Columbia: Calling all applicants - Class of 2016

So after a pretty insightful back-and-forth convo that I had with EssaySnark through PM, here's some takeaways that I think could help some of you applying:

Most of the convo was about that first essay involving your post-MBA goal. I made the mistake of assuming that since the short-response question was asking about the short-term goal, that I would spend the entire essay talking about my long-term goal. The advice I had gotten previously was to talk about where I wanted to be at the peak of my career. The problem was that adcom generally looks for applicants that have a realistic idea of where they want to be 5-8 years from now and how an MBA will take them there. My essay must have been confusing because I spent too much time talking about where I wanted to be 15-20 years from now, without ever stating that that's the time frame i was speaking towards. It made it sound as if I would be running my own investment management fund before I was 30, which painted a pretty unrealistic picture in the eyes of adcom.

If anything, I should have at least built a clear roadmap between where I am now and where I will be at my peak, but the majority of the essay should have been about where I see myself in those middle years.