Your MBA Game Plan: Proven Strategies for Getting into the Top Business Schools

I really like how the authors describe a framework for
getting your story together. I wonder if everyone will
follow their advice to the letter, but I think they
would benefit by doing so. The authors start by
describing their framework, and then step through each
part of it throughout the rest of the book. Like I
mentioned, I have read nearly the whole thing (which I
couldn't do with the other books I bought).

My favorite aspects of this book:

1) Advice on specific schools - Not everything that
they tell you about a school is earth-shattering, but
it's all good info. This is important info to consider
when you apply to any school. A friend of mine at a
Top 10 school read what they wrote about her school
and agreed with what they said.

2) Interview prep - All of my target schools require interviews,
and I really like the framework that they use in this section to help you
prepare for the kinds of questions you will probably be asked.

3) Advice for applicants based on their backrounds -
This section is fairly short, but still contains good
advice to think about as you write your essays, etc.

4) Essay analysis and advice - Other books also do
this, but this book does a good job of breaking down
essays by type and letting you know what schools tend
to look for.

They also give good general advice like making sure
that you and your recommenders are on the same page in
terms of what to emphasize, etc. And the GMAT section
looks like it has good advice, although that's the one
section that I sort of skipped, since I already took
the test.

My only suggestions for improvement would be to expand
the section that gives advice by type of applicant.
And, they give advice for the top 30 schools, but not
everyone is targeting those schools. So, maybe
covering the top 50 would be better, although that of
course would make it a lot longer.

All in all, definitely worth picking up, especially if
you want a smaller book that gives you the same advice
that the bigger, more expensive ones give. These guys
seem to know their stuff.


A Pleasant Surprise!   January 11, 2005
CalGrad (Diamond Bar, CA)
38 out of 40 found this review helpful

Wasn't sure what to expect from this book when I bought it, but it turned out to be a great overall resource! Has information about Top-30 Schools and general information about App Strategy, GMAT, Essays, and Letter of Recs.

Others to look at:
1. ABC of Getting the MBA Admissions Edge: My personal favorite. It covers Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Kellogg, MIT, Chicago, Columbia, Berkeley, NYU, and INSEAD, but the strategies can be generalized to all schools.
2. Your MBA Game Plan: Great overall resource! Has information about Top-30 Schools and general information about App Strategy, GMAT, Essays, and Letter of Recs.
3. How to Get Into the Top MBA Programs: Very good Resource. The most comprehensive list of old essays.
4. Business Week Best Business Schools: In-Depth info on Top-30 Schools. Good reference to get the 411 on each school.
5. WSJ Top Business School: Good reference to what recruiters think of each school.
6. USNew's America's Best Graduate Schools: In my opinion the most comprehensive/accurate rankings (BW, WSJ, FT, Forbes) on the market.


The best of the bunch   March 20, 2004
10 out of 10 found this review helpful

I looked at almost every book on getting into a top MBA program, and have bought at least 4 or 5. Out of all of those I found this book to be the most helpful by far. I found the essay writing advice to be more accessible and easier to apply than others, I thought their analysis of the particular problems faced by different types of candidates was useful, and I thought their insights into the admissions process were valuable. Other books have more school-specific information, but for the general stuff there is no book that is better.


The Best Book on the Subject (... and I read a lot)   September 3, 2006
MBA '08 (Boston, MA)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful

I read a lot of books about MBA admissions. Your MBA Game Plan was the shortest, simplest ... and by far, the best!

The book taught me about the admissions process - what schools are looking for in students, how I can demonstrate those qualities, and how to avoid the most common pitfalls of applying. More importantly, it helped me develop a clear, organized, and easy-to-execute gameplan that kept me on track throughout the (grueling!) journey that is MBA admissions.

Thanks in large part to this game plan, I was accepted at Harvard Business School and Stanford's Graduate School of Business.


A ticket to a top MBA program!   January 21, 2004
11 out of 12 found this review helpful

To cut a long story short, this book is your ticket to a top MBA program. It contains everything you need to know in order to apply a winning strategy.

There are a lot of books over there that claim to be complete guides. Their most apparent drawback is exactly that they try to be "complete" guides. They pack information that you can actually find in the school's website or irrelevant information that you'll probably never need. The problem however is that time is rarely in abundance when you struggle with MBA application preparation. What you need is concise information in order to craft a winning app. Nothing less and nothing more. This book sets itself apart in providing exactly this sort of advice. A general strategy guide (the "game plan") that can be applied to almost all b-schools and a couple of pages for each top-30 school that are MORE than helpful in crafting tailor-made information for each school (showing "fit"). In case you need extra info, there's always the Internet, where you can search. You don't need the school's brochures repeated in a book. Not only you don't need them, but you also don't want them. Since they are so similar anyway, you only want the DIFFERENTIATION factors between the schools.

There are many points about this book that make it stand out. It covers the whole application process, all types of essays, it provides sample essays WITH EXPLANATIONS for the key points that are shown. Since I haven't read ALL books out there, I cannot argue that these are unique characteristics. What is unique (apart from the cut-the-b*shit-and-show-where-the-actual-game-is philosophy) is that the authors of the book are available for questions! They maintain a very interesting thread at BusinessWeek forums where they offer free consulting services thus extending the book's usefulness. Besides, they maintain a very interesting website (mbagameplan.com) with up-to-date information about b-schools (deadlines, etc.) and a free essay-advice service. What else could you ask?

To sum up, this book is the first and probably the last one you'll ever need (along with an Internet connection) in order to successfully apply to a top business school. Along with the website and BW-forums thread, it puts competition in shame in terms of total usefulness. In terms of usefulness per page, there simply isn't any competition!