{"id":25289,"date":"2014-08-18T09:03:04","date_gmt":"2014-08-18T16:03:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/lbs-mba-essay-analysis-your-2014-2015-application\/"},"modified":"2014-08-18T09:03:04","modified_gmt":"2014-08-18T16:03:04","slug":"lbs-mba-essay-analysis-your-2014-2015-application","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/lbs-mba-essay-analysis-your-2014-2015-application\/","title":{"rendered":"LBS MBA Essay Analysis, Your 2014-2015 Application"},"content":{"rendered":"

Are you ready to dig into your essays? Application essays are specifically and cleverly designed to get into your head. We like to turn the tables on the admissions committees and get inside their<\/i> heads. Why are they asking these questions? What are they looking for? Read on as our experts break down application essay questions to help YOU plan the attack.<\/h3>\n
Essay One<\/a>
\nEssay Two<\/a>
\nEssay Three<\/a><\/div>\n
\nAight, I’m pumped! Where to next?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n
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CHECK OUT OUR MBA ESSAY WRITING GUIDE \u279d <\/div>\n

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LBS MBA Essay Question 1<\/h5>\n

What are your post-MBA plans and how will your past experience and the London Business School programme contribute? (500 words)<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you look at the 2014 version of this question (\u201cWhat will your future look like after completing your MBA?\u201d<\/a>) and compare it to this year\u2019s slightly tweaked version (\u201cWhat are your post-MBA plans and how will your past experience and the London Business School programme contribute?\u201d), it\u2019s not hard to catch the vapors coming off of the LBS adcom:<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s just ask the question we wanna ask a bit more directly\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

What does this mean for you as the applicant? Give them what they want: a clear, precise, well-argued case for what you hope to succeed in, and why you will be successful (based on your past experiences combined with an LBS MBA). That\u2019s all, folks. If you accomplish those two things, everything extra (\u201ca novel idea,\u201d \u201ca big goal with big upside,\u201d \u201ca socially-responsible and inspiring vision,\u201d etc.) will be just that\u2026 \u201cextra.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most people will miss the KEY to this essay, by packing too much stuff in. Slow down, take it one simple step at a time, and get the key stuff NAILED down first (you\u2019ll be 98% done at that point). <\/p>\n

Now, here\u2019s the danger of going too far with Part I of the question (the GOAL part) without considering how Part II supports it. If you pitch an incredible idea\/vision for the future, but have limited ability to back it up with evidence in your past experiences that convinces us that you have the necessary chops to execute on that idea\u2026 the idea may sound tasty, but it won\u2019t be worth the risk for an elite MBA program. Remember, elite MBA programs rely on PLACEMENT statistics. Things like \u201chow many students from the graduating class end up\u2026 employed\u201d end up making XXX dollars in their first X years out of school, etc. Why? This affects their rankings, and rankings affect the caliber of student drawn to their program\u2013which in turn affects the school\u2019s ability to churn out success stories that juice those stats that then improve rankings and the future caliber of\u2026 you see how the cycle works.<\/p>\n

So, MBA programs prefer SURE THINGS to high-volatility applicants. Given all that, the best chance you have of proving future success is to point to evidence in your PAST of success in a similar arena. Now, typically this means success in ROLE and INDUSTRY X and then pitching future success that is essentially an EXTENSION of those two things. If you\u2019re a marketing maven, then you may have a hard time painting a picture of yourself as a logistics whiz. \u201cWhy should we believe that you will be successful here?\u201d they will ask. This is why industry\/career switches tend to be red flags, unless you\u2019re able to convincingly draw a crystal clear connection between your success in the past and your future goals. <\/p>\n

Start there: looking back at your career, what have you done? What have you achieved? What are you good at? What MAKES you good at the things you\u2019re good at? Isolate it, sharpen in, be able to describe this to someone in ONE sentence. \u201cI\u2019m the guy who can mobilize a team of 50 people on ten continents.\u201d \u201cI\u2019m the guy who can take ten department\u2019s confused and contradictory initiatives, and seamlessly cohere it into a winning, universally beneficial, perfectly aligned strategy.\u201d \u201cI\u2019m the guy who\u2026\u201d Find evidence in your past. Be messy at first, list ten chaotic forms of support. But then sharpen it, boil it down to three defining MOMENTS. Three episodes, where your actions PAINT A PICTURE of the value you brought.<\/p>\n

Once you have that piece LOCKED, now we can cook up a \u201cplan\u201d that is a mouth-watering EXTENSION of it. Now we\u2019re willing to go wherever you take us. If you\u2019re Elon Musk, and you give us your resume, you better believe we will be interested when you tell us \u201cI have an idea for how to revolutionize public transportation in third world countries.\u201d If your background is in sales, however, we\u2019re less interested in your Big Idea.<\/p>\n

As you\u2019re building your \u201cpost-MBA plans,\u201d focus less on the flash of the idea, and more on the strategy behind EXECUTING it. Show us how well-thought-out the plan is. Do this with detail. Do this with evidence that walks us through how each step is necessary for the next one. Practical, pragmatic, bulletproof. This is the plan that excites MBA adcoms. You want them to say \u201cthis guy is gonna be successful.\u201d Or \u201cthis guy has success written all over him.\u201d<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t want them to say \u201cWow, this is an absolutely brilliant and inspired idea! \u2026 I\u2019m just not entirely sure he\u2019s gonna pull it off.\u201d That reaction is potentially a death sentence.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the structure that\u2019ll keep you very safe for your first pass:<\/p>\n

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  1. Hit us with a high-level sense of what kind of ISSUE or PROBLEM you hope to fix. Or an OPPORTUNITY you\u2019re hoping to take advantage of. Quickly provide this background (sentence or two, max). Explain why solving this (or executing on the opportunity) isn\u2019t easy. Explain why this hasn\u2019t been done a million times successfully already. Then explain (super high-level) what your idea is. What your big picture plans are.<\/li>\n
  2. Now take us through the story of how this all came into play. What\u2019s the backstory? Where did you start, where did you cut your teeth? And most importantly, show us the evidence as you take us through the KEY NODES of your past, of your value. Don\u2019t just rehash your resume. Present value-defining ACTIONS that made it very clear what made\/makes you valuable.<\/li>\n
  3. Now that we\u2019re sold on how credible you are in this arena, give us a more detailed walk-through of your plans, showing us exactly how you plan on achieving each step. Details, specificity, show us how much thought went into it by convincing us that there are no holes.<\/li>\n
  4. Last but not least, spend just a little bit of time making an argument for why LBS of all the business schools on Earth provides a few UNIQUE opportunities to propel you toward success. Don\u2019t explain that it\u2019s a good b-school, or that you\u2019re interested in LBS. You need to isolate just a few idiosyncrasies of the LBS offerings\/class\/setup that somehow IMPROVES the probability that you will success as compared to, say, HBS, Stanford, or Wharton. The coolest test to give yourself (embrace this conceit!) is to imagine getting offer letters from Harvard, Stanford, Wharton and LBS. Make a case for why you would TURN DOWN the other three and go with LBS. All it takes is two or three bulletproof reasons and you\u2019re home free.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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    LBS MBA Essay Question 2<\/h5>\n
    How will you add value to the London Business School community? (300 words)<\/strong><\/p>\n
    Start thinking about this one by being ridiculously humble. You\u2019re just one guy. And furthermore, you\u2019re not the ONLY guy who\u2019s gonna bring value to LBS. In fact, you are COUNTING on that assumption. This is, after all, the DRAW isn\u2019t it? That you wanna go to a place where you\u2019re surrounded by people who are insanely talented and are gonna elevate your game?<\/p>\n
    Yes, of course. The value that others will bring will be humbling, mind-blowing, your raison d\u2019\u00eatre at a place like LBS. What does that look like? What\u2019s an example? An entrepreneur who started an absolutely gigantic company by age 17? A banker who\u2019s gonna revolutionize Wall Street? You get the idea. And it\u2019s easy to picture. You\u2019re gonna be surrounded by leaders. Folks with unusual and inspiring perspectives. Cool backgrounds you don\u2019t even KNOW exist yet. All this glorious stuff.<\/p>\n
    Now, stop the record for a second. And swallow hard\u2014you\u2019re gonna add more value to this pool of elite talent? Seriously? You? You\u2019re gonna have something to teach THOSE guys?<\/p>\n
    You best your arse you will. You\u2019re the guy others are picturing when they seek to be inspired. You\u2019re the reason they want LBS and not the #26 ranked school, because #26 doesn\u2019t have guys like you.<\/p>\n
    But so, what\u2019s that thing? What\u2019s the reason others would want YOU in the fray?<\/p>\n
    Consider it carefully. If it\u2019s average, or common\u2026 it\u2019s gonna be lame. It has to CRACKLE.<\/p>\n
    And it has to be in the form of a proof. Don\u2019t just make a claim. Take us through the actual way in which this value will manifest. We want to picture it. Convince us that this is gonna happen. And, of course, that this is eminently desirable.<\/p>\n
    Is there evidence of this in your past? If you\u2019re speculating about your future value at LBS, it\u2019ll only be as effective as it is convincing.<\/p>\n
    How to shape in 300 words? Two to three paragraphs. Here are some key pieces to the puzzle:<\/p>\n