Atul Jose (Admissions Consultant, F1GMAT): I will start with the motivation behind writing F1GMAT's Essay Guides. When I started consulting and offering editing services – officially – way back in 2012, there was no one offering any sample essays – free or otherwise. Even blogging like how we are seeing now was not prevalent in the MBA admissions market. The first version of Winning MBA Essay Guide or any school-specific Essay Guides had no samples in it. But after reading the 100th book about writing, I noticed that apart from a couple of books, no one showed the work.
Somehow consultants who are former admissions team members or gained first-in-the-market advantage didn’t have any work to show. They sold their pedigree and experience to gain customers and not their writing and editing skills, which constitute 60% of the work.
I, as an Engineer who transitioned to Consulting, Writing, and Editing without an MBA, needed to prove my worth.
My essay guides became the proof of my work. I had no pedigree to fall on. Just my work. From my books, readers converted to clients and got admitted to M7 schools and schools in the top 20 rankings. The referrals kept coming. Soon we began offering niche content for school selection, scholarships, career trends, interview preparation, GMAT, and evolved into what F1GMAT is today.
Over the years, while evaluating the profiles of customers who bought my essay guides, I noticed that there are three kinds of People who use F1GMAT’s Essay Guides.
1) Finding Inspiration
Most of my customers are figuring out how to write an Essay for an MBA Application – the tone, formal vs. informal, the use of creative openers, traditional narratives, specifics of industry/function that could be incorporated in the narrative, the importance of numbers in stories, and how to structure the narrative so that the goals look feasible.
I also noticed how much improvement a sample essay can offer to a motivated applicant who is willing to put in the work. With F1GMAT's Winning MBA Essay Guide, I have shared Sample Essays of the Top 16 MBA Programs including Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Booth, Columbia, Kellogg, Haas, Tuck, Yale, Ross, Darden, NYU Stern, LBS, INSEAD, Duke Fuqua, and MIT Sloan. Read the Samples, understand the principles and techniques, get into the flow state, and then draft from your heart.
I have structured the books into two parts – a How-To section and Samples.
Customers love the Samples, but many have shared that while reading the chapters on leadership, they could find narratives that they used to show non-obvious ways of leadership.
The storytelling section had strategies and tips that many used immediately for the essays. These are lessons I employed while writing over 3000+ articles and analysis for F1GMAT.com and for the research and interview guides.
You will find them useful. Visit F1GMAT Store and Pick an Essay Guide.
2) Copy Paste
The second group are applicants who are under the false impression that copy pasting lines and phrases verbatim or with minor changes will guarantee acceptance to a school.
The trend is so common that I see people posting complaints that a certain narrative didn’t work.
In addition to the risk of getting caught for plagiarism, the applicants are trying to find a pattern from hundreds of essays. It is a fallacy of an analytical mind. No matter how quickly you employ machine learning to find the patterns, you can’t occupy another writer’s soul.
An experienced reviewer will spot the attempt or see the inauthentic narrative.
That is why serious applicants dedicate 2-3 weeks to writing, rewriting, and editing to finally reach a version of the essay that is true to their voice.
All Sample MBA Application Essays are an expression of a person with unique experiences and life goals. Don’t Copy Sample MBA Application Essays. Find inspiration from them. See how the author is applying techniques of building suspense, creating openers, connecting random events, and transitioning.
Learn and apply. Don’t copy.
3) Consultants – Reference Book
The third group that uses my books are Consultants – many competing ones.
It came as a surprise when a competing consultant asked me the timeline when I would release the updated essay guides. He was an ardent fan. I update the essay guides every year from May to August. I make sure that recent events and diverse profiles are included in the Samples.
Do I want to avoid the Copy Paste customers from purchasing the Essay Guides?
Yes. They are misguided.
An average profile is not going to transform into a winning profile by copy-pasting someone else’s work.
You must find the mind behind the words and work with the person.
I am offering Essay Review Service to a select few customers
You can start the conversation here or reach out to me through LinkedIn.
