{"id":23449,"date":"2014-04-03T10:00:19","date_gmt":"2014-04-03T17:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/2014\/04\/take-responsibility-in-your-optional-essay\/"},"modified":"2014-04-03T10:00:19","modified_gmt":"2014-04-03T17:00:19","slug":"take-responsibility-in-your-optional-essay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/take-responsibility-in-your-optional-essay\/","title":{"rendered":"Take Responsibility in Your Optional Essay"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\t\"Take<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n

\n\t\t\"mbamission-20_600\"<\/a>Business school candidates who have an obvious weakness in their profile\u2014such as a low GPA or GMAT score or a prolonged gap in work experience\u2014often worry that they are destined to attend a virtually unknown business school. Whenever such applicants ask admissions officers how their weakness might affect their candidacy, they hear this straightforward and common refrain: \u201cWe look at applications holistically.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although this may sound like a clich\u00e9, it is actually the truth; at mbaMission<\/a>, we have seen dozens of candidates with sub-600 GMAT scores and GPAs under 3.0 find their respective ways into top-ten programs. The key to overcoming any weakness in your candidacy is to address it in the optional essay, not with excuses, but by taking responsibility:<\/p>\n

Example 1:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my freshman year, I had the flu the day before my midterms and did quite badly on my first batch. As a result, my grades noticably dip in my first term. Then, in my second term, I was quite engaged in extracurricular activities with my fraternity, and again, my grades suffered. However, looking at just my grades in my major, from my second year forward, I would have a GPA of\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Some who read this sample paragraph may laugh at the absurdity of the excuses, while others may not even notice.\u00a0Although valid explanations for a candidate\u2019s low grades certainly exist, a temporary bout of the flu and involvement in extracurricular activities are not among them.<\/p>\n

Example 2:<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a freshman at XYZ University, I was unable to appreciate the rather awesome educational opportunities before me, and my grades were, quite simply, lower than they should have been. However, by my second year, when I discovered my passion for English literature and chose this subject as my major, I pursued my studies with vigor and completely turned my academic performance around, earning a consistent stream of A grades in<\/em>\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

In this second example, any excuses are cast aside and replaced with a candid discussion of the candidate\u2019s experience. As a result, the candidate establishes credibility, explains the change and infers that he\/she will likewise perform well as a student.<\/p>\n

Admissions committees, like corporate America, do not like excuses. Avoid making them.<\/p>\n

The post Take Responsibility in Your Optional Essay<\/a> appeared first on Kaplan GMAT Blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Business school candidates who have an obvious weakness in their profile\u2014such as a low GPA or GMAT score or a prolonged gap in work experience\u2014often worry that they are destined…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,558,243,940],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gmat","category-kaplan-blog","category-blog","category-gmat-prep-gmat","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23449","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\/120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23449\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}