How to write a Hypnotizing MBA Application Essay

Hypnosis has received a bad reputation from the multiple stories about the individual losing conscious control over their actions, or doing something outrageous under this state of mind. We don’t intent to force the message, ‘I am your best pick’ to the essay reviewer, but hypnosis by definition involve forcing the admission team to lose a sense of peripheral awareness, and focus completely on your essay.

Authority

If you have observed religious ceremonies, you will see evidence of hypnosis with an authority figure – the priest, standing or sitting on a higher pedestal, the followers placed at a much lower level - kneeling, prostrating, or seated in a Lotus position, below the authority’s eye level.

In MBA Admissions, if you cannot outwit the essay reviewer with your awards and accolades, you cannot establish authority in terms of position. The higher pedestal is the recognition from Industry experts. The word count in essays, limit the opportunity to establish your authority over the subject matter. A one-line entry in the resume will not immediately establish your authority. They need proof. They need some way of affirming your authority without you sounding like a pompous type ‘A’ candidate. The skilled applicant introduces the accolades in the initial part of the essay without explicitly stating them. Subscribe to our consulting service. We will teach you how it is done.

Overwhelm the Five Senses

You can overwhelm the reviewer with an overload of information about your projects, the technicality of the solution or the key actors in the narrative. It is the least effective, and most applicants do it hoping that the reviewer will be ‘impressed’. On the contrary, the logical mind is in full flow when data is all they can read. Without shutting down their logical minds and opening up their feelings for your candidacy, you cannot overwhelm them. Will they smile, read with anticipation, and eagerly scan through each line of your essay to see what happened? If they will not, your essay lacks the hypnotizing capability of a Winning MBA Essay.

Religions overwhelm the followers by overloading their sensory perception with sight (deity’s image), smell (incense), touch (blessing or greeting), taste (sacred food), and sound (sound of bells). In essays, you don’t have that power. All you have is words. Words and phrases that stimulate the sensory feeling and open up the possibility of shutting down the essay reviewer’s logical mind.

Don’t start writing your essays with this criterion in mind. It will quickly turn into a novel, but you can do a mapping for the five columns: sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste. After your first draft, categorize the phrases or descriptive words into these five columns. The balance is delicate. Most applicants overdo the sight part without balancing the other four senses. You should have at least one entry in each column. Stay away from commonly used words or you might sound like a novelist. Submit your essays, and we will show you how to trigger the five senses with just words and phrases.

Paragraph Turner

Our hunter-gatherer instincts takeover when we read a book. Some start with the end; yes they do. While others read the reviews in the back cover to set expectations, while most readers never skip a line open to experience the unexpected. Without a plot twist or eccentricity of the main characters, most readers will never complete the book. What the author is essentially doing is include unexpected information at the end of each page, hooking the readers with the “What happens next question.”

You don’t believe me?

Here is what Mario Puzo’s Godfather (Chapter 5) last paragraphs (from the first three pages) read:

Hagen Frowned down at the list of names. "Jesus Christ, Sonny, you're really taking this personal. The Don would consider it a purely business..

Without your father, the other New York families might wind up supporting the Tattaglias and Sollozzo just to make sure there isn't a long destructive war. If your father dies, make the deal. Then wait and see.

Michael didn't say anything. He felt awkward, almost ashamed, and he noticed Clemenza and Tessio with faces so carefully impassive that he was sure that they were hiding their contempt. He picked up the phone and dialed Luca Brasi's number and kept the receiver to his ear as it rang and rang.

Each paragraph at the end of the page prompts our natural curiosity:

Hagen Frowned down at the list of names. "Jesus Christ, Sonny, you're really taking this personal. The Don would consider it a purely business..

Questions:

1) Will Sonny take revenge?
2) How will Sonny react to Hagen’s inference about taking it ‘personal’

Without your father, the other New York families might wind up supporting the Tattaglias and Sollozzo just to make sure there isn't a long destructive war. If your father dies, make the deal. Then wait and see.

Questions:

1) Will the Don die?
2) Will the New York Families support Sollozzo?

Michael didn't say anything. He felt awkward, almost ashamed, and he noticed Clemenza and Tessio with faces so carefully impassive that he was sure that they were hiding their contempt. He picked up the phone and dialed Luca Brasi's number and kept the receiver to his ear as it rang and rang.

Questions:

1) Will Clemenza or Tessio make an off-color remark?
2) Will Luca Brasi pick the phone?
3) Why is Michael calling Luca?
4) What is Michael’s role in the family?

When you write your MBA Application essay, the paragraphs are the page-turner. If each paragraph doesn’t invoke the natural curiosity of the reviewer, it will never be completely read. Trust us, not all essays are read. When you receive over 9000 applications with 2-3 essays of 500 words each, you have to read 135,00,000 words. No matter how much you split the work, it is still a daunting task. Total word count of Godfather – one of the greatest novels is 173,188. The Essay reviewers have to read 77 Books equivalent to Godfather, not even remotely exciting as the novel.

Make it interesting. After the first draft, do the ‘how the paragraph ends’ test. Does the last sentence in the paragraph force the reviewer to read the next paragraph? If it does, then you are on the right track. Want us to guide you through the essay writing process? Submit your essays here. We will turn them into a paragraph turner.