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. So what can you learn from these comedians about MBA Application essays, especially with changing essay lengths and formats?
Set-up
Top performing standup comedians are good at giving an honest setup with the right information required for understanding the joke. They weed out unnecessary facts, and irrelevant background information to gain maximum attention. In essays, AdCom is your audience. They have read hundreds of essays. Now they are looking for the essay that would get their undivided attention for 15-30 minutes. If you start with how awesome you are, it is like delivering the punchline without any setup. You will be heckled in real life. Focus on the actions and the environment in which you have worked.
Edit! Edit and do more Editing!
Read the set-up and analyze each sentence. Do you need the sentence there to convey who you really are?
Punchline
Punchline works in a standup comedy because it is inherently funny but more importantly it surprises the audience. The element of SURPRISE is what makes a joke stand out. It is not just word play, but how they transport the set-up to a different situation that creates the SURPRISE. Unfortunately, in essays, applicants can infuse very little humor to surprise the Admission Committee, but applicants can offer subtle conclusions and standout from the rest of the crowd.
Situation
The best essay writers are good at transporting the AdCom to the situation. To do that - minimize complex jargons and write for a general public that understands common jargons in technology, management, and business. Do remember that AdCom members might be post-graduates or alumni who had exposure to management and business concepts. If you are from a tech or accounting background, explain the set-up in simple terms.
Delivery
The tone of the essay reveals a great deal about the applicants, whether they are humble, arrogant, fake or genuine. Once you have created a draft, count the adjectives, nouns, and pronouns.
1) Count the number of times that you have mentioned “I.” If it is present in every 2-3 sentences, you are overdoing it.
2) Count the number of times that you have mentioned “We.” If it is present in every five lines, it is a healthy mix.
3) Avoid excessive use of “awesome,” “amazing,” “great” or other adjectives in an essay.
4) Focus on the actions that you have taken. It reveals more about you than your intentions.
For More Essay Writing Tweaks, School Specific Essay Tips (11 Top MBA Programs), Storytelling Techniques and Sample Essays, Download Winning MBA Essay Guide
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.