The B-School app process

I am writing after a long time. I have just started the ultra painful process of a foreign B-school application. The enormity of the application is just mind numbing. It is a 5 step process in my opinion.

1) Crack GMAT
2) Cook up essays on "Why MBA" and "Post MBA Careers"
3) Shortlist univs (There is the whole world to choose from!)
4) Get good recos
5) Profile building - Show some extra curriculars, fast promotions at work etc

I had a discussion with the ever probing Sandeep who questioned the process saying " Dude if you have all that, then why do you need a MBA? You are already a world beater". This got me thinking.

Assume you have to get a loan from a bank. The obvious question from the bank is "security" or a "collateral". As it is often said, to get a loan from a bank you need to prove that you don't need it in the first place. Meaning- If you want a loan for X million, you show that you already have that X million (which becomes your security). In a similar manner, to get admitted into a Top MBA School, you probably need to show them that you are already "MBA material". Your GMAT indicates good grasp of quant and English; your essays reflect clarity of thought and clear goals; your univ selection indicates your ability to filter out relevant stuff from a plethora of options as each univ has its own specialization and also your enthu in doing some R&D before taking a decision ;your recos indicate a sort of a validation from your supervisors about your ability and your extra curricculars indicate how passionate you are about your interests (which probably translates to passionate about work since it automatically qualifies to be an interest as you want to do THIS work in future). So what the Top B School is "lending" you is its Brand; a comprehensive learning experience; networking and ofcourse a position in that company which might elude you without an MBA(the Brand guarantees this). In turn the "returns" you give to the school is your industry insights from your work ex, your decision making skills which you acquired while steering your company's s decisions, your leadership potential and a whole lot of other things which bring value to the class. So the 5 steps above is a sort of "guarantee" to the Admission Commitee which says " OK we are giving him blah blah things, this bloke will add value to the class and to the company which he eventually gets into by virtue of his learnings. "

Just my 2 cents on how I perceive the app process.

On a side note, I was scanning through the FT and WSJ's rankings of Top 100 B-Schools globally. It has stud B schools from the usual suspects like USA, Canada, UK, Spain, Australia, China etc. The surprising omission is Japan. Despite being a global economic superpower, it has NO B-Schools in the Top 100. I actually wonder if it has any great B-schools. A sort of a reply to the West which says "Screw your MBA. We produce top notch products and house some of the world's best companies without your overhyped MBAs". Let me do some research on this.