We are deeply influenced by our identities, and they are not stagnant. The biggest predictor of a person’s likelihood that they would volunteer for a cause is the identity they strongly believe they belong to.
When you mention your plan in your MBA Goals Essay or how you will contribute to the school community through school clubs and consulting engagements, deeply think about which identity resonates most with you. The authenticity in your writing will show if you care about your identity.
Before you pick an identity, understand that we interpret identity in 7 ways:
- Identity based on social categorization
- Identity based on permanent traits
- Identity based on profession
- Identity based on skills
- Identity based on values
- Identity based on responsibilities
- Identity based on preferences
Identity based on social categorization
If you look at student clubs, you are likely to see social clubs. These are broad identities driven by nationality, region, ethnicity, and religion. They are the second type of association that is evoked when we hear the word ‘identity.’
Avoid Religion and Politics
Religion and Politics are the most controversial identities. Even if you have strong feelings about the two identities, it is wise to stay out of these identities in your MBA essays. Even the themes that make the two identities sacred and universal can be misinterpreted if you don’t use the right phrases.
The only exceptions I have read are candidates working in the government. Even for them, they were strategic in highlighting the issues that would benefit a demographic or policy mismatches that are affecting citizens.
Identity based on permanent traits - sexual orientation/gender/physical attributes
The primary association with the word identity is around gender, sexual orientation, and physical attributes. These are permanent traits and preferences that will remain permanent for most of us.
One of the narratives I helped a client with was a narrative on finding acceptance from a conservative family when he revealed his sexual orientation. The causes he supported were not just about empowering the LGBTQ+ communities but also about empowering the underrepresented ‘identities’ across society.
He strongly identified with the underrepresented.
Identity based on profession
Unless you are in an industry for life, your identity based on your profession will evolve from roles to responsibilities to client types (if you are in consulting) to technologies. Even though short-term post-MBA goals should be narrated with professional identity, long-term goals and vision to contribute should be beyond your professional identity.
Identity based on skills
This is where my earlier hypothesis of internal & external motivation vs. skills for a career should influence your narrative. No one is a one-skill candidate. We have varying degrees of creative, analytical and interpersonal skills that are developed or underdeveloped.
Your desire to develop underdeveloped skills through volunteering or through entrepreneurial pursuit in the school will be believable only if you can craft a narrative on why ‘identity’ matters to you.
Identity + Belonging – Motivation and Goals Essay
Now, just writing from an identity is the first instinct for applicants as it helps them stand out. But you must imagine that your competitors are also using the same strategy. Think from the admissions team’s perspective.
10 Essays all talk about the identity of, say, immigrating from a ‘war-torn country.’ Ask yourself these three questions:
- How can the admissions team differentiate that you are different from the nine other applicants?
- What aspect of your essay will demonstrate that you are not just on identity but multiple identities that the school is also seeking to accept?
- What ‘sense of belonging’ can you bring to the school community that resonates with US culture and values?
Values become a key narrative addition for differentiating from similar primary identities – social, professional, and skills.
Identity based on values
The strongest essays all have clearly highlighted identity based on values. There are no universal values that are acceptable across Eastern, Middle Eastern, African, and Western cultures.
Essay Tips – For International Applicants
Even the behavioral framework at UN – considered the template for an international organization, only four values are considered universal – inclusion, integrity, humility and humanity.
In any narrative, when you highlight one of the four values, you are taking a safe bet of fitting into a theme that complements your journey in a highly capitalistic – reward-driven corporate world.
Inclusion narratives are the most repeated template but remains the most successful in M7 schools. The value cuts across cultures and ethnicity from its inherent association with ‘justice’ – a value that we are born with.
Identity based on responsibilities
Identity based on responsibilities are often narrated by applicants from low-income and migrant families with the additional burden of taking care of family dependents who have lost livelihood, physical abilities, and wealth from war. Schools have additional space to offer this context.
Agency – Overcoming Hardships
I have read the first drafts of several essays (many reapplicants), which assumed that by evoking the ‘empathetic’ nerve in the admissions person, they could influence admissions. I also have written extensively about storytelling in F1GMAT’s Winning MBA Essay Guide but the problem is that applicants are overusing this technique. For an authentic narrative on overcoming hardships, you need a fundamental understanding of a ‘sense of agency.’ I have written about it in ‘Agency in MBA Essays – The Secret to Capturing Motivation.’ Read and understand before writing your draft.
Identity based on preferences
The least effective essays are identity based on personal preference. There is nothing wrong in choosing West Coast schools from your preference for tolerable weather, but it should never be part of your narrative.
