙂

Getting good at these questions is like learning how to ride a bike: you’ll be wobbly and make mistakes at first…but if you practice a ton of them (especially using the Official Guide!) they will start to become second nature to you!

GMAT | Test Prep Advice
The 3 Best Tips to Prep for the GMAT
Maria |
October 24, 2020

Full Episode Transcript:

John Byrne: [00:00:00] Hello everyone. This is John Byrne with Poets and Quants. Welcome to Business Casual, our weekly podcast. We want to talk about international students. Schools are now reporting that a good number of their international recruits who were admitted to programs this fall haven’t been able to show up or have changed their mind.

At the University of Illinois, the school, the Gies College of Businesses, lost about 200 international students in its Master of Finance and Master of Business Analytics programs causing a $7 million hit. To their budget at UC Davis Graduate School of Management, 40 students didn’t show up who were admitted, and that’s resulting in two and a half to $3 million hit on their budget this year.

Both of these things have occurred before the announcement of a hundred thousand dollars tax on H one B Visa. Which will make it more difficult for many employers [00:01:00] to hire international students and keep them in the US for an extended period of time. And we’re getting the new class reports of the, of the new cohorts of students who’ve arrived on campus in the fall of this year.

And Carnegie Mellon is. Down 30% for their international cohort over the past two years. UCLA Anderson School is down 25% over the past two years, and schools are preparing for the worst because of the H one B Visa decision which could affect future employment. Caroline and Maria, my cohosts are in the market helping people get into the best schools in the world.

And Caroline, what do you think?

Caroline Diarte-Edwards: Yeah, definitely seeing concern among international candidates and people holding off on applying for the US schools. So it’s really a shame. I think the international schools, particularly the schools like Inea and London Business School and the other top.[00:02:00]

International European programs will benefit, they’ll get talent that might otherwise have come to the us, which is great for those schools. And I’m very fond of those schools, but it is sad as from the US perspective for sure. On the other hand, you could also take the perspective that.

If you do have options for your career post MBA that don’t require that you absolutely have to stay in the US as an international candidate, then now could be a very good time to apply, right? Because definitely application volume will be down and schools will be perhaps. More open to candidates that might otherwise have been waitlisted or rejected in the past.

For some candidates, this is actually a fantastic opportunity to get into a top school, but from, for, at least from the school’s perspective, it is a shame because, I’ve experienced firsthand the value of a very internationally diverse classroom and the value that brings with a [00:03:00] diversity of perspectives that enriches the learning experience so much for everybody.

Enriches the debate and bring so much to the academic experience as well as the the network and the social experience. So it’s everybody’s loss, right?

John Byrne: Very true.

Caroline Diarte-Edwards: And I think it’s a very myopic perspective that the US government takes that. There needs to be a more of a refocus at US educational institutions on the domestic market because those international applicants bring a lot to the domestic students in enriching their learning and enriching their network.

Of course bring a huge value to the US economy when they stay. So there are very impressive statistics on the value of immigrants to the US economy. So Indian immigrants, for example, are only about one and a half percent of the US population, but they have founded to date about 8% of all the tech startups in the us.[00:04:00]

And for sure some of that top talent from India will now not come to the us. They will go to perhaps they will stay at the great schools that we’ve talked about in India, or they will go to other international schools. So for sure it will be a loss to the us learning experience and to the US economy.

John Byrne: Maria, you run applicant lab which is a platform that helps applicants get into highly selective schools. And many of the people who use your product are international students. What are you seeing?

Maria Wich-Vila: Everything Caroline is saying concern is think a delicate way to put it.

And I think it’s because as the more affordable provider in the market, I tend to get the applicants who maybe they don’t have the family business to fall back on. Maybe they don’t have, large sources of income elsewhere in their lives. And so I think the concern is very real and very merited, right?

I can’t. In good faith, tell someone, if they [00:05:00] really start, sit down and do the math and start to do, run the numbers, if they just assume that things are going to stay as is. And this is the big caveat that I’m, I want to get to in a second, but if we assume that things stay as is and if someone really is from a lower income tier from Nepal or India or some of the other countries that I work with, yeah, maybe sit down and do that math and think about, okay, if I do have to come back to Nepal afterwards, how will I pay back that loan? There, there is though some good news. Even if we assume that things stay status quo, which I hope, and I’m pretty, I’m I think it’s, I’m cautiously optimistic that they won’t.

But there are other markets as well. So I’ve had a lot of candidates, or former clients, I should say, graduate from business school, not be able to get jobs in certain in countries and then. Being able to move to Dubai. Dubai for some reason, has started attracting a ton of candidates, primarily from South Asia but from other parts of the world who might be having trouble getting some of those work permits.

You could do worse than live in, Dubai’s not perfect, but [00:06:00] you could also do worse than live in Dubai, right? The salaries are pretty high. The standard of living, if you have a white collar job there is, it’s not the worst outcome. So it’s not I can’t stay in the us. That’s it.

There’s no other it’s not a binary of, it’s either the US or it’s nothing. And then I think the second point is I, we’ve just seen. So many things, let’s take something from a different facet of policy. The tariffs, right? The tariffs were announced and the markets went crazy, and in the months that have followed, oh, actually, here’s the tariff, but this one company, their products aren’t gonna be subject to the tariff.

And then there’s this other company that maybe they’re not gonna have to pay the same tariff. And I can’t help but wonder if some of these. Some of these very large companies that are getting tariff exemptions, their ability to lobby for. The H one B, maybe lowering of the H one B fee. If they’ve been able to successfully lobby tariffs, they might be success, able to successfully lobby against these, true, these [00:07:00] visa fees.

And a lot of these big companies, these big tech companies are in fact some of the largest employers of post MBA talent in the us. So I am cautiously optimistic that. This could be, hopefully right now it’s the big, the flash and storm and the, the making, the big splash, right?

Everything’s about showmanship and making the big splash. And maybe in the aftermath of the storm, that initial PR media storm, maybe the reality will start to calm down a little bit. Yeah, the other good news is that if you’re applying now, that means you would enroll in 2026. You would, if it, if you’re talking about the US two year program, you would graduate in 2028.

At that point, who knows what might happen. I like to think that what we have seen so far in terms of the Visa policies, hopefully. Roughly the floor about as bad as it can get. I think if they start implementing a similar thing to OPT, that could be the same thing. But if we just assume that okay, right now what’s been announced is that these foreign students all have to do, you can’t stay here, you have to [00:08:00] go someplace else.

It, we assume that’s like the initial negotiating position. It’s just gonna chip, it’s just gonna get, it’s got nowhere else to go. It’s even worse. So we’ve, we now have two and a half years roughly until. People applying now would have to really implement, or be really affected by this in a.

In a pragmatic and tangible way. And so that’s why I’m hoping that the little chipping away and the chipping away things will start to get a little bit better and a little bit better and a little bit better like we’ve seen with other facets of policy. Didn’t like a bunch of the CDC employees that were all fired under Doge didn’t more than half of them I think were recently rehired.

Yes. Back again true. Whatever you think of the policy, it seems like some of the policies are. Being slowly walked back. And so I think if you. If you’ve got an adventurous spirit, I, and by the way, if you apply now, sorry. I know I keep going, but I like, if you apply now, let’s say you get accepted, you don’t have to show up until August of 2026.

So that will give you [00:09:00] time, like definitely. Apply now and see what happens between now and August of 2026 to make the decision to not apply now, because you’re rightfully scared. I’m not blaming anyone, but to not apply now, maybe by maybe six months from now he’ll be like, ha, just kidding. I’m doubling the number of H one Bs.

Yeah, we have no idea what’s gonna happen. So things are So give yourself that optionality.

John Byrne: Yeah. And things are so uncertain that could very well happen because, one day at tariffs are on one country the next day they’re not one day they’re pausing the ab the interviews for student visas, the.

Say they’re not there’s litigation all over the place, challenging many of the presidential actions that have been taken that have put them in limbo despite all the headlines. So it’s, it, there’s more uncertainty than there is certainty about any of these things. And as you point out, you, if you [00:10:00] did apply this year, the odds are gonna be in your favor if you’re an international student, frankly, because there is no question.

That international applicant volume will be down at all the top schools in the us, which means that to maintain some semblance of a global class. Admission directors are going to have to dig a little bit deeper into their international applicant pools to select candidates. In a way, if you play the long term and in the BA, in, in many graduate degrees or long term bet, I think you’re gonna be.

Oddly better off. And it may even be that the schools will really even go out of their way to help international students in ways that they haven’t in the past because of these actions in Washington. And what do I mean by that? Just a more welcoming reception than the already welcoming reception you would get hiring immigration lawyers and people that can help you.

If in fact there is a [00:11:00] challenge of one kind or another. I think the takeaway is not to be discouraged and throw up your hands to say, ah, I always dreamed of coming to the United States and getting an MBA or a graduate degree in business. Use this as an opportunity to actually increase your odds of getting into a better school with the understanding that when you get out there, probably most likely be an administration change and a change in these policies if they even get completely adopted as Maria points out.

Wouldn’t you think that’s the best strategy, Caroline?

Caroline Diarte-Edwards: Yes, I agree. I think that it’s good to take a longer term perspective because it is such a long timeline, right? If you’re applying to a top two year program as you say, you’re gonna be coming out of the program at the end of the Trump presidency and things may look very different.

And Maria rightly points out that. Everything is very volatile, right? So one thing gets announced and the next week it [00:12:00] gets rolled back, right? They’ve done so many things where they’ve realized, oh, actually that was a really bad idea after all. So

They’ve changed things. So things may not it might, may not turn out to be as bad as we fear.

And then I would also encourage candidates. To apply to the US schools, but why not hedge your bets and apply to an international program as well? Agreed in a time of uncertainty. As Maria said, create options for yourself. And so I would encourage candidates to apply to the top US programs, but also apply to top international programs as well and see what offers you get.

And then you can make a decision. As Maria said, it will be closer to the time when you would be starting the program and there may be more clarity about the situation in the US and what your options are in international markets as well. So I think that given the current circumstances, a good strategy is to hedge your bets and apply more widely than you might [00:13:00] have otherwise done.

John Byrne: Plan Bs are good. Let me just say business schools in the US have for years advised international students that those should have a plan B in the event that they can’t get with a US company. The other thing to, to keep in mind incidentally, in terms of MBA employment is that most of the companies.

That basically employ the lion’s share of MBAs are all global concerns. So you can be hired here and if there’s any challenge in getting you employed here in the us you can simply start in an office outside the United States with a hope of coming back when things clear up. So that is also another important thing to keep in mind.

And I’ll just say this. Despite whatever messaging you’re reading in your local newspapers or on your streaming platforms or television stations about how immigrants may not be welcome in the us that’s not true at all. Universities are diverse places. Welcoming. [00:14:00] Embracing loving the diversity of their students and particularly those from different cultures and backgrounds that enrich the educational experience.

There is no Dean that I’ve ever encountered who said they want fewer international students. It’s the exact opposite. They’re putting out message after message, telling people that they’re still welcome and wanted. Needed in the classroom. Now, Maria, in the past we’ve seen applicants who try to say, okay, can I time my application and my enrollment in a program to what I think might be the next recession?

And we know that in recessions applications go way. In part because some people lose the opportunity to gain advancement in a recession. Some people get unemployed. Some people just realize, hey, a recession is a good time to take a time out and get a new educational credential, which may allow me to do things I otherwise can’t do.[00:15:00]

But it’s almost impossible to time a recession and I’m imagining it’s impossible to time what’s going on here now.

Maria Wich-Vila: Yeah. I mean if we could all time, when everyone’s been talking about a stock market crash that to, not to bring another disparate topic in, but like everyone’s been talking about, it’s a bubble.

It’s a bubble. I’ve been hearing ’cause a bubble for a year and a half. True. Yeah, you can’t time or ask, for example, ask the people who enrolled in business school, like who got into business school in 2020. Like there’s always gonna be these external shocks. We can try to predict a recession, but who knows if it’s going to happen?

Who knows if there’s going to be some sort of virus or the opposite of a virus. Maybe there’ll be a virus that helps us all live healthily forever. Who knows? There’s so much uncertainty out there that who knows what to do. So I think. I think yeah, have that optionality. I think go ahead and apply.

Now if there is a recession though, which everyone seems to think is coming at some point, at that point, it’s going to be harder to get accepted. And as Caroline has pointed out, so rightfully, if other international, high quality international students are [00:16:00] spooked by the current H one B talk, now is your chance.

International candidate. Jump in there, shoot your shot like you might be able to get into a school, assuming of course that you’re qualified, but. You might have a lot less competition now than you normally will, so this could be a golden opportunity for you. And one final as one thing that I wanted to point out was that I was thinking, okay, Maria, let’s say that, you just said that maybe there’s gonna be walk back of some of these and there’s gonna be, maybe he’s gonna change.

But even if there isn’t a change, right? Let’s think about this. The companies themselves are gonna have, and you started to alluded to this John, when you mentioned that a lot of them are global concerns. They’re gonna have now a two year window in which to say. Okay. We know that we’re not gonna keep these people in the states, so let’s open a huge office in Vancouver.

Let’s open a brand, an enormous new office in Toronto. Whatever that is. Because I was thinking back to over the summer when it looked like maybe a bunch of international students wouldn’t be able to get any student visa at all. And I know that some of the business schools we’re looking [00:17:00] at, do we rent out some space in Toronto and do Zoom classes?

We do a hybrid. What we did during COVID. I’ve heard that. I think Rice, I was actually having dinner last night with a dear friend who was, say he’s from Texas and he was saying that Rice has some sort of a campus in Paris and that they are leaning really heavily on their global campuses around the world to still be able to service these students who had gotten accepted.

So things like that, like if. Even if our sort of my very cautious and perhaps irrational optimism turns out to not be true, let’s say the things get, the OPT is banished and all, everyone is banished and it’s the worst case scenario. Again, there’s gonna be two and a half years for these companies. To quickly find, okay, fine, we’re gonna open up an office in Mexico City and we’re gonna pay people really well and we’re gonna what?

Whatever that is. ’cause they’re, the companies are still gonna want the talent, right? Just because the political administration doesn’t want the global talent in the country. That doesn’t mean that the country’s employers don’t want that talent. They [00:18:00] want that talent, they want that intellect, they want that energy and that drive to make their companies better and to make more money.

So they have a very strong incentive to not only be lobbying for these. Visa changes to go away, but if they don’t go away, they have a very strong incentive to come up with some way to provide, to provide those incomes and to provide those perks and some sort of a compromise type of situation.

So again I think if you’re applying now, if you’re going in with eyes wide open, shoot your shot. That’s my, I would absolutely tell people to to try that.

John Byrne: Yeah, I totally agree. And, generally this is my rule of thumb and Maria and Caroline, you may or may not agree with this, at the top MBA programs, they’re so selective that the people who apply to them generally are very self-selecting group.

So I always say that roughly 80% of the school’s applicant pool. Is qualified to actually get accepted, get in, do [00:19:00] well, and land a good job. And yet we know that at Stanford, the acceptance rate is 6%, that Harvard is 12 Wharton and Columbia is, a little under 20 or so. So there are a lot of really good candidates who aren’t getting in.

Which leads me to this, if you’re an international student who thinks okay, so these US schools just might dip a little more into the domestic pool to make up for the offset of international candidates. As it turns out, there is a little notice. Clause in the big beautiful tax bill that was passed here under Trump that places severe limits on federal loans for graduate students.

Now, the current grad plus loan program allows students to borrow up to the cost of their graduate programs. That comes to an end in July of next year. After that, grad students borrowing will literally be capped at [00:20:00] 20,500 bucks a year with a lifetime graduate school loan limit of a hundred thousand. That’s a big deal because, at the top MBA programs it’s not on typical.

For a student to borrow over a hundred thousand dollars easily. And so these caps are also going to affect domestic enrollment. So again, that, that contributes to your ability as an international candidate to get in both. The likely decline in competition not only from internationals but also from domestic students here, interestingly enough, that Bill, which passed has different limits for a professional graduate degree, but the bill basically says that only med school and law school qualify as professional degrees and not business school.

That’s another wacky thing that’s happened that will affect. Domestic enrollment as well. So I, I side with Maria and [00:21:00] Caroline to me the advice is, look long term. Don’t be affected overly affected by the change in policies in the US or the climate here. Understand that if you apply now and you matriculate next year and you graduate in two years after that you’re gonna be facing probably a very different environment.

Also understand the odds are in your in your favor, in getting into a highly selective, really good program in this coming year. And know that, while people too often calculate the value of an MBA based on short term variables, like what’s my starting salary gonna be? What is my sign-on bonus?

The truth is the MBA has enduring value over your lifetime. So it rewards you over your entire career and not just for the first or second years. And you can’t go wrong by graduating into a network of helpful and supportive people from a great school and [00:22:00] receiving a great education. So I think bottom line, we’re telling you apply.

Don’t get convinced by your colleagues or anyone else that this is a bad time to come to the us. Opportunity. Some of the best opportunity come comes when people perceive there to be significant challenges. And I think this is really true with business school. We hope we convinced you to come and try and hedge your batts too, as Caroline noted.

I think that’s really super important to have a plan B when you apply and toss a bunch of apps to the European schools which have excellent superb world class MBA programs and real international cohorts. 90% of the students not from the countries where the schools reside. Toss a bunch of them in your mix for your target schools to give you these different options at the end of the day.

This is John Byrne with Poets and Quants. Thanks for listening.

Maria

New around here? I’m an HBS graduate and a proud member (and former Board Member) of AIGAC. I considered opening a high-end boutique admissions consulting firm, but I wanted to make high-quality admissions advice accessible to all, so I “scaled myself” by creating ApplicantLab. ApplicantLab provides the SAME advice as high-end consultants at a much more affordable price. Read our rave reviews on GMATClub, and check out our free trial (no credit card required) today!