We have come a long way in understanding what storytelling is. The influx of streaming services and movies with parallel & reverse chronology has given us the cognitive capacity to predict ending.
The first long-form essay requires applicants to write 25 Random things about themselves.
Tip #1: Length of each item
When you are writing random things about yourself, follow the list form with sentences varying in 10 to 20 words. Even though the admission team encourages using only a few words if the reveal is self-explanatory, we would recommend, a format like:
The Essay Reviewer might be familiar with the touristy spots. If you mention cliched experiences about New York, Paris, London or Agra, you are missing out on a chance to share a unique 'slice of life' experience in your essay.
All the hard work on the narrative can be undone with last minute edits. I am not talking about edits on sentence structure but changes in story and motivations. Even unnecessary edits on the carefully chosen phrase can affect the flow of the narrative and eventually the cumulative impact.
Two assumptions stand in the way of rewriting an essay. One - storytelling is a mash up of flowery phrases. Two - complex sentences and narratives with jargons are required to prove your expertise. When you combine flowery phrases with jargon-filled complex sentences, the results can be an eyesore for a reviewer.
The first draft of the essay should be a free flow of your inner thoughts, beliefs, and narrative excesses (blog-like). The real work starts at the Second draft. One common mistake that I have seen applicants make is taking the shortcut and directly writing with a tone that is similar to a second draft. They all sound the same with no uniquely identifiable attributes.
I saw the Harvard MBA Admissions Director asking applicants to be genuine and the INSEAD MBA Managing Director recommending not to polish the Essay too much; hints that the edited version of the essays tends to be devoid of any personality or genuineness.
As you might have experienced by now, switching styles is not easy in MBA Application Essays. We tend to overdo the blog part with self-references, slangs, or try our hand at humor. Essays have no place for any. But with recent edits in our review service, one part that has helped my clients is the Art of Pillaring. I have included a chapter on it in Winning MBA Essay Guide. The idea is to break the expected series of events. Do parallel storytelling or jumble the sequence to such a degree that you find the perfect balance in narrative and a standard essay.
Ross MBA Essay Tips: The admission team wants to know whether you are a sensing or an intuitive candidate. The personality traits were popularized by the Myers-Briggs Personality tests.
A sensing personality uses their five senses to gather information and looks at the facts before making any decisions. They are logically driven. Experience with a similar problem in the past often acts as a roadmap for future decisions. Managing resources and people require a sensing personality.
This revelation question should surprise the admission team. Ideally, include an aspect of your personality that is an antithesis to your profession traits or nationality or gender.
Writing about Leadership, the challenges you faced and the lessons learned can be tricky. You might not know where to start.
F1GMAT’s Kellogg MBA Essay Guide shares four leadership examples that you can use in your Essay #1
Answering an open-ended Harvard MBA Essay question can be tricky. The Admission team has recommended that you as an applicant should not overthink or overcraft the essay. It is easier said than done. Without any outline or strategy, the free-flowing essay might not capture all the traits of your personality that would demonstrate that you are a good fit for the program.
The resume, essays, and recommendation letters are part of the first round of evaluation. Since recommendation letter has a pre-defined format with little leeway in terms of creativity, essays become the all-important point of persuasion. Extracurricular should be strategically used to complement your functional skills.
The imperfections don't matter. Just talk, answer the question, and record it. Transcribe your answer. Read what you have said. I can guarantee you that you will find at least 30-40% unique phrases that are unlikely to be found on any sample essays.
For MBA Applicants around the world, one thing that bothers them the most is the review process for Essays.
Most applicants review their essays for grammar and structural errors but then pass the essays to friends, colleagues, partners, parents, or experts for a detailed review. What most applicants fail to do is to define the best practices for reviewing the essays.
Here are 4 Best Practices for Reviewing MBA Application Essays
When we write for the blog, the mandatory subheading, bullet points, tables, and images ensure that when you scan for information, at least one of the elements in the page will grab your attention and interest you to read from the start. When you can’t find anything stimulating from a quick scan, you will most likely skip this article. In essays, you have to follow the opposite.
Managing Attention: MBA Admission Team
As we had recommended in the Essay Writing process, in a 3-week schedule, 1 week should be dedicated for rewriting the essay. Applicants depend on consultants and editors to rewrite the essay, at least to kick start the process. Ideally, avoid borrowing phrases from consultants, but include your unique voice and rewrite the essay for these ten scenarios.
Ten Scenarios: MBA Application Essay Rewrite
The Admission team knows that you can excel in core classes: finance, accounting, and statistics, but don’t rest on your laurels! Since Investment Banks are popular recruiters in Top Business Schools, applicants from Finance find a considerable representation. To improve your admission chances, you have to stand out from other Finance Professionals.
Finance Professionals: Don't make these Mistakes
Instead of linearly writing one sentence that connects one thought to the next, this technique purposefully leaves gaps in comprehension between one sentence, the next, and maybe even the next, but catches up at the fourth sentence to connect with sentence one. If you leave too much gap between sentence 1 and 4, the Essay reviewer will lose interest.
The number of Round 2 applicants tends to be higher than Round 1 despite the admission team and consultants, including me, recommending applicants to target dream schools (first and second in the list) by round one.
Before you start the application process for Round 2, here are 5 things to consider
Everyone in the admissions committee knows what an investment banking, hedge fund or private equity analyst does all day. Many of your peers are also working hard to gain admission, and thousands of applications later, your work experience may start to seem similar to all the others in the pile.
Read: Common MBA Application Mistakes made by Finance Professionals (Part 2)
Applying for an MBA after your business has gone bankrupt does not have to be a weakness. Business schools appreciate innovation and entrepreneurship. The experience of starting and running your own company can be an interesting perspective you can bring to enrich the MBA program. Even the lessons learned from the failed venture can be worthwhile as well. There are some key questions on the minds of the admission boards when evaluating an entrepreneur whose business has failed.
First, they will evaluate the scope of the business (is this someone tinkering with a hobby or is this a real venture?) Then they will assess what you achieved (did you create a product that is being patented/raise funds from investors to expand the business or did the business not take off in the first place?) And finally, they will investigate why the business failed and the lessons you learned from the bankruptcy (are there holes in your skill set that you need to strengthen or did you make glaring mistakes that raise questions about your judgment?)
If you are like thousands of other Americans who are exhausted by the election campaigns and the 'nasty' debates, take solace in the fact that there are some lessons that you can apply in your MBA application essays.
MBA Application Essay Tips
Because applicants from finance are overrepresented in the admissions pool, your goal is to stand out as much as possible from peers with similar backgrounds. However, there’s a right way and a wrong way to attract the admission committee’s attention, so make sure to avoid these 10 common MBA application mistakes made by finance professionals.
If you have watched stand-up comedians deliver their best performances, you will notice three things: a good set-up, an amusing punch line, and a unique delivery. Here is what you can learn from these comedians about MBA Application essays, especially with changing essay lengths and formats.