Holy Trinity in MBA Essays: Emotion, Action & Words

When applicants ask us what is the one thing that forces the reviewer to pay 100% attention to the essays, we say, “It’s a balance of Emotion, Action, and Words.” Without the right emotional investment in your story, the MBA admission team is less likely to be impressed by your achievements. Without narrating the actions you took, and the actions you withstood, your talents lie hidden beneath the jargons of a 1-page resume. Without the right words, you will fail to communicate your unique candidacy.

Emotion

Emotion is everything in an essay. We are not talking about the over sentimental account of how your dog died, and how that led to your non-profit initiative. Business School will reject the recommendation letter like essays that are to the point but like thousands of other essays - bland. They already have a tough time differentiating two applicants from IT background with a 3.2 GPA and a 720 GMAT. Don’t confuse them further with your clichéd phrases. Take the risk, and capture emotions in equal measure when you describe the actions you took.

Action

A statement about your values or life lessons will be looked with suspicion unless you demonstrate it with your actions. Actions truly speak louder than words in an essay. Your account about the leadership style that you adopted – autocratic, democratic, or delegative cannot be taken at face value, unless you capture one incident where you revealed your leadership style. The event should clearly define the problem, the limitations, and your skills in overcoming those limitations.

Words

We read an essay of an Investment Banker, who was trying to connect social impact with asset management without spending even a single sentence on this weird connection. What most applicants fail to understand is that it doesn’t matter if you think your job is noble and heals the leper. Unless you use the right phrases to show the connection, the reviewer will label you as a lazy candidate. The ten-pointer accomplishment looks unrealistic when you cannot even write one extra sentence to offer clarity in your thoughts.

Action and Reaction Framework

If you write freely capturing Emotion, Action, and Words without any framework, it will impact the fluidity of the narrative. Action and ‘Just Reaction’ is an unspoken rule in our lives. We romanticize the concept of ‘Karma’ and cite every instant of it. If a Project Manager unjustly favors one candidate over the other based on parameters other than performance, a ‘Just Reaction’ is some form of reprimand – the manager losing his job, the management correcting the situation or a realization that the decision was not made with integrity – the unjustly promoted candidate doesn’t rise to the occasion.

We don’t encourage you to make action and reaction as the central theme of your narrative, but the backstory should give a sense that it is a just world where we are operating.

Your third attempt at GMAT allowed you to crack the 700+ score. It shows that the Action – Reaction framework is intact.

Hard Work & Persistence = RESULTS

It is altogether a different story that your repeated attempts at learning Violin or Guitar didn’t lead you anywhere. In MBA Application Essays, there is no place for mentioning such events where the Action-Reaction framework is in violation.