How do you plan to use the Wharton MBA program to help you achieve your future professional goals? You might consider your past experience, short and long-term goals, and resources available at Wharton. (Professional Gain)(500 words)
Past experiences and your impact are a great indicator of your potential to contribute at Wharton. When creating a narrative on connecting pre-MBA experience with post-MBA goals, applicants miss an important aspect– The Gap.
Previous Experience -> Achievements -> Gap -> Wharton MBA -> Goals
This structure of clearly demarking the narrative for the Wharton Goals essay will help you demonstrate motivation. Many times, applicants spread their motivation across the essay, making it challenging for the admissions team to understand why you need an MBA, let alone a Wharton MBA.
To streamline the Wharton Goals essay, include one of these 5 gaps:
1) Lack of Functional Knowledge and Wharton Curriculum
Most of the functional knowledge gaps are tied to the curriculum. The courses and experiential learning shouldn’t look like something that you have already experienced or too generic to offer a specific value. The best source to understand the value is the Wharton MBA course description page, where the school has offered detailed perspective about the structure, value, and application of the course for different backgrounds.
Customizing the course details to your profile is a big part of our editing service. During the edit, a small shortcut I developed to see if the customization works is to switch the profile and see if it doesn’t make any difference.
A VC and a PE profile, if they both quote similar values from the curriculum, then the goals essay is not effective.
Like a reporter talking to sources, you must reach out to the current students (similar job function) through LinkedIn and learn first-hand the courses that have immediate value. Many a time – what the school promotes to be their star attraction in a curriculum is not what the students find the most value in. Even the superstar professors that admissions publications rave about might be standing on a few reputed lectures over consistent engagement that some Wharton professors are known to offer. Include the names of the professors after you confirm their tenure.
2) Stereotyping into a role
Another common gap narrative is around stereotyping. When you are excellent in a niche or a role, employers want to leverage your skills for multiple projects, scenarios, and client locations. Each experience, although distinct, can easily stereotype you as an expert.
From FinTech expert tag to deal sourcing guru – apart from the cool titles, the responsibilities start to be repeated, and that is when a Wharton MBA becomes crucial to pivot to a different or broader role.
3) Lack of confidence
In a hyper-posturing world where ‘confidence’ implies competence, not many applicants choose to show vulnerability and share that there was an engagement where their confidence was at an all-time low.
One accounting professional shared the panic of sorting through a complex deal where the accounting standards switched three regulatory bodies and 5 countries. As the only accounting person in a multi-billion-dollar deal, he needed several guidance to manage the complexity. The skill gap in two specific areas was highlighted to show the gap and share the reasons for the lack of confidence.
Any lack of confidence that came from a lack of knowledge or exposure is fodder for a winning Wharton MBA Goals Essay. Use it strategically.
4) Leadership Development to Pivot from Technical to Management/Consulting
Many times, the specific skillset to pivot from a technical to a General Management or Consulting role requires less functional knowledge and more leadership skills. Even Wharton knows that a 2-year program is not going to transform you into a leader with traits that are atypical of your personality traits. But if you start the essay with the narrative that asserts your foundational leadership qualities, the gap could be around gaining specific leadership insights to pivot to General Management or excel in Consulting.
5) Global Experiential Learning and Cultural Intelligence
The cultural intelligence gap should be carefully structured. The narrative should not hint at a lack of adaptability to a global class or global culture but go into specific values that you plan to derive from a location’s strength.
The Wharton Global Immersion Program (GIP) is an elective that was designed with this objective. By offering Wharton MBA students interactions with business leaders, local stakeholders, and Wharton alumni in influential positions and interacting with different government officials, students gain the cultural intelligence to do business in the region or expand their reach to the market.
The GIP is divided into three sessions: on-campus, study tour, and a final written assignment. One quarter before the travel, students meet for five in-class sessions where the faculty briefs about the geopolitical climate, history, economy, etiquette, culture, and social practices in the visiting region.
In the Wharton Goals essay, care should be given to clearly show that you had gaps. Without the gaps, the goals – no matter how feasible don’t demonstrate motivation to pursue a 2-year Wharton MBA program.
The value should be specific and meaningful for you.
