The functional knowledge and exposure, although relevant, doesn’t capture your personality and values in a holistic manner.
Like superhero movies, the Origin story interest the audience (MBA admissions team) the most.
There are valid reasons for it.
IMPACT of Socio-Economic Background
The studies on the impact of socio-economic background on career success is inconsistent. Under challenging socio-economic circumstances - poor neighborhood, high crime, sanitation risks and lack of role models, two things happen. One a parent or a mentor helps the applicant see the possibilities outside their current circumstances. Second – the applicant with the determination to see a better future for their family, beats the odd, and escapes the limiting environment. Both read extremely well in MBA application essays.
It is one thing to have nurturing parents that support your career and carefully prep you to Ivy league schools and another to find your unique path by seeking mentors, building fund, and planning your profile for success. The former is a safe bet that schools adopt through legacy admissions. A supporting environment improves the odds of success in a career. The tuition fee is guaranteed from such family. The latter is a risky move for schools. The narrative must be captured carefully. It is easy to turn every hardship story into a Slumdog millionaire narrative. Schools have read them in the hundreds from mediocre applicants with limited engagement with the community. They don’t do well.
IMPACT of Exposure to Cultures
The rigidity of ideologies stem from the lack of exposure to cultures – not just ethnicity or nationality but differing views – conservative, liberal, and libertarian. Applicants with extreme opinion are easy to spot. Reading the narrative on equality almost always involve blaming and shaming. During brainstorming, it helps me recognize the unique hardships the person encountered and formed their worldview. However, when we start editing the essays, I must tone down or elevate the expression depending on the culture of the school. Some schools encourage such phrasing while many see ‘trouble’ with any extreme qualifiers. The value of an editor and consultant comes in recognizing the nuanced difference.
IMPACT of Role Models
I used to follow a renowned Writer/Mathematician in Twitter whose mode of communication involved insulting anyone who disagrees with him. In between his insults, he would share genuine pearls of wisdom. While discussing with an acquaintance on a hotly debated topic, I began to notice a change in how I communicate. I sub-consciously picked up the acerbic style from the Twitter persona. It was far from the person who I was. I unfollowed the person.
Role Models impact us consciously and sub-consciously.
While brainstorming, we will shortlist at least 2-3 role models. The easiest to cite are parents and grandparents. It could be true that they had a lasting impact. If you reflect, even the seemingly insignificant encounters also had an impact on your career choice, volunteering, and early exposure to an extra-curricular.
The serendipitous encounters are tough to translate in an essay as narratives when it is about your career. However, for volunteering or how you started in sports, improv or picked up an instrument, the spur of the moment decisions will read well as long as you don’t stretch the narrative.
IMPACT of Adversity/Stress
Without the fragility of our life and the societal narrative on career, family and success, we would have no adversity or stress. Everyone faces stress at different levels. It could be from the expectations of the family, the position you enjoy in the community, the growth you had, and the stress to conform to a standard.
It could be from the stress to survive.
Adversity either makes you extremely cautious about the stressor or helps you embrace it with ‘secret tools’ that helped you overcome them.
The universal stressors of poverty, public engagement (performance, speaking, sports, leadership in volunteering), traveling to the unknown (exploration, extreme sports, entrepreneurship) or overcoming life threatening challenges (illness, war) read well in essays.
Converting narratives on adversity is the biggest challenge for an applicant.
With our help, you will learn to recognize and contextualize the universally acceptable markers of adversity to the culture of the school and turn it into a believable narrative.
