Knowing they’ll have to write essays about their goals, most b-school applicants have identified their goals prior to starting the application process. But I’ve found that “identified” often has a very narrow scope, too narrow to effectively serve the purpose of the essays. With some moderate...

Schools want to see that the applicants will actively participate in and contribute to their student bodies and alumni communities, not to mention the greater community and society. Yet grandiose, declarative statements and promises to be a superlative do-gooder are unpersuasive. So how is an applicant...

This post originally appeared on Stacy’s “Strictly Business” MBA blog on U.S.News.com “So, you want to go to business school. What exactly do you want to learn?” It sounds like a simple question, but MBA applicants often struggle with it. College interviewers might have asked about...

This post is excerpted from “Let Your Goals Guide You” — Chapter 1 in MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools, by Linda Abraham and Judy Gruen. Some applicants may be very clear about either the industry in which they...

Goals Essay-Writing Nitty-Gritty Short- and Long-Term Goals Before you start drafting your goals essays, work out three levels of goals: short-term, intermediate, and long-term. It helps to have this whole picture in your mind regardless of where you’ll “zoom in” for a particular essay. Short-term is immediately...

It’s amazing to me how committed someone can be to applying to b-school, as early as next fall, and still have no concrete MBA goals. Clear, defined goals are a MUST when applying to a top b-school – in terms of MBA admissions requirements, they’re...

We hope you enjoyed our recent Wharton Lauder MBA Q&A. We certainly learned a lot about the Wharton Lauder application process and about how these two programs work together to offer students a unique learning experience. In the following excerpt, Marcy Bevan, Director of Admissions and...

Having trouble figuring out how you should structure your MBA goals essay? Not even sure what qualifies as a “goal”? In Accepted.com’s free, 45-minute webinar, The Art of a Gripping MBA Goals Essay, you will learn how to create a compelling MBA goals essay that...

If you want to prove to the adcoms that you have direction, goals, and good reason to be awarded a spot in top b-school X, then you’re going to need to make sure that you get your MBA goals essay in shape. The best way to...

Having trouble figuring out how you should structure your MBA goals essay? Not even sure what qualifies as a “goal”? Accepted.com’s free, 45-minute webinar, The Art of a Gripping MBA Goals Essay, will teach you how to create a compelling MBA goals essay that reveals...