27 Feb 2006

The Worst B-School Admissions Advice Ever?

We've gotten used to seeing admissions advice of dubious value posted to b-school message boards and blogs. Most of it is off-the-mark but probably harmless, submitted in good faith by applicants who mean well but who aren't in a position to understand what goes on in an admissions committee.

Recently, though, one of us came across a piece of admissions advice that was so bad that he nearly fell out of his chair when he read it.

The exchange began with an applicant to a particular top b-school asking what he should do about his GMAT scores. He had taken the test twice without getting a score he thought was high enough to make him a competitive applicant. His second (more recent) score was even lower than his first. He planned to take the test again and was confident he'd do better, but the application deadline he wanted to meet would fall before the next available test date. What should he do about self-reporting his score on his application?

Another applicant suggested this: Enter a number that sounds reasonable. Make it a bit lower than you think your next GMAT score will actually be. That way the admissions office will be pleasantly surprised when they get your official score report and see that it's higher than what you reported.

It was a relief to see that yet a third applicant (apparently someone with more sense than the first two put together) posted a message pointing out that it's a bad idea to lie on your application.

We sympathize with the dilemma the first applicant faces, over the disappointing GMAT scores. However, entering a fictional score on your application now in hopes that you'll meet or beat it later is a terrible idea. The admissions committee won't care what GMAT score you finally got if they think you deliberately falsified your application. The only thing they'll care about is that you lied to them, and they'll turn your application down flat.

(What would you expect to happen if you entered a guesstimate of your annual wages on your tax return? Granted, that's not a perfect analogy for a b-school application. The IRS can take you to court over fraudulent data. A business school can't. But when you sign your tax return you're promising the IRS that you've been honest with them. You make the same promise to a business school when you sign your application. Admissions committees don't like broken promises any more than the IRS does.)

The way to handle this dilemma is to be honest. Enter your real GMAT score and use the optional essay or the space for additional information to explain your plans to re-take the test and say why you think your current score doesn't reflect your real abilities.

Never make the mistake of assuming you can get away with lying to an admissions committee, or that you'll be forgiven if you're caught. B-school admissions are a seller's market. Top business schools will always have a dozen other qualified applicants they can offer the seat you would have won to. They won't hesitate to take the seat away from you and give it to someone else if they have any reason to think you're a bad bet.

And remember, both in b-school admissions and every other undertaking of your life, to stop and think about where a piece of advice is coming from. Just because people mean well doesn't mean their advice is based on good information or good judgment. Sometimes free advice is worth exactly what you pay for it.

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