A big misconception applicants have is around the value of an Admissions Consultant.
I get this question quite a lot – are you an MBA?
The question shows that the applicant is at the early stage of researching consultants.
Not everybody needs an outline to write the essay. If you have a blog or your professional work requires regular written communication, writing might have become second nature to you, but even the seasoned professional need a crutch to navigate essays where the subject is not a client or a news release or a newsletter, but themselves.
Use outline if you have:
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.
Wordiness is a guilty pleasure for publishers with little consequence unless we overindulge and lose our audience. In your case, wordiness will decide whether you fit the essay within the recommended word limit or you annoy the MBA Admissions team.
When you are just hours away from submitting your application, it can feel daunting, and many applicants miss out on small details that can jeopardize even the most planned application. Here are 3 best practices before you submit your application.
1) Consistency of Voice
I remember reading an essay for review where the applicant was passionately talking about a cause that was controversial. At the end of the 2nd paragraph, the applicant went on to criticize a Businessperson - a public figure who happened to have close associations with the Business School. It clearly showed a lack of awareness.
He is among the 549 people from a population of 7.4 billion to have reached space, and among the first from 1.2 billion Indians to do so.
Read: The Opening Line for MBA Essays
Most MBA applicants use the opening line as a shock element. They start with something tragic, violent, anxiety-inducing, or scenery that gives the reader perspective that they are living a much more comfortable life compared to what the applicant went through. This approach works if your story truly has something unique – war, trauma, coming back from a life-threatening illness, or a challenge related to your identity.
If you are applying to Stanford, Harvard, Wharton, or any M7 MBA programs, you must assume that your competitors have unique life and career journeys.
In this Haas MBA Application Essay Tips series, I will talk about strategies to shortlist the example for the Haas What Makes You Feel Alive Essay.
The Duke Fuqua MBA application has three required essays. One is about the goal. The second is about the 25 random things, and the third is about how you will contribute to the Fuqua Community. Applicants, however, strategize the 25 random things as an opportunity to showcase personality traits that they couldn't highlight with Essay 3 - the three ways you will contribute to the Fuqua Community.
Atul Jose (MBA Admissions Consultant, F1GMAT): The answer is – it depends.
Today I will share three stereotypes you must address in your essays to stand out from competing Investment Banking MBA applicants.
Q) I don’t have international work experience or experience in the US. Will that affect my chances for admission to a top US MBA program
What was the error in my strategy?
You can’t write interesting narratives without reflecting and connecting two events. This essential skill can lead to misguided attribution and flawed causal relationship. The success of a project – timeline, exceeding quality guidelines and helping the company acquire a new asset or improving their stock value or reputation, depends on multiple factors.
In a hurry to quantify IMPACT, MBA applicants either overestimate their contribution or doesn’t cover the direct correlation of their contribution to the company’s quarterly/annual results. Both stem from Attribution Error.
What I learned evaluating hundreds of applicants’ growth is that individual projects tend to have a clear IMPACT over team projects. This seems counter-intuitive as what you do professionally as a team should have defined you as a person.
A safe rule of thumb is 15 minutes.
If you are staring at a screen or a notebook without adding even a single line for over 15 minutes, it is time to frame the next line with questions.
Why 15 minutes?
I have seen MBA applicants, play with the rough draft on sentences that they should not, but the sheer perseverance sparked a free flow of sentences that became the foundation of their story. Don't underestimate the power of starring at a blank screen. But you have to set a deadline for each writing session.
The questions I ask are frustrating. Some might think that I am playing Kubrick, prodding the applicant to quit, but we are so immersed in our world that we forget that there is a general public that doesn't understand a word we say.
How you customize the curriculum and what you believe is the only thing that matters when you are solving a complex problem. Don’t use your long-term goals just as a narrative for essays. Work on it. Attract the right people to your network. Start offering pro-bono consulting if you have not yet already for non-profits. And you never know what you would solve – maybe Energy Crisis, Access to Education, Global Warming or Disease control.
You are multitasking through projects, worrying about choosing the wrong school, keeping a low profile on your MBA plan, managing the politics in your team, coordinating with recommenders, preparing for the GMAT, collecting your transcripts, developing a plan to address your profile weakness, arranging funds and writing and rewriting essays.