Intern
Joined: 10 Mar 2014
Status:Admissions Consultant
Posts: 11
WE:Consulting (Education)
Re: Can the US B School essays be given a different style and format?
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21 Jul 2016, 13:41
Hi User Centricity,
Thanks for your question.
While an alternative format, such as a poem, can be a refreshing change to the thousands of (potentially) dry essays that AdCom’s read, I feel honor-bound to mention a few helpful pointers (just for you):
Answer the AdCom’s question. And answer it well.
Harvard and Stanford are besieged, each year, with an overwhelming number of qualified (and not so qualified) applicants. They’re looking for very specific elements in applicant essays. Having worked for over seven years with literally hundreds of MBA applicants at two different firms now, I have seen what gets an interview at H/S/W, and what doesn’t. It’s hard enough to leap over this hurdle in prose, why would you burden yourself with an additional encumbrance, by writing in verse?
Your MBA application essay is, in many ways, a marketing exercise. If you are not a Nobel Laureate or at least a published poet (and even, sometimes, if you are!), you might not be skilled enough yet to write the kind of poem that a reader (particularly an AdCom reader) would enjoy…or, sad to say, understand. Remember that AdCom folks are trying to get through many, many essays, and they’re trying to pick the best candidates for their program. They are unlikely to be amused by someone who makes their job more difficult, or their day longer and more odious than it needs to be. A big principle of marketing is that you want your customer (in this case, your AdCom) to like you, your “product” – otherwise, why would they “buy”? Giving them a headache with a complicated poem is unlikely to garner their esteem, or endear you to them. Avoid gimmicks that are unlikely to try your end-user’s patience.
Bottom line: While I couldn’t recommend poetry as a stand-in for a well-wrought application essay to Harvard or Stanford, I would be happy to take a look at your poetry and give you more actionable feedback. I actually love poetry, and know it well. One of my principal subjects at Harvard University (undergrad) was English Literature, and I have written several novels and plays. Who knows, maybe you are that rara avis who can write a stellar MBA poem – it’s absolutely possible!! Now that would be a lovely discovery to make.
All my best to you in life & the MBA,
Vanessa