Those who have applied to master’s or undergraduate degrees in the US are aware of the Statement of Purpose or Purpose statement. It is a 250-500 word essay citing why a program and the degree is right for an applicant.
In MBA programs, the purpose statement is known as the Goals Essay.
While drafting MBA application goals essay, you should be aware that the style and length of the essay varies depending on the schools you are applying. For the Top 10 to 20 Schools, the goals essays are similar to the statement of purpose. Even then, here are 5 best practices you should keep in mind while creating the goals essay.
1) Voice and Storytelling
A big difference between the statement of purpose and the goals essay is the voice. Unlike a voice that is common in cover letters like the MIT Sloan MBA Cover letter format, applicants have the freedom to be more personal with the goals essay. The narrative can expand to events and motivations outside professional career. To capture authentic goals, you should start with the purpose behind your goals.
2) Long Term Goals
In statement of purpose, the long-term goals are abstract and not specifically tied to the curriculum of the program. With 3-5 years of experience and a network of accomplished managers, executives, peers with specialized skills, and entrepreneurs in the applicant’s network, they have a much better understanding of how to reach the long-term goals. Often applicants mention them in the goals essay. Still, both Statement of Purpose and goals essay primarily focus on the short-term goals.
3) Short-Term Goals and Specific Value Statement
An MBA is a tool to switch careers or enhance one’s position in a career. This is not accomplished by just listening to classroom lectures.
Student Clubs, Networking Events, Entrepreneurial initiatives, consulting engagements, managing portfolio, speaker series, global study tours and peer groups in the class often influence your short-term career goals. Many switch from the stated short-term goals in the essay to a completely different path after gaining exposure to a concept or industry during industry treks or a networking event or exposure to peers from different backgrounds. You don’t have to mention such examples as schools prefer applicants with specific goals over vague career paths. Instead, you must do in-personal research with current students and alumni to find specific value statements about the program.
Goals Essay can transform with examples that go beyond simple quotes of the curriculum.
4) Research and Motivation
Like in the Statement of Purpose, specific examples about the value from the MBA program and the ecosystem ranks over general summaries that you can find in the curriculum page or the PR releases of the schools or sponsored articles with partner publications.
Citing the person you networked and the value statement the person shared could be the difference between a persuasive and a mediocre goals essay.
5) Ambition
If you are citing a simple switching to Finance or entering a new function, you are less likely to leave a lasting impression for M7 or even top 10 schools. The objective and increase in salary are implied. It is the ambition of changing an ecosystem, introducing new systems, technology, and process to improve beneficiaries’ lives, or adding a specific value to a region you grew up or taking on initiatives in clean energy, access to education and finance, or themes of optimizing government processes that often leave a lasting impression in the admissions team’s mind.
To connect your background with your post-MBA goals, you need the expertise of a writer like me who has written and edited over 500+ sample essays (with F1GMAT’s Essay Guides over the past decade and a half). Start a conversation here on creating a persuasive MBA goals essay.
