In today’s Stanford MBA Application Essay Tips series,  I will share a few examples where Fear was successfully used as an emotional vocabulary for the Stanford What Matters Most to You and Why Essay.

Any transformational story where an applicant was searching for their identity and goals will involve some fear of rejection or failure. This emotion could be used in so many different iterations of self-discovery.

For one applicant from a low-income family, the destiny to be in a poor neighborhood and confined to the jobs that her parents were doing as manual laborers was the most logical path. The Fear of even articulating the ambition to parents who were counting on the person to be the breadwinner was the most interesting interaction in the opener of the What Matters the Most Essay. The narrative didn’t criticize the parents but showed the vulnerability of financial burden.

For another applicant, it was the revelation of being gay to conservative parents that actualized all the Fear of rejection. The person was abandoned by the family. After the big setback, the growth story without any family support became extremely interesting.

For another applicant, saying no to the legacy of a military career was the biggest Fear. Although the person didn’t face rejection from the family, there was differential treatment for the ethical choice he made. The reason why the person didn’t choose the career pivoted into an interesting read on mental health and capitalism for the good of communities – all from the perspective of military families.

Fear is the most common emotion across cultures, economic status, differing levels of ambition, religion, ethnicity, and nationality.

So when you work with the fear vocabulary in your first draft of the What Matters Stanford MBA Essay:

1) Write verbatim how you felt. This could look extremely raw but don’t worry about refining it now
2) Write about the people whose acceptance you were seeking
3) Write why you felt that your path was different from your group
4) Write about the Fear of rejection and how you tried to compensate
5) If you were rejected from your in-group, write about the struggles to find your place
6) Write what you want to do for people from similar life trajectory

The simple six steps will help you draft an essay that has structure and emotional vocabulary to stand out from your competitors.

If you need my help, reach out to me, Atul Jose, or you can directly subscribe to F1GMAT’s Essay Editing Service.

To read the Sample Essays I have written, Download F1GMAT's Stanford MBA Essay Guide. Don’t copy it. My goal with Sample Essays is to inspire you to think creatively.