One Application Per Applicant

As one of my last acts in 2007, I submitted my Harvard and Wharton applications yesterday. And then promptly ended up at what turned out to be an awesome party in DC.

The day after, as I re-hydrate my system with detoxifying fluids (whatever that means), I feel an overwhelming sense of relief at having finally submitted. I also feel like penning a thought I had since the past few days as I spent re-positioning essays.

Why can't we have a unified system of applications? Here's how: there would be one set of essays across schools; applicants must pick which ones to write depending on the schools they target, and the message they want to position. There could be a set of 10 essays, and applicants can choose say 5 of those. Applicant picks what schools to apply to, and dispatches the same essays to all those schools (perhaps with an additional essay describing why that school).

Clearly the applicant stands to gain. Countless hours spent re-positioning the same content for different schools could be utilized to introspect. This would make for more focused essays, more/better reflection on career goals and hence (hopefully) a better business school experience. By forcing the applicant to choose one message, schools get a true picture of what a candidate really is, taking the guesswork out of the entire 'fit' question. And that is precisely what schools stand to gain.

Also, this might likely reduce the number of applicants applying to each school. Enforcing the one message policy would reduce simultaneous applications to schools with very different cultures (Eg Wharton and Tuck. Sorry, but I fail to understand how an applicant could be a perfect fit for both Wharton and Tuck). A lower, more focused application volume would make the selection process easier for Admissions Officers.

Now lets do some math. Take the average MBA applicant, Mr Joe Hopeful.

• Mr Hopeful applies to 4 schools, lets say he's a first timer, and applies in R2.
  
• 16 essays total (Mr Hopeful does not have extenuating circumstances). Let's say 7 of those are similar which means they almost count as one. That makes 10 unique, non-reusable essays.
• Each essay takes Mr Hopeful 10 hours to think about, write and review.
• His reviewers spend an additional 10 hours in total.
• Plus another 10 hours that he takes to write the online details for 4 schools.
• Plus 5 hours that he spends creating content for his two recommenders, who in turn each spend five hours on Mr Hopeful's recommendation.
• Add it all up: 100+10+10+5+10 = 135 manhours spent on Mr Hopeful's MBA application.

Now lets take our system.

• Mr Hopeful must write a set of 5 essays.
• Even if he spends 12 hours on each, thats 60 hours.
• Plus 5 (reviewers)
• Plus 2 (online application details)
• Plus 3 (creating content for recommenders)
• Plus 10 hours spent by the recommenders themselves.
• That adds up to 80 hours.

Hence:

• Time saved: 55 manhours per Mr Hopeful.
• There are 175,000 Mr Hopefuls that apply each year. (Source: GMAC Annual Report)
• Total time saved: 9625000 manhours.
• Which is roughly the work that an 1100 person team can get done working 24 hours a day for a year. And this is just for full-time programs MBA programs.

My numbers may be off, but you get the point.

I'm sure that this has been discussed by schools before - so what holds back a unified admission system?