An Emirati friend of mine was recently accepted to Harvard and Stanford Business Schools. He generously agreed to answer some questions on how he did it and why:

Can you share a little bit of your profile with us? Education / work / GMAT etc? – whatever you’re comfortable with

I graduated with Honors from Stanford in 2006 and joined BCG immediately after. I’ve been with them for almost 3 years, and have recently taken a 2 year leave of absence to complete my MBA.

Most of my work with BCG has been in the Middle East, but I’ve also worked in Europe and North America.

GMAT score of 720.

What advice would you give to prospective students from the Middle East looking to apply to business school?

During my application process, I heard and read a lot of very similar advice: “know why you are applying”, “think about and develop a compelling story/angle”, “do your research about the schools/programs”, etc etc. I guess the reason why so many different sources were saying similar stuff, was because most of this advice is true. I found a lot of it to be pretty useful, and so I don’t think I’ll be able to add much to that.

The one thing I would add though is that students from the Middle East should leverage their experiences in the region, because business schools are looking for students with a variety of different backgrounds and perspectives.

I think we have all have very unique and interesting stories to tell, and certainly different from many prospective students applying from more “traditional” bschool applicant pools, such as the US, China and India.

Our region makes us compelling, and therefore we should use it!

How long did you spend preparing for the applications, GMATs etc?

I did the GMAT twice. I got a 680 the first time and a 720 the second time.

While 680 seems like an OK score, the reason I retook it was because there was a large gap between my math performance and verbal performance (I’ve never been great with numbers). So I retook it and focused on math studying the second time around to push the math percentile a bit further up.

Each time, I studied for about 3 weeks. The first time in between work assignments, and the second time during a 2 week vacation.

I applied to three schools, one in each round. Each application took about 5-6 weeks to complete, with the second and third applications taking less time because I wasn’t starting from scratch.

Everyone writes applications differently, but broadly speaking there are really only two ways to go. I got a lot of advice saying that I should spend more time thinking and less time writing. However, I preferred to write my thoughts down as early as possible and keep refining until I was pleased with the end result.

How were the interviews?

The interviews varied a great deal, and in hindsight were really useful in getting an initial impression about the culture of the school.

Two of the three schools I applied to had interviews with alumni. These were generally slightly more conversational and had a slightly more relaxed atmosphere. They were pretty much ‘as advertised’: an opportunity for the school to learn about you, and for you to learn about the school.

The third school had an interview with a member of the admissions committee. This had a more formal tone and felt more like a job interview and less like a ‘get to know you’ session.

Each interview required different types of preparation, but the takeaway for me from all three experiences was that its necessary to know your application story inside out, and be prepared to talk about your application in great detail.

What’s your feeling on the differences between Stanford and Harvard and how will you decide which program is for you?

Tough question!

Both are obviously great schools, and it was an extremely difficult decision, and was based largely on personal reasons.

However, there were a couple of important differences I was considering:

Since I am planning to return to the Middle East post-MBA, I believe that Harvard edges out Stanford in terms of brand recognition and brand value in the Middle East.

Further, the alum networks of Harvard are more extensive than Stanford, particularly in the Middle East and South Asia. This may result from a much larger and slightly more international class

Lastly, since I attended Stanford for undergrad, I opted for Harvard to experience a new school and city.

What are you planning on doing post-MBA and how does B-School get you closer to it?

My long term goal is to work for the government of Dubai or a Dubai government owned company. An MBA, combined with the experience I will gain from BCG immediately after my MBA, will provide me with the tools to be successful in a management position with a key Dubai organization.

Moreover, I am hoping that my MBA will provide access to a network of individuals that will assist in my career development

Any final advice for prospective B-School applicants?

Not really advice, but encouragement. I found the application process to be a very rewarding experience, even before I received an acceptance. The process gives you the opportunity to step back and think deeply about where you’ve come from, where you would like to go, and what is important to you. I think it’s a rare opportunity and you probably won’t be forced to think about these questions again in your career. Take advantage of it!

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