A big reason applicants can’t persuade the admissions team with their essays is the choice of personal and professional ‘examples.’ Many skim through branding and marketing ideas from consultants and assume that inserting a hero’s journey to mundane milestones from your resume is the answer.
Although very important, storytelling doesn’t mean you artificially inflate and include the hero’s journey into achievements that are expected out of your role.
Here are 2 strategies to bounce back after Round 1 Essay Rejection
1. Analyze Your Branding
A lot of applicants come to me with confusing ideas about branding. A common one is the Investment Banker with limited community engagement. In such cases, the applicant goes back, citing college engagements – 3 to 4 years back to demonstrate their social responsibility. It works if the engagement was entrepreneurial, or you had a visible impact on the community that was reported by a popular public media.
Many try to club their company’s Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives with their ethnicity or nationality. It works in some cases, especially in investment banking or private equity, where the time available for volunteering every week is limited. Make sure that your role in these engagements is clear. I have seen confident investment bankers being modest, talking about their role in these initiatives. Maybe it is a realization that their contribution was not impactful. In such cases, for Round 2, choosing a better example is the way to go.
Another misconception is that smaller engagements where the impact was on 2 to 3 beneficiaries are not relevant for admissions to a competitive M7 or Top 10 MBA program. This is not the case. The IMPACT is huge if you have mentored candidates from low-income communities and helped them transition to a self-sustaining finance role. It is all about how you capture the IMPACT with the right context. If you need help shortlisting impactful entries for your Round 2 MBA application and editing them into a persuasive essay, Subscribe to F1GMAT’s Essay Editing Service
2. False Perception About Stereotypes
There are many stereotypes – mostly arising from nationality and job functions. The introverted or ambivert Technology or Finance candidate vs extroverted client-facing candidates in Consulting, Finance, and Marketing are some of the common ones. When applicants start writing their essays, the goal becomes negating the stereotypes and not fully capturing the complexity of the role that they are in. Maybe the role requires strong quant skills and a deeper understanding of the entire ecosystem or regulatory environment or how your company’s different departments make decisions. Each organization has its own culture and challenges that arise from its technology systems, processes, policies, leadership style of the management, and the position of the company in the market.
A better way to approach your essay is to offer context on how you navigated the complexities instead of just breaking stereotypes about your nationality, gender, ethnicity, or job function.
There is no one rule that fits all. Depending on your weaknesses and strengths, develop an Essay Strategy.
I am Atul Jose. I hope you got value from my tips.
If you need my help, Subscribe to F1GMAT’s Essay Editing Service
