Life Outside the Office
This weekend, I’m off on the adventure of a lifetime to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa in support of the Strachan Hartley Legacy Foundation. It’s been an incredible few months of physical and mental preparation, and pushing myself outside of my comfort zone to tackle a fundraising goal of $10,000 CDN (I’m nearly there, and have been overwhelmed by the moral and financial support I’ve received in taking on this challenge). Given that a lot of my time outside of the office over the past few months has been spent focusing on Kilimanjaro, I wanted to share my take on the importance of both extra-curricular involvement and international travel as components of an MBA application.
The headline here is that extra-curricular involvement and international travel are two areas where you can set yourself apart from applicants with similar educational and professional backgrounds. While neither is typically an admissions requirement, they provide insight into your passions and help the admissions committee to learn more about who you are as a person.
Extra-curricular involvement can take many forms and be of varying degrees of commitment. Things to keep in mind when filling out an MBA application are recency and level of involvement. I advise applicants to use a five year rule, meaning include activities you have participated in during the last five years, but omit anything prior; for example, an admissions committee doesn’t need to know the activities you were involved in during high school.
In terms of the level of commitment, this is where your judgment comes into play. While participation on sports teams, memberships in clubs, and occasional volunteer commitments show that a person is well-rounded and has interests outside of the office, it is more important to highlight any leadership roles you have played extra-curricularly. For example, are you the captain of a team or do you coach younger players? Do you hold an executive position within a club? Have you spearheaded an initiative for a charitable organization or participated in a fundraising campaign? This is the type of information that we like to know because the greater the degree of involvement and responsibility, the better the activity highlights your leadership potential.
International travel can be tricky because many people simply haven’t had the opportunity or desire to travel outside of their home country. However, it is helpful for an admissions committee to know if you have studied, worked, or traveled abroad because these experiences can provide a richness and diversity to your application. While you don’t need to list every Caribbean vacation you’ve ever taken, if you have backpacked across Europe, did an exchange semester abroad, or had an incredible cultural experience outside of your home country, share it. In addition to providing us more insight into your story as an applicant, asking about a travel experience is a great way for an interviewer to break the ice in an interview!