Calling all Wharton Fall 2010 Candidates

I don't know about the rest of you, but for me essay #2 seems pretty tough. Is this a diversity question or a teamwork question? Both?
If it's diversity then I'm screwed because I've never been in an environment where I've had to adapt to another culture in any significant way. I'm assuming they are looking for something along the lines of "when I worked in Spain on project X ... I realized that their culture values Y an Z qualities and I had to adapt my perspective on marketing product A ...". I can't think of anything that comes close to something like that for me.
What am I supposed to say, "When I started the contract with Government Agency X, I soon realized that all of the government workers were just as the stereotypes suggest ... so I had to adapt by lowering my standards and accepting the bureaucracy and general inefficiencies that were commonplace ...".

I'm going to have to think hard about this one, and even if I come up with something I fear it will come across as total BS.

Any thoughts? What do you think they are looking for here?

Adcoms don't "look" for anything in the essays, that's for sure. There is no right/wrong answer - they just want to know who you are after reading your essays. If you are trying to tell them what they want to hear, you will be in deep trouble.

And somebody must have influenced you and your career, somebody completely different than you. There is not just cultural difference in the game. Someone on the "opposite side" might have presented you his point of view - 'look I know that you sales people think that the main thing is X, but for me the most important thing is Y'. Even someone in the street could have told you something that seemed totally insignificant in that moment, but you realized later the true value of his/her wisdom. People different from us have tons of problems, joys, hopes, wishes... How they deal with that and how someone of them influenced the way you solve your problems or enjoy the fruits of your endeavors?

Your example with government might be good start point, just don't be so negative in your essays You could present what was their point of view in certain situation, what was important for them but insignificant to you, how they tried to solve the problem and what did you think about it. How their standpoint was different from yours and why? And most important (this is THE most important thing in every essay, not just this one), what have you learned from that situation?

Thanks for the advice, Pathfinder. Working in IT, I guess I could pull the whole "we were developing this product and then spoke with the customer and our eyes opened" type thing, but I'm not sure if that's substantial enough or if I'd even want to go in that direction. I interpreted the question as more global-leaning since, in my head, that's what these schools are looking for.

AskSandy on the BW forums went on a rant about the new Wharton essays:
https://forums.businessweek.com/n/pfx/fo ... &tid=10180

You are making the same mistake again trying to find out what schools are looking for. Don't do that, just tell them how open-minded and cool guy you are. You don't have to save the world and talk about global stuff for that - you have to do something extraordinary in some totally ordinary situation. Just tell them what have you learned from that experience.

I would not try to guess what the adcom wants to hear from you. Instead, I would decide on what I want the adcom to know about my personality, career, interests, etc. It is good to take Paul Bodine's book and follow his advice on how to approach the application. The key is in deciding on what exactly your strengths are, defining examples of such, understanding your weaknesses and finding ways to address them in your app.

It is crucial to view all (ALL!) components of your application holistically. In other words, it helps to research all the components of the application, and decide on how each of the parts will be used and what part of the overarching statement will be assigned to each of them. Simply speaking, think strategically, define the functions of the application components, maybe evaluate their weight and assign tasks to them.

In this way, depending on your plan, you may want to mention your hobbies briefly in essays 1, 2, and 3, (or in none at all) and then focus on your unique hobby that may be an illustration of something that you think will help you be ahead of the pack.

I think assigning a narrow function to an essay topic (as in "fit essay", "goals essay", etc.) is only helpful within the broader framework of your application strategy. Instead, you may want to stress your fit in several essays, each giving a new interesting angle of this "fit", same thing goes for your career goals. After all, all of your essays, recos, test scores, and all other components of your app will be viewed as your answer to "Why MBA? Why Wharton? Why now?", not just the goals essay.

I would agree with pathfinder...i didn't read anything into it other than that you should write about someone that thinks differently than you. It doesn't sound like it even needs to be a professional story. It sounds like they just want to know you're open-minded.

Again - too simplistic. Maybe they do not want to know this at all, or maybe they do, or maybe it is a chance for you to show how you manage conflicts, or how you defend your ideas, or how (in)tolerant you are to stupidity, or how impatient you are and have to work on it, or how you're tired of others with a different opinion, or how your religious beliefs contradict those of people around you and it either causes problems or, alternatively, helps your community become better or makes it hostile and intolerant and impossible to live in. There is a million ways of answering the question.

When haven't essays been tough?

Exactly. Everyone should find his/her own way. NEVER talk what they want to hear, NEVER show them what they want to see. You have to be yourself, to show who you are, to let them know you.

The only one essay that has to have some kind of "form" is Goal essay. Again, you have to find your own way and to write whatever you find appropriate, but this essay has to contain some elements:
1. Past and current experience
2. Short term and long term goals
3. Clear connection between your experience and your goals
4. The missing link - how school can help you achieve this.
5. What can you contribute to the school.

All other essays are written in the open form. Set the stage, discribe the event and don't forget to mention what have you lerned. And... don't forget the word limit.

R1 it is.

I much prefer last years questions to this. Anyway, will make the most out of it and hopefully should be ok for round 1.

Not only is Qn 2 hard, but its 750-1000 words! I was brain storming and coming up with material to write for the essay when I realized (after a few hours ) that re-applicants don't need to write this essay. Boy was I relieved. However, I can say though that this essay wasn't as bad as it seemed after I had brainstormed.

A question for re-applicants:

1) My story has changed slightly since I applied last year. Will this raise a flag with the adcom? I don't want them to feel that I don't have a clear vision of what I want to do.

2) Essay #2 (for re-applicants) is the same as last year - a failure and what you learnt. I still think my failure essay last year portrayed the "best" failure (& comeback) and I can't come up with anything better. Can I keep the core of the essay the same, or is it recommended that I come up with something else?

Thanks!

Beleive me, it is much easier to have 1000 word limit than 400. I had both, writtung the Goal essay for Cambridge Judge with only 400 word limit and later the same essay for Wharton with 1000. It was much easier to express your ambitions in 1000 words than in 400. I wrote one 1000+ word essay and then chopped it first to 1000 and later to 400 words.

It was hell, I found extremely difficult to describe my past and current WE, goals and the way b-school is going to help me achieve them. In addition, you have to mention why that particular school and what will be my contribution to class... 400 words - a mess.

pathfinder, I totally agree. For the goals essay, 400 or even 600 words is way too short. Wharton gives enough room to go through progress to date, short-term & long-term goals, why wharton, why now.... in 1000 words. A 400-word limit for the goals essay almost seems impossible!

My word limit comment was directed specifically to the "Tell us about a time when you had to adapt by accepting/understanding the perspective of people different from yourself." question.

While I was writing the outline I was thinking to myself there's a lot to write on 1 experience! I could be way off though, but that was my initial impression.

Yes, you are probably right. For goal essay 1000 words is a fit, but for all other essays 500 - 550 is just about right measure.

Interestingly, their essay 1 with regards to global goals, seems a lot like Duke's "leaders of consequence" essay. Take a look at last year's "calling all Duke Fall 2011" thread for some of that discussion.

An article on Wharton's SBDC

https://www.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/06/17/ ... nsultancy/