\u201cWhy was I dinged?\u201d is\u00a0 the question that often confuses and torments some applicants when they do not receive the coveted\u00a0 acceptance letter from the schools they had applied to . Well, one of the key\u00a0 reasons of getting a rejection letter \u00a0is \u2013 poorly-written\u00a0 essays . Undoubtedly, essays are a critical part of your application package that\u00a0 gives\u00a0 the Ad Com a sense of who you are, so you need to invest your time\u00a0 to reflect on your\u00a0 life for your unique personal and professional attributes and then illustrate those qualities by real life examples.<\/p>\n
My\u00a0 article titled \u201d Application Essays : Mistakes\u00a0 you should avoid\u00a0 \u201c\u00a0 discusses some\u00a0 common mistakes made by\u00a0 applicants with their admission essays. Here are some suggestions to address those mistakes.<\/p>\n
1. Start Early :<\/strong><\/p>\n Do not procrastinate<\/strong>. Start early, so you have enough time to plan, draft and revise. Essay writing is an acquired skill and you need TIME to attain perfection in this skill. If you are a working professional and are planning to apply to 5-6 schools, you need to start working on your essays at least 3-4 months before the deadline. In order for you to provide the Ad com a complete picture of your unique personality by\u00a0 answering all the essay questions effectively and precisely , you need to do introspection for the personal and professional qualities that define you and your life experiences that illustrate those qualities and then \u00a0think of ways to connect those stories to your essay themes. This planning\u00a0 takes ample time and sow ill\u00a0 the\u00a0 next stages of writing , namely drafting, revising, and editing, so\u00a0 it is advisable to start working on essays well\u00a0 ahead of time.<\/p>\n 2. Provide real-life examples:<\/strong><\/p>\n Essays are NOT extended resumes<\/strong>, so do not elaborate and EXPLAIN your resume through your essays. Answer your essay question through real -life examples<\/strong> and let your voice<\/strong> come through your essays. B-Schools want to know<\/span><\/strong> you<\/span><\/strong> through your essays, so do not hesitate to share your personal experiences\/stories that illustrate your personal and professional qualities unique to you. In order to make your essays convincing and persuasive, you must connect your essay themes to your life experiences. <\/strong>Therefore, <\/strong>do not \u00a0shy away from providing specific details about their life experiences because you do not want\u00a0 to be impersonal while writing your Personal Statement or Personal essays.<\/strong> <\/em>Below is an example of an interesting beginning in response to a question about \u2018life outside work environment \u2018wherein the applicant begins to narrate about his\/her love of cricket.<\/p>\n Example:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIt had been a hectic week of planning promotional material for new project launch, and I was looking forward to watch a sensational cricket match between India and Sri Lanka with a bunch of friends over the weekend.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n 3. Answer all parts of the essay question :<\/strong><\/p>\n Break down all parts of the essay question and try to give equal footage to all of them<\/strong>. If the question has three sections, answer all of them. Prepare an outline before writing. Rewrite and make sure you have satisfactorily answered all the sections of essay question.<\/p>\n Example:<\/strong><\/p>\n Question no. 4 in the Personal Statement of MiF LBS has 7 parts, and\u00a0 the applicant is likely to miss 1-2 parts of it. In order to avoid that, I recommend numbering all the parts of the question and then answer them one by one. After making sure you have satisfactorily answered all the questions, \u00a0delete the numbers.<\/p>\n 4. Be Specific<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Read the essay question carefully and answer it\u00a0 precisely\u00a0 <\/strong>The \u2018how\u2019 part of your answer is as important as the \u2018what\u2019 part. This is what will bring out your personal and professional qualities.<\/p>\n Example #1\u00a0<\/strong> if you are\u00a0 discussing\u00a0 your accomplishments<\/strong> or failures<\/strong> \/ setbacks, do not forget to describe how\u00a0 you navigated through different situations and what you learned from them.<\/p>\n Example # 2 :<\/em><\/strong> While answering \u2018Goals\u2019 question, it is not enough to \u00a0discuss your academic qualification,\u00a0 your\u00a0 career history, your short term goal, and\u00a0\u00a0 long term goal\u00a0 only. The Ad Com also want to know what passion drove you to your chosen field, how you\u00a0 pursued \u00a0your interest\/passion \u00a0and progressed along your career path, why you believe that \u00a0with your current skill set \u00a0and potential , an MBA is the next logical step in your career path, and most importantly, how an MBA from \u00a0X School \u00a0is your best bet at this time<\/span> to help you achieve your goals.<\/p>\n The following opening sentence about the applicant\u2019s passion for finance is bound to draw the reader into his\/her story.<\/p>\n Example:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cMy love and passion for finance dates back the time when I was only 13 years old and would ponder at the stock prices in the newspaper for countless hours.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n 4. Demonstrate your\u00a0 impact:<\/strong><\/p>\n Do not forget to state what impact\/ contribution you are going t o make to the school. Whether the essay question requires you to discuss your contribution or not, make sure to briefly state what value you will be adding to the school. For example,\u00a0 while answering a \u2018Goals\u2019 question, it is imperative to add a concluding sentence or\u00a0 two about the specific contribution you will make to the school even if the essay question doesn\u2019t require you to do so.<\/p>\n Example <\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI am confident that with my academic potential, team-working abilities, innovative spirit, and leadership skills , I will\u00a0 add significant value to UCLA community.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n 5. Edit for Grammar Errors:<\/strong><\/p>\n In case you slept through your English class ,get your essays edited for sentence structure,\u00a0 punctuation,\u00a0 grammar and spelling errors<\/strong>. These errors are poor reflections\u00a0 on your candidacy and can jeopardize your chances\u00a0 of admission despite your great GMAT score , GPA\u00a0 and work experience.<\/p>\n In order to bring variety to your writing, try to write a mix of simple, compound and complex sentences . Do not \u00a0write extremely lengthy sentences stretching 4-5\u00a0 lines; they are \u00a0bound to annoy\u00a0 the reader.<\/p>\n 6. Stick to word limit :<\/strong><\/p>\n Stay within word- limit<\/strong>) and try to be as precise as you can (5% over or below word limit is considered acceptable). Admission officers have thousands of applications to review, so they don\u2019t like to be frustrated with essays\u00a0 filled with overly lengthy paragraphs or sentences that they need to read 2-3 times to make sense of. They want to evaluate you for your ability to make your point in a concise manner. Also, exceeding word limit reflects your unwillingness to follow the guidelines.<\/p>\n Summary:<\/strong><\/p>\n To sum up, when writing your application essays, make sure to give yourself sufficient time to brainstorm, draft, revise and edit your essays. I strongly recommend giving yourself at least 2-3 months\u2019 time to be able to create compelling essays for one school only . You should think through the essay prompt and provide specific answers substantiating it with relevant real life examples that help to set you apart from other applicants. Do not skip any part of the essay prompt, and\u00a0 stay within word limit. And lastly and most importantly, make your essays error- free , precise and easily\u00a0 comprehensible.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cWhy was I dinged?\u201d is\u00a0 the question that often confuses and torments some applicants when they do not receive the coveted\u00a0 acceptance letter from the schools they had applied to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[113],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-applications","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14065"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19533,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14065\/revisions\/19533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}