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Reviews - F1GMAT's Stanford MBA Essay Guide (2023 Entering Class)

Since we collect the reviews offline, here are the reviews for F1GMAT's Stanford MBA Essay Guide for the 2023 Entering Class

 

"Atul has been my favorite consultant since I started following him on LinkedIn. The Stanford What Matters Essay that requires sharing vulnerable moments from my life was not an easy draft. He shows examples of capturing authentic emotions in a narrative style that is true to an essay format. I retained quite a significant part of the shortcuts and hacks while rewriting my Stanford MBA Essays. Insightful!" - Verified Purchase

"A book on writing is not a small task. That too in the consulting market where one is inundated with quick fixes. The author explains the core principles of storytelling for MBA applications that I feel transcends to other forms of writing as well. The show don't tell approach and the W-pattern chapters reinforced some lessons I had analyzed as a budding filmmaker. The sample essays in the book are standouts. Although a lot of the examples are of profiles with numerous setbacks, I understood how emotions and themes are applied across the length of the essay to retain the thread of the story."  - Verified Purchase

"This book breaks down storytelling, going through narrative concepts, characters, and setback events to analyze what makes an essay engaging and authentic. The sample essays give concrete ideas about openers, transitions, and balancing personal stories and professional accomplishments. The chapters on editing and reviewing essays are valuable." - Verified Purchase

"Such a wonderful learning tool. Just reading the chapters on capturing implicit leadership traits and on storytelling taught me a lot. It is littered with samples and anecdotes that upgraded my essay to an engaging and human story. This book is for those writers who have decent skills in writing but can’t seem to get the What Matters Essay jump off the page. Atul uses solid examples and has a thorough approach to creating meaningful narratives."  - Verified Purchase

"F1GMAT's Stanford Essay Guide is a thoughtful checklist for writing a persuasive and authentic essay. I found the section on storytelling to be helpful and dispel my notion of how to transition between lines and paragraphs. No vague best writing tips here. The author explains every ploy in a narrative that we find engaging. The editing tips are the cherry on top. Deeply practical and helpful"  - Verified Purchase

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F1GMAT's Stanford MBA Essay Guide

Essay A: What matters most to you, and why? (650 Words)

Essay B: Why Stanford? (350 Words)

Optional Question: Think about times you’ve created a positive impact, whether in professional, extracurricular, academic, or other settings. What was your impact? What made it significant to you or to others? (600 Words) (200 words – each example)

Download F1GMAT's Stanford MBA Essay Guide 

(24+ Sample Essays & 300+ Pages of Essay Writing Wisdom)

Atul Jose F1GMAT's FounderAbout 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.