Now that you have come with a shorter version of achievements, write stories on your achievements. You have to realize that people in the admission committee might be bored with 'Type A' applicants bragging about their GMAT score, their GPA and on how brilliant they are. That is one reason why many candidates with 750+ GMAT and 3.5 GPA miss top B-schools. Write about the events around your achievements. You don’t have to write a novel, just give an interesting background about it. Think like this - " the committee members just had a big lunch and are on the verge of dozing off ". What will you write to capture their attention? Make your stories interesting and follow a structure.
Things to remember while writing an interesting story :
1) Do not indulge in irrelevant details
2) Introduce your managers/superiors
3) Mention the location of your work/project and your travel needs
(B-Schools love candidates who have traveled a lot and have exposure to multi-ethnic environments)
4) If you have traveled for your work, mention the cultural difference that you had to face
5) Avoid criticism against any culture . Your story should be in a direction where you found a uniting thread among multiple cultures (This assures the admission committee that you will get along with other students)
6) The tone of the story should be respectful ( Do not make it boring.The whole idea behind story is to make the process of reading your essay an interesting one)
7) Use humour at your own risk. 90% of the time it will not work.
About the Author
I am Atul Jose, Founding Consultant of F1GMAT, an MBA admissions consultancy that has worked with applicants since 2009.
For the past 15 years I have edited the application files of admits to the M7 programs: Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Wharton School, MIT Sloan, Chicago Booth, Kellogg School of Management, and Columbia Business School, together with admits to Berkeley Haas, Yale School of Management, NYU Stern, Michigan Ross, Duke Fuqua, Darden, Tuck, IMD, London Business School, INSEAD, SDA Bocconi, IESE Business School, HEC Paris, McCombs, and Tepper, plus other programs inside the global top 30.
My work covers the full MBA application deliverable: career planning and profile evaluation, application essay editing, recommendation letter editing, mock interviews and interview preparation, scholarship and fellowship essay editing, and cover letter editing for funding applications. Full bio with credentials and admit history is here.
I am the author of the Winning MBA Essay Guide, the best-selling essay guide covering M7 MBA programs. I have written and updated the guide annually since 2013, which makes the 2026 edition the thirteenth.
The reason I still write and edit essays every cycle: a good MBA essay carries a real applicant's voice. Writing essays for F1GMAT's Books and Editing essays weekly is how I stay calibrated to what current admissions committees respond to.
Contact me for school selection, career planning, essay strategy, narrative development, essay editing, interview preparation, scholarship essay editing, or guidance documents for recommendation letters.