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MBA programs publish their updated applications starting around May each year, but if you wait until then to start your own application process for the following year, you may rush to meet deadlines and fail to submit applications that showcase your strengths and talents.

Ideally, you should start thinking about applying to business school and specific MBA programs while you are still an undergraduate and have ample time to prepare.

For undergraduates, strategizing your summer jobs, internships, and extracurricular activities is important.

When you are choosing summer internships and jobs, consider how the experience will eventually complement and contribute to your application. Can you find a way to demonstrate your leadership or teamwork abilities during the summer? Having these experiences will make it easier when you eventually begin applying to business school.

• For example, perhaps your post-MBA goal is to work at a high tech start up, but now you need to spend your summers helping your family’s business. To add to your candidacy, you should think about ways you can incorporate technological innovation into the operations. Maybe you will run into opposition from your relatives; how will you deal with it? Examples of overcoming adversity will strengthen your eventual personal essays.

When exploring extracurricular activities, select those that illustrate your creativity and innovation, or provide you with opportunities for accomplishment. Avoid the temptation to sign up for a lot of activities that don’t interest you very much and instead concentrate on one or two in which you can excel.

What are some examples?

• Instead of merely joining a sports team, work to become the captain or volunteer as team manager.
• Do you like to play an instrument? Organize a group of other musicians and perform at community centers or civic events.
• If you volunteer for a nonprofit organization, raise your hand when they ask for someone to run a fundraising event.

Keep asking yourself: how can I have an impact?

Although some MBA programs welcome students without full-time work experience, most prefer that you spend two or more years in a business environment before beginning your MBA studies.

When you are looking for jobs during your last year at university, you may want to focus on consulting firms, investment banks, and international corporations that offer pre-MBA positions to new graduates. Typically these positions provide excellent preparation for the MBA and as an added advantage, the managers often have MBAs themselves. This is valuable for two reasons:

1. A supervisor with an MBA will be able to advise you.
2. A supervisor with an MBA will also be able to write a letter of recommendation that is comparative (i.e. comparing you to his or her classmates/fellow alumni) and that can speak to your personal and academic potential at business school.

If you are already a working professional, constantly look for ways to differentiate yourself.

• Did your company acquire another company? Ask to join the integration team.
• Is your organization expanding into a new market? Find a way to get involved.
• Make sure your supervisor knows that you are interested in projects that will stretch your institutional knowledge.
• Get to know the senior person in your department, or your CEO if your organization is small.

For international students in particular, you want to cultivate a sense that it's okay to step off the established path—at least as far as MBA admissions is concerned!— and instead of doing exactly what's expected of you, to ask questions and to think about ways to improve operations.

This approach will serve three purposes:

1. Enable you to grow professionally.
2. Provide you with material for the essays you will write when you begin applying to business school.
3. Help you stand out from your peers and give your supervisors anecdotes for their recommendations. Instead of saying “she is smart and a hard worker” they will say “when the company was at a major transition point, she impressed our president with her grasp of the alternatives and eagerness to get involved in this effort.”

In the months and years leading up to applying to business school, learn as much as you can about various MBA programs and keep a list of programs that interest you. If you are traveling, try to visit business school campuses. They are all different, and you will only get a real sense for each school’s character by seeing it yourself. Many admissions officers travel around the world during the summer, so if you cannot visit schools, see if a school representative will be coming to a city near you.

You should also take advantage of opportunities to learn from acquaintances — your parents’ colleagues, your neighbors, your friends’ older brothers and sisters — who have earned MBA degrees. Ask them “what do you wish you had known before you applied to business school?” and “what was the most valuable lesson you learned during the program?” Most MBA graduates love to talk about their schools and will give you an insider’s perspective, which can eventually be used to tailor your application to those schools

Standardized Testing:

As you know, you will need to take a couple of standardized tests to apply to business school, either the GMAT or GRE and the TOEFL (for international applicants). It is best to take these tests two years before you plan to start business school, which is the year before you apply, so you can retake if necessary.

MBA programs are most concerned about the language abilities of students from non-English-speaking countries. Often, East Asian students earn the highest score on the math section and a relatively weak verbal score. You will stand out from comparable applicants if you demonstrate mastery of the English language.

In my upcoming posts, I will talk about a timeline for the very busy period between May and January when you will be actively working on your applications for MBA programs. Writing essays, obtaining recommendations, updating your resume, and requesting score reports will consume all of your spare time and energy. At that point, you will realize that it was a very good idea to begin your preparations early. And if you want help at any point in the process, don’t hesitate to consult our InGenius Prep MBA former admissions officers.