The Hidden Factor in Grad School Applications: Showing Fit & Match

Updated 2026/10/16

Background

In my last article I shared my take on “The myth of being rejected for being too good: Overqualified“. On forums I often see people say they had a solid background and still got rejected by their safety schools. They conclude it must be because their profile was too strong: the school assumed they wouldn’t enroll even if admitted, so it didn’t make an offer.

In reality, getting rejected for other reasons is far more common than getting rejected for being overqualified! Many applicants never click into the program’s website and read the “admission requirements” carefully, or they don’t tailor each application document “to what the school is looking for”. So today I want to go over a few small steps you can take before you submit, so you can avoid an easy rejection and improve your fit with the school!

Whether you use an application agency or do it yourself, you need to research and note the small differences between each program and school “yourself”. That way you won’t send the same application everywhere without adjusting it to the program, and you won’t make one of the big mistakes. Here are some common errors you can use as a checklist:

The applicant lacks relevant experience

If you lack relevant experience, you have to find related traits and strengths in your indirect experience. For example, a student applying to business analytics whose past internships were in HR or Marketing could write about “the insights I produced from x data points, forms and records using Excel or other data tools”. Use experience that isn’t directly related to show the skills and strengths that matter for the field you’re applying to.

Beyond that, some programs have explicit requirements for your academic background. These usually come in two forms:

• “Students with a background in [field]”: you must have taken certain foundation courses. For schools with this kind of requirement, you can use your application essays to show how you did in those foundation courses and prove you can handle advanced master’s coursework
• “Students without a background in [field]”: programs designed for applicants coming from other fields

Does it have to be this school? Fit & Match!

Put yourself in the admissions officer’s seat. Out of several thousand applications, usually a few hundred meet the requirements. If you can only admit 50 students, how do you choose? Whether you’re applying to school or for jobs, stop thinking about being “Qualified” and aim for “Fit”! Schools do pick the strongest students on objective measures, but very often the deciding factor is how well you match the school!

Ways to look at fit:

• Does the school’s curriculum help you (and your goals)?
• Do the school’s culture, character and strengths match what you want? (Some schools specialize in finance, others are known for developing entrepreneurs, and so on.)
• The school’s location, industry strengths, alumni network, faculty research areas, signature programs or centres, and so on

Have you really read the program’s requirements and strengths?

Many people never read the Program Pathway or Requirements on the website closely, and when they write their essays they don’t adjust them to the pathway they’re interested in or that fits their background. The “Why School?” part of their SOP/PS only skims the program or course names and never gets into the resources, courses or faculty expertise the school or pathway offers.

Plenty of application essays now include a Why School section, but if you just copy the course descriptions from the website, the school may have the following doubts and reject you:

• Maybe you’re not a good fit for this program, or don’t even understand it
• Will our school actually help you reach your goals?
• We offer these courses, but what do they have to do with you?

Conclusion: schools have too many applicants to choose from

Without an interview, looking only at grades, resume, work experience and the like, plenty of people will have similar profiles, so admission or rejection can come down to a split-second call!

A high GPA won’t solve everything in your application. Top schools (especially in the US) do a “Holistic Review” and assess you on GPA, internships, leadership, research experience, personal qualities, volunteering (diversity and inclusion), your future direction and more.

Overall, rejection for being “Overqualified” isn’t that common. The match has to work in both directions: most schools want to pick, from among strong applicants, the ones who “fit” the school, and they also want their resources to actually help the applicant. That’s why, once you meet the basic requirements, “Fit” matters much more than being “Qualified” or “the Best”!