Many applicants to business school need to address a weakness in their candidacy. In some cases it’s a lower than average GPA or GMAT, in others it’s a lack of international experience, limited outside activities or a circuitous career path and ambiguous goals. Luckily, one’s MBA application is really a multi-variable equation, where weakness in one area can often be balanced by strength in another and so on.

While balancing weaknesses with strengths is crucial, one should also keep in mind the fact that many weaknesses must be addressed directly. In other words, it’s often not enough to simply push your strengths and hope that they distract from your weaknesses.

Let’s use an example to make this point clear. Assume there exists a candidate with the following profile:
JOHN DOE
-GPA: 3.6 from a leading school
-GMAT: 630 (has taken the exam once)
-4 years of excellent work experience with international exposure, leadership, etc
-extensive outside activities
-clear and logical career goals

Most of our readers should instantly spot the weakness here – since John Doe’s GMAT is roughly 70 points below the average at the top 10 MBA programs. The first strategy one might employ in this case would be to emphasize John’s GPA and highlight all of his other attributes in hopes of balancing out the GMAT weakness in the MBA admissions equation. The argument would be that the GMAT has not accurately measured the John’s ability and that the committee should use his GPA as a better predictor of academic performance. This argument would typically be made in a supplemental/optional essay.

While the above strategy is certainly a valid one to pursue, it may not hold much water in this instance because John has only taken the GMAT once. In other words, John knows that he is significantly shy of the schools’ average score (he’s written a supplemental essay about it) yet he’s opted to settle for 630 and move on. Since most MBA programs take your highest GMAT score, this might suggest that John has missed an opportunity to give the exam another shot. Worse, it could suggest that John is lazy (e.g. that he knows the exam is important to admissions officers but isn’t willing to put the effort into a second test).

Let’s assume that John does the right thing and resits the exam, earning a 650. While disappointed in his score (which still falls below the average at top schools), John can now make the following argument to the admissions committee:
1) I am unhappy with my GMAT performance, which is below the average at your school
2) Because I recognize the importance of the exam in the admissions process, I worked hard to sit the exam twice and improve my score
3) Despite my efforts, my second exam was only slightly better than my first result
4) I do not feel that the test is accurately measuring my academic abilities – in fact, I’ve never been strong on standardized tests
5) I encourage the committee to consider my GPA and course selection in college, both of which should indicate that I will be a strong performer in the MBA classroom

While this is just one example, our goal is to highlight the fact that many weaknesses need to be BOTH balanced by strengths and properly addressed head-on. Contact Clear Admit directly to learn more about our services and how we can help you strategically address weaknesses.