How I Got into Wharton
I’m going to Wharton.
Honestly, as much as I was excited and humbled, I was surprised. As an immigrant (international student) from a low-wealth background, the odds of me making it into Wharton (or any Ivy League institution for that matter) was pretty slim.
I’m sure a lot of luck contributed to my acceptance, but I was also careful and diligent in planning my application. I started actively preparing a year in advance for my candidacy. Wharton had been my dream school, so I was self-motivated throughout the whole prep process.
If you’re also thinking about pursuing your MBA, I hope this article can give some insight into the prep process. I’m including a sequential timeline visual below, and an explanation of each step, so that you can get an idea of how long you need to prep for each stage for. This isn’t a sequence you have to follow for success; I encourage you to prioritize and sequence in a way that best fits your needs and abilities.
As a final note before we begin, I did not use any admissions consultants/ external prep agencies, because I’ve always been budget conscious, but I’ve heard that these services can be helpful.
1. GMAT (June 2021 — December 2021)
Many people will tell you that the GMAT is one of the most important aspects of the MBA application. It’s also the most time consuming.
I started studying for the GMAT around 6 months before I took it in December 2021. For the first three months, I studied for less than 5 hours a week, but in the latter 3 months, I ramped my studying up to at least 1 hour per weekday and 8 hours on weekends (13 hours a week).
I used online versions of outdated GMAT prep books from years 2012–2018 that were sent to me by a friend, but felt that the material was still exactly the same.
I took the online GMAT, and this particular version did not have the Analytical Writing Assessment portion.
My score was lower than the Wharton median, and it gave me anxiety. I ended up justifying that a 10–20 point increase to bring my score to the median was not worth the effort to restudy and retake the exam, and focused my efforts elsewhere.
My one piece of advice: take the GMAT as the first step in your prep process, and get it over with as soon as you can. I wish I had taken the GMAT right after college, when I was still in “study” mode. Familiarizing yourself with the test takes time, and if you get this out of the way early, it’ll save you a lot of brain space to focus on other important aspects of the application that requires introspection and deep thinking.
2. School Research / Why MBA Story (December 2021 — February 2021)
Along with my Wharton MBA, I’ll also be pursuing a joint MA degree in International Studies at the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania. This joint program is comprised of a selective group of ~75 Wharton students who study business in a global context along with an intensive (non-English) language learning component.
The Wharton/Lauder joint degree program not only involves more classes during my two years, but it’s also more expensive and has a more rigorous application/ interview/ selection process. However, no other MBA program offers this unique interdisciplinary opportunity. As someone who moved to different countries/ cities every 3–4 years, I felt that this program was the perfect fit for me. The language component was just a cherry on top, because learning languages is one of my greatest passions as well.
Doing the dual degree may seem like a stupid decision due to the additional effort/ cost, but despite these “disadvantages,” I was able to establish the program as my top choice program because I thought through what I wanted from my MBA experience (global exposure, ability to utilize my language skills, prestige).
I spent a good two months researching different schools, and weighing the costs and benefits. I took almost a month off from work and reflected on what I wanted out of my career, and if I truly needed a MBA to achieve my ambitions.
I would encourage you to find a calm space and time to assess whether your reasons for getting the degree are justified. For me, removing myself from work was helpful. Applying to and attending an MBA program requires many sacrifices (money, time), and I don’t think an MBA is necessary for everyone’s career aspirations. Once you’re sure of your internal motivation to get an MBA, I believe that the school list will naturally form; the schools have different personalities and areas of specialty (especially based on location) after all.
3. Recommender/ Sponsor Identification (March 2021 — April 2021)
Because my only work experience was in Consulting, I didn’t have a constant boss. My teams changed every few months as I was put on different projects, which was a blessing and a curse. While I was able to experience more industries and clients that most people at my career stage, I also couldn’t develop long-term relationships with my teammates. Because of this fleeting team composition, I knew that I needed to choose my recommenders carefully to filter out those who can speak in detail about me.
I spent a couple of months evaluating my most valued work experiences, and ultimately landed on two senior leaders who I felt like I could be myself around despite their seniority. Because I could be my authentic self around them, I also felt like they could speak to holistically and truthfully about me as a high performing technologist and a passionate advocate for well-being and equity in the workplace.
I continued to build my relationship with them intentionally over the course of a few months, moving our conversation beyond work and banter, to discuss my intention to apply to MBA programs. When it came to writing and submitting the letters of recommendation in September, I set them up for success by summarizing my strengths and ambitions (aka our previous discussions) in a concise memo that they could reference while writing.
My advice here is to look beyond seniority. This seems a little hypocritical because my recommenders and sponsors ended up being senior partners, but I genuinely felt like these were the two people who knew me personally and professionally. I was blessed to be in teams where the culture was more “horizontal,” which allowed me to build this authentic relationship with them.
Your relationship with your recommender shouldn’t feel strained — if asking for their recommendation makes you nervous and scared, they probably are not the right people for you. Additionally, I also respect both of them immensely and knew that they were great writers: two additional factors that I considered when making my choice.
4. Employer Sponsorship (April 2021 — June 2021)
I’m grateful to have the option of employer sponsorship in the form of tuition reimbursement if I return to the firm for two years after my MBA. The application for the sponsorship consisted of a few short essays, two sponsor recommendations, and a verbal presentation to a panel of senior partners on my business case.
I treated the sponsorship application process as a “mock” application to my MBA program, and treated each stage of the process seriously. I started the process a few months earlier than others, and set myself up for success my getting my essays and presentations reviewed by many colleagues.
5. Alumni/ AdCom Outreach (May 2021 — August 2021)
Similarly to how I reached out my company network during the employer sponsorship application process, I reached out to my school’s alumni. This served two purposes: to get a sense of the personalities/ career trajectories of graduates and to get their opinions on me as a candidate.
I ended up absolutely loving every single alum I spoke to. I could sense that they genuinely wanted me to succeed, and their generosity really touched me. I even name-dropped a few of them in my essays, and in my email to the admissions committee (adcom).
I wrote the following email to the adcom after I attended a few information sessions, and ended up having a great conversation with them. All my efforts in reaching out were met with warmth and unfeigned kindness, and I was inspired to pay it forward!
My name is [name], and I’ll be applying to [MBA program] this year. I wanted to reach out to request a few minutes of your time.
In the last few months, I got a chance to speak with [alumni names]. After speaking with them, I feel even more passionate about joining the Lauder community. If you have a few minutes in the next couple of weeks, would you be willing to have an introductory chat with me?
As a quick background on myself, [insert educational/ professional background].
Please let me know if you’d be open to chat — I’d really appreciate your time!
6. Essays (May 2021 — August 2021)
I worked on my essays for around three months. I had an ongoing Google document that I edited constantly throughout these week. I found a study cafe that I went every weekend during these months to switch up my writing environment.
Unliked the college common app and extensive supplementary essays, the MBA essays are very straightforward (e.g. Why MBA? Why [school name]?). I wanted my unique passion shine through in writing, so I spent a lot of time trying to tell my story in various sentence structures. I probably went through at least 12 versions of each essay before I was comfortable sharing the essay with others.
I aimed to have a near final draft by mid-August. I then reached out to the alumni that I connected with, and asked them to scan through and give me their honest opinion. I timed my outreach like a waterfall: I’d send my draft to one alum, then tweak my essays based on their comments if I saw the need, and then send the next version to another alum etc. This way, I was able to focus on only one set of feedback at once and not get overwhelmed.
Through this process, I found that people have different preferences in grammar structures, vocabulary etc… While the majority of comments were valuable, I also knew the importance of staying true to my own writing style. Towards the end of the process, I feel like I was able to find a good balance between adhering to and ignoring select comments.
7. Interviews (October 2021 — November 2021)
I received my interview invite(s) on October 27. I had to go through three rounds of interviews for my program. I honestly didn’t prepare more than 30 minutes for each interview because I wanted my natural voice to shine through, and I’ve found in the past that over-preparation can actually hurt me in interviews.
One thing to note — Wharton has a unique group format for their interview. The participants are given a prompt beforehand to prepare for the prompt before. During the actual interview, a group of 6+ candidates discuss the prompt and attempt to reach some sort of conclusion.
I was nervous about whether my preparation would pay off and if my opinion would be picked to be a part of the conclusion.
It absolutely was not.
The discussion actually went to a topic that I had no knowledge of. But my group ended up being incredibly supportive and understanding of each others’ unique level of comfort around the topic, and we were able to present a great conclusion to our interviewees.
My advice for interviews — you’ve already outlined your potential in writing, so you should know yourself as a candidate incredibly well. Interviews are just another medium for expressing your value and level of self-awareness. Focus on making an authentic impression to your future colleagues/ alum network!
I hope this guide helped you — please leave a comment if you have any follow-ups. I want to be a resource and support for those who have big dreams like I do!
Next up: although I’m overjoyed to have the opportunity to be a part of Wharton/Lauder, I’m still nervous about the finances (tuition is expensive/ there’s the opportunity cost of not working for 2 years). I built a robust budget forecast/ tracker that I’m going to use to analyze all finances involved with my degree. I’m planning on sharing my analysis with the Medium community in future posts.
