How much does Community Service and Hobbies factor into the admission to an MBA? There is only so many hours in a day.

It's not an absolute deal breaker but my hope is that if you don't have outside extracurricular involvement, you've done some stuff within the company.

Essentially their product is the community that they're selling in large part - the network - and so they are looking for people who invest in community. Rather than treating this like an MBA transaction. So how you operate in the community is a proxy for how you would operate in their school community. And how you would operate as an alum.

Also, extracurricular involvement helps them understand who you are and what is important to you. What you're willing to devote your time to. And they're looking for people who are passionate and act with purpose. It makes you more likable and relatable as a candidate. It brings about an emotional tie.

It can get really monotonous reading work accomplishment after work accomplishment and it's a really nice moment when you can get a glimpse of someone's passions outside of work.

And finally, it’s a chance to demonstrate leadership in a different setting. If you can get a recommendation letter from it, it really adds a new angle.

So, I realize it’s very hard to do this with a grueling work schedule but there are significant benefits. It’s not everything and if you have poor work trajectory it won’t make up for that. But it makes you seem like you would add more value to the class/cohort/alumni and be able to lead in multiple settings.

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