MBA Application Storytelling: Make the narrative of the Protagonist’s Journey More Interesting

Storytelling as an art form is not limited to movies, news, radio, TV, and sales pitch but plays an important role in MBA Application Essays. With the word limit going down by 50%, applicants might think that story telling as a writing style might not be effective for the current admission season. Do remember that we are not talking about the traditional style of storytelling but a structural approach to writing essays that can make your essays standout.


In this first part of the series – MBA Application Storytelling, we look at the character journey. Almost all storytelling follows the journey of the protagonist either in a linear or a non-linear form, in the later case, certain events of the life of the protagonist are highlighted as the life changing events, and the motivation of the character understood by the audience.
AdCom also looks at your essays in a similar way. They want to understand your motivation through the life events – both successes and failures.

Here are five Simple steps to make the journey of the protagonist more interesting.

1) Include Worthwhile Struggles

What make stories interesting are the conflicts that the protagonists endure. If you look at the superhero movies - Superman, Spiderman, and Batman, each hero had to face antagonists that looked much more powerful than they were. There are moments in the movie when you wonder whether the heroes would overcome the obstacles. In the back of our mind, we know that the Hero will survive but around 2/3rd of the time, our attention is invested in the struggles that our Hero face, and we constantly evaluate the motivation of the Hero, and whether the struggle is worthwhile. It tells us a lot about the intention and character of the superhero.

AdCom reads your essays with the same intent. If your journey is about solving a problem that is not worthwhile or the conflicts and obstacles doesn’t seem overpowering, then the AdCom will lose interest and consider your essays as just another average story.

2) Use Clear Goals

When you mention worthwhile struggles, the goals should be concrete and clear to the AdCom.

Is the Essay about completing the project before the deadline with limited resources?

Is the Essay about a setback in your professional life that you have to correct in a short period?

Is the Essay about how you managed two disagreeing team members, and directed their energy towards achieving a project goal?

Adcom will lose interest if the storytelling is without clearly defined goals for the protagonist.

3) Pick the Right Opposing Force

Every story has several opposing forces, either in the form of antagonist, circumstances, or ....
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