How to Use your Sports Background to Get Admitted to MBA Programs
To be a successful athlete requires certain traits: ambition, determination, resilience and teachability. Capable leaders who also know how to take a step back and work well as part of a team.
These are many of the same traits valued by top MBA programs. So it’s no surprise that we’ve met many clients with sports backgrounds at varsity, semi-professional, or even professional level. For most, their sporting experiences have shaped their values, discipline, and relationships. However, they’re often unsure of how to leverage them for their MBA applications. If that’s you, listen up.
In this blog, we’ll discuss how you can incorporate your sports experiences into your MBA application to make it more impactful and maximize your chance of admission to top MBA programs.
Create a compelling story
Don’t relegate your sports experience to a corner of your resume. Many applicants have formative sports stories from college or high school that are foundational to the way they interact with others, think about achievements and goals, and overcome failure.
Of course, participating in a sport doesn’t necessarily mean that you have the leadership skills to handle business school. That’s why it’s important to choose a story from your upbringing, undergraduate, extracurriculars, and professional life that demonstrates impact. Even if you didn’t compete at the Olympics (although that would be very impressive), your sporting background can provide the AdCom with valuable context and paint a picture of your personality. If you were/are in a Captain position in a sports team, that may also lead to interesting stories about mentorship, community, and leadership.
Once you’ve identified and fleshed out the sports stories you’ll use in your MBA application, you can discuss the transferable skills that have contributed to your academic or professional accomplishments. These include:
Being goal-oriented
Managing your time efficiently
Resilience and perseverance
Collaborating and communicating effectively with a team
Giving and receiving feedback
Emotional regulation and building focus
Motivating or mentoring others
Business leaders all over the world apply these very skills in a variety of contexts; so think about what your takeaways are from your sports experiences, and how they have shaped you into a better professional.
Connect your experiences to your goals
A few years ago, one of our clients used her experience in sport to build a particularly impactful career narrative. We’ve scrubbed the details for privacy, but this example should give you an understanding of how you could connect your experiences to your post-MBA goals:
“As a young girl, I was not allowed onto certain sports teams because they were traditionally for boys. But I loved the competition and rigor of sports nevertheless. When I found my niche, I practiced and developed my skill until I won multiple world championships and featured in global media outlets. I became one of the best female players of my sport, and helped elevate other women in that sport. After the MBA, my ambition is to create opportunities for women to break into traditionally male dominated sports.”
While our client’s story perfectly connected to her goals, many applicants with a sporting background are planning to leave the sports industry after their MBA. For example, many applicants use an MBA to pivot into opportunities in consulting/finance/tech (who traditionally also value the experience of top athletes). But just because you plan to pivot out of the sports industry, that doesn’t mean that you can’t use your sports experience in your MBA application! For example, if you are an aspiring consultant, you could describe how your sports experience taught you to think strategically, a skill you later used in your career. Or using competitive analysis and game stats to design a game plan – a skill that you could apply as a product manager.
Finding these parallels will help you think more critically about your motivations, values, and the leadership style you apply at work.
How will you use your sports experience at business school?
Many business schools have a “Contributions” essay as part of their MBA application. Some examples are:
Wharton: Taking into consideration your background—personal, professional, and/or academic—how do you plan to make specific, meaningful contributions to the Wharton community? (400 words; Required)
Cornell: At Cornell, our students and alumni share a desire to positively impact the organizations and communities they serve. How do you intend to make a meaningful impact on an elite MBA community? (350 words maximum)
Tuck: Tell us who you are. How have your values and experiences shaped your identity and character? How will your background contribute to the diverse Tuck culture and community? (300 words)
Applicants with a background in sports should think about how they can contribute their transferable skills to the MBA community. Most MBA programs have student clubs focused on specific sports (for example, Wharton has approximately 20 athletic clubs!) where students involved in a sport can network and share their passion with a like-minded community. Applicants often choose to write about how they can contribute to these clubs and student associations using their skills, past experiences, and networks. Some may want to enter leadership positions in the club. Others may want to mentor youth sports in partnership with larger community organizations during their MBA.
So spend some time thinking about the sports that have had a significant, positive impact on your life, goals, and relationships. Introspect to understand why you sought it out in the first place, how it has shaped your ideas of success and failure, how it has helped you work in teams, recover from injuries, and develop resilience. This will help differentiate you from other applicants and make your profile more holistic in the eyes of the AdCom. There’s definitely a place for your sports background in your MBA application!
Are you an MBA applicant with a sports background? Start building your narrative by booking a free chat with our team of expert consultants.
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