6 DO’s and DON'Ts for the Deferred MBA Resume | dMBA Weekly Check-In: March 4, 2025
Your deferred MBA resume can be your best friend, IF you give it the love and attention it deserves.
Forget everything you know about resumes.
Well, not everything. All I’m trying to say is that the deferred MBA resume is a beast of its own.
Today, I’ll give you some of the DO’s and DON’Ts on how to get your resume in tip-top shape for your deferred MBA application!
In today’s email…
On Your Radar: This week’s deferred MBA admissions events
Tip of the Week: Your MBA resume ≠ your job resume!
Join the MBAxcel Club on Discord and LinkedIn!
Join fellow deferred MBA applicants on Discord and LinkedIn to discuss admissions tips, share feedback, and navigate the world of dMBA programs together.
In our Discord, you’ll find…
School-specific forums
Channels for specific application requirements (GMAT, GRE, essays, interviews, etc.)
Voice channels/study lounges
Live webinars
And more!
On Your Radar
Darden (UVA): Future Year Scholar Program Information Session
When: Tuesday, March 4, 2025, 12:00 PM to 12:45 PM EST
Where: Virtual
Details: Interested in learning more about the MBA degree and the deferred enrollment pathway? Join Katherine Alford and Merav Frazier from Darden Admissions to learn more about this opportunity.
Haas (Berkeley): Accelerated Access Info Session
When: Tuesday, March 4, 2025, 9:30 AM to 10:00 AM PST
Where: Virtual
Details: Curious about Accelerated Access, the deferred admission application pathway to Berkeley Haas's top rated full-time MBA program? In this session, you'll learn about the value of an MBA, what makes Berkeley Haas special, and what we look for in outstanding candidates to the program.
Harvard (HBS): 2+2 Program Information Session
When: Wednesday, March 5, 2025, 5:00 PM to 5:45 PM EST
Where: Virtual
Details: Calling all college students! Join this virtual info session hosted by a member of the HBS MBA Admissions Team to learn about the MBA program, the admissions process and financial aid, and the 2+2 deferred admissions pathway.
Columbia (CBS): Deferred Enrollment Program Women's Application Roundtable
When: Tuesday, March 11, 2025, 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM EDT
Where: Virtual
Details: This event is designed for women who are planning to apply for our Deferred Enrollment Program (Deadline: April 15, 2025), and are putting the finishing touches on the application. Bring your questions and we encourage you to keep your video on for the duration of the session!
Yale SOM: Silver Scholars Q&A
When: Wednesday, March 12, 2025, 12:00 PM to 12:45 PM EDT
Where: Virtual
Details: Join us for a live online Q&A session hosted by a Yale SOM Silver Scholars Admissions Committee member. These are small, interactive sessions where all participants are encouraged to share their audio and video, replicating the group conversation you would experience during an in-person campus visit. For this reason seats are limited. Kindly register for only one Silver Scholars session.
Harvard (HBS): 2+2 Alum Insights: AMA Edition
When: Wednesday, March 12, 2025, 5:00 PM to 5:45 PM
Where: Virtual
Details: Join Harvard Business School MBA students for an Ask Me Anything about the 2+2 program. This session will give you the opportunity to engage with students who have already been where you are and benefitted from all the 2+2 program has to offer.
Kellogg (Northwestern): Kellogg Future Leaders Virtual Information Session
When: Thursday, March 13, 2025, 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM CDT
Where: Virtual
Details: Please join us for a virtual information session on the Kellogg Future Leaders deferred enrollment program. Kellogg admissions team members will give an overview of the program and provide context on the application itself.
Stanford GSB: Ask the Admissions Office - Deferred Enrollment
When: Thursday, March 13, 2025, 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM PDT
Where: Virtual
Details: Sometimes you just have a question. Join us for this Q&A session with members of the MBA Admissions team dedicated solely to addressing what's on your mind.
Darden (UVA): Future Year Scholars Program Virtual Coffee Chat
When: Tuesday, March 18, 2025, 10:00 AM to 10:45 AM EDT
Where: Virtual
Details: Chats are small group events for prospective students who are interested in learning more about Darden. Join Senior Associate Director of Global Recruitment, Merav Frazier, to learn more about the deferred admissions application process, what top business schools are looking for, and the value of an MBA degree.
Harvard (HBS): 2+2 Program Application Q&A
When: Wednesday, March 19, 2025, 5:00 PM to 5:30 PM EDT
Where: Virtual
Details: If you’re a final-year undergraduate student (or master’s student) contemplating or gearing up to apply for the 2+2 program, this virtual session is for you. The session will be hosted by a member of the MBA Admissions Team and will include a short presentation on the admissions process and plenty of time for questions.
Berkeley (Haas): Accelerated Access: Application Prep Webinar
When: Tuesday, March 25, 2025, 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM PDT
Where: Virtual
Details: Our App Prep Webinar is one of the most valuable resources available during your MBA application journey. If you are a current undergraduate or graduate student and considering applying to the Haas MBA through Berkeley Haas Accelerated Access, our deferred application pathway, join us for our webinar.
Darden (UVA): Future Year Scholars Program Application Tips
When: Tuesday, March 25, 2025, 12:00 PM to 12:45 PM EDT
Where: Virtual
Details: With the application deadline less than 2 weeks away, join Katherine Alford and Merav Frazier from Darden Admissions for last minute tips on how to put your best foot forward in your application. Bring your questions!
Columbia (CBS): Deferred Enrollment Program Campus Visit
When: Tuesday, March 25, 2025, 1:15 PM to 3:15 PM EDT
Where: Columbia Business School - Kravis Hall, 665 W 130th St, New York, NY 10027
Details: Join us for a Deferred Enrolled Program Campus Visit at Columbia Business School! Campus Visits are a great opportunity to have your questions answered by Admissions and visit our campus in Manhattanville!
Columbia (CBS): Virtual Deferred Enrollment Program Information Session
When: Wednesday, March 26, 2025, 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM EDT
Where: Virtual
Details: Interested in the Deferred Enrollment Program? Register for this webinar to hear from CBS admissions about the program and our application process.
Editor’s Note
Many dMBA schools offer on-campus events regularly, which I do not always include in these posts. I’ll usually highlight them here if they are deferred MBA-specific.
Looking for a full list of dMBA admissions sites?
Check out our FREE updated 2025 dMBA admissions guide here!
MBAxcel Tip of the Week: Your MBA resume ≠ your job resume!
The purpose of your resume in the context of a deferred MBA application is actually very different from, say, applying to a full-time role or internship.
Why?
Well, the admissions team isn’t looking for technical skills. In fact, in many cases, they likely care very little about the coding languages you know or the certifications you have.
The admissions team is searching for your leadership potential.
When MBA admissions teams are looking to put together a stellar class of potential students, they’re trying to answer two main questions:
Does this candidate have what it takes to succeed academically?
Will this candidate be a valuable resource to their fellow students and the MBA community?
The first question is generally answered by looking at your college transcript and GRE/GMAT scores. The second question, however, is more nuanced, and can be answered by your personal statements, letters of recommendation, and of course, your resume.
Consequently, the second question is the exact question you want to answer with 95% of your resume (outside of your GPA and college major/minor). What did you involve yourself in? What are you passionate about? And, most importantly, why did you do the things that you chose to commit time to?
So, take this time to craft a resume specifically tailored to the MBA program. One that communicates your value and impact, not just how smart you are.
With that, let’s go over some quick DO’s and DON’Ts in the deferred MBA resume game.
DO: Emphasize your leadership roles.
I mean, at the end of the day, leadership is what business school is all about, isn’t it?
Regardless of whether or not you had explicitly assigned leadership “positions” in your roles or not, it’s important to show that you are a leader in everything you do.
It doesn’t matter if all you did at your internship was grab coffee for the manager and play crosswords. Did you take initiative? How did you exude leadership DNA even at this junior level?
Conversely, it really doesn’t matter if you were the president of 20 clubs. What was your impact? What made you a great leader? I’m asking lots of questions here, but I hope this helps to jog your brain and realize what an amazing leader you are.
DON’T: Use technical/industry jargon.
Your Python proficiency really has nothing to do with what you can bring to an MBA class. Instead of focusing on the “what” behind your technical knowledge, bring out the “why.” Why did you pursue these skills? How did learning these impact your career? Did you proactively seek to learn these skills?
If you’ve got a lot of technical jargon in your resume, take this time to explain what you do as if you were explaining it to your grandmother. Avoid getting too specific: remember, this resume should be about you as a person, not your GitHub repository.
DO: Personalize your resume.
Show the reader what makes you unique. Do you have a cool talent or hobby? Maybe you studied a nontraditional background? Did you take on a unique volunteering experience? Pull on the “weird” side of your accomplishments to help you stand out better as an applicant.
In a sea of incredibly qualified, smart, high-achieving candidates, what makes you special?
DON’T: Put quantity over quality.
Your resume doesn’t have to be a list of everything that you’ve ever done. If it was, it’d be 10 pages long, and nobody wants to read that (no offense).
Instead, allow the resume to paint a picture that supplements the rest of your application. Write your resume in a way that supports the narrative you’ve crafted yourself on your personal statements.
What does that look like? If you’re looking to enter entrepreneurship, focus on the entrepreneurial aspects of your experience. If you want to go into investment banking or private equity, showcase your work that is adjacent to these fields.
DO: Include the background, action, and result of your work.
Have you heard of the STAR or BAR method?
When I was a career skills coach at Boston University as an undergrad, I helped students craft resumes using a method that we coined the BAR method: B for Background, A for Action, and R for Result.
Essentially, in your resume, you want to write your bullet points with the intention of answering three overarching questions:
B: Background – What did you do?
A: Action – How did you do it?
R: Result – Why did you do it (or what was the purpose/result)?
Here’s an example, using a bullet point I wrote on my MBA resume:
Background: Executed print and web advertising deals
Action: Via negotiation and invoicing
Result: Producing monthly revenue of $4,000+
Final Result: Executed print and web advertising deals via negotiation and invoicing, producing monthly revenue of $4,000+
Take a minute to look over your resume. Are you sufficiently answering the questions of the BAR method in each of your bullets?
Chances are, you aren’t! Before I learned this method, my resume only really included the Background and the Action part, but not the Result. That seems to be the most common mistake. No worries! Take a minute to try the BAR method out. Trust me, after doing one or two, you’ll get the hang of it really quick.
If you’re interested in reading more examples or learning more about this method, check out this one-pager from the Questrom School of Business Undergraduate Development Center (where I used to work!).
DON’T: Overlap with the rest of your application.
The resume is just one brush stroke in the masterpiece you are creating (your application). It’s there to supplement the rest of your application, not just to repeat what’s in your essays.
You’ve got limited space! Just one page! So, if there’s an experience that you wrote more about in a different part of your application, feel free to reduce its space on your resume to make room for the other amazing things you’ve done.
Postscript.
Huge shoutout to the Gamma Chapter of Delta Sigma Pi at Boston University for hosting my first MBAxcel Deferred MBA 101 workshop! As an alum of DSP and BU, it was such an honor to be back presenting about deferred MBA programs.
If you’d be interested in seeing a webinar or video about deferred MBA programs or any aspect of the application process, do let me know in the comments! I’d love to bring these presentations to more people.
Exciting things ahead! Keep pushing forward! See you next week.