Convert Mundane Hobbies Into NYU Stern Pick Six Images (With Caption Examples)

Transcript

Turn Hobbies into NYU Stern MBA Pick Six Images

A lot of times, NYU Stern MBA applicants struggle to convert their extracurricular or volunteering into a theme that they can use for the NYU Stern Pick Six images. For all such applicants, I would suggest the theme of distance traveled as a template for creating memorable slogans or captions from mundane extracurricular and volunteering. The image could be used as a symbol, or the image can be used to combine your extracurricular volunteering with a philosophy or a value.

Philosophy and Hobbies

For example, this image of a person going on a trek shows the person behind a shadow that the mountains have created. In the picture, you can see light falling on the other side of the valley, and the caption goes like this: "Behind me, the valley is still in darkness. Ahead, the trail turns gold and keeps turning bright. I walk this ridge alone most Sundays, and the same lesson awaits me at every turn. What I was certain of in the dark seldom survives the light." So this is a way of combining your extracurricular into a philosophy or a value statement. So what is the value statement that the applicant is sharing? The applicant is sharing that when you are undergoing tremendous stress or failures, the perspective that you have at that time is often flawed. How you evaluate a scenario is fed by the stress or the failure you are facing. So this is a great insight or philosophy that the person is sharing, while also sharing her interest in trekking.

Cycling and Reflection on Life

There is another image of a person going on cycling, where she stands with the sun setting and creating a shadow in the forefront. The caption says, "The road asks nothing of me except that I show up while the light is still low. I ride this valley alone. It began as an escape and became a rhythm. I watched my shadow change length all morning. By the last mile, I know the shadow is me, and I am the shadow. A shadow to the march of time." If you want to download the 10 Themes and 25 Caption Examples included in NYU Stern MBA Essay Examples, download F1GMAT's NYU Stern MBA Essay Guide from store.f1gmat.com/nyu-stern-mba-essay-guide.

ExtraCurricular in A Poetic Way

This is a poetic way of sharing her extracurricular, that is cycling, and her persistence, her routine, and to share a perspective that everything she is chasing, all the goals, are temporary, and we are just a shadow of time. So this is a poetic way to share a perspective. It also shows your creative mindset. Your thinking also shows your extracurricular interest in cycling. NYU Stern values applicants with diverse extracurricular and interests.

Pick Six - A reflection on your Attitude and Work Ethic

One applicant shared his interest in taking down the motorcycle engine. Here, the interest is not just about the technical aspect of the engine, but he is subtly highlighting his persistence through this extracurricular or his interest. So the caption goes like this, "The valves are out and in order. The gasket is waiting. The torque wrench is on its second pass around the cam cover. This is my second attempt to restore CB750 with one dead cylinder, nine weekends in." It shows the applicant's persistence to take down the engine, bring it back, assemble it back, and make sure that the engine comes back to a working condition.

Share your relationship with another person through a Hobby

But you don't have to capture all the Pick Six images in terms of effort or value or a philosophical line. You can also share your relationship with another person through this activity. For example, the caption is in a story format. It reveals something interesting. The caption goes like this, "My father wired this juniper for 11 years before handing it over to me. I see his marks around the bark. Bark thickens fast in summer, and copper cuts a spiral scar into the trunk that stays for a decade. Carefully wiring to avoid any permanent mark that erases my father's memory." So this could build a curiosity about the father's well-being, and what the relationship dynamics between the father and the daughter are. So it sheds light into a different dimension of the applicant that the NYU Stern MBA admissions team cannot find through the essays.

Use Captions Strategically

When you share the Pick Six images, use captions strategically. If you need my help in editing your NYU Stern MBA essays and helping you capture the right caption for your Pick Six images, subscribe to F1GMAT's essay editing service at store.f1gmat.com/essay-editing.