{"id":25536,"date":"2014-09-10T12:23:01","date_gmt":"2014-09-10T19:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/?p=25536"},"modified":"2014-09-10T12:24:07","modified_gmt":"2014-09-10T19:24:07","slug":"25536","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/25536\/","title":{"rendered":"MBA Essays That Earn an Automatic Rejection"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Caution1\"<\/a>You could have a perfect GMAT score<\/a>, a 4.0 from Yale, and a list of extracurriculars as long as your leg, and still<\/em> end up in the reject pile for transgressing any one of the following three MBA application sins:<\/p>\n

1. Lying or lacking credibility<\/strong><\/b><\/p>\n

Lying on your application is literally one of the dumbest things you can do \u2013 it\u2019s up there with shooting yourself in the foot. And when I say lying, I mean large scale hoaxes all the way down to the smallest, whitest lie, or even an exaggeration. Stick to the facts. Play it safe. If you worked at a job for six months, don\u2019t say you were there for nine. If your job was assistant manager, don\u2019t say you were manager. If you raised $5000 for a fundraiser, don\u2019t make it $10K. If you have a criminal record<\/a> \u2013 no matter how big or small \u2013 own up to it; not mentioning it, won\u2019t make it disappear from your record. I\u2019m not sure why people think they can get away with lying \u2013 it frequently comes back to haunt them.<\/p>\n

2. Revealing arrogance<\/strong><\/b><\/p>\n

Nobody likes a showoff, so when you\u2019re applying to b-school, I suggest you ditch your know-it-all, arrogant attitude at the door. Saying things like \"I'm the only one who...\" when you couldn't possibly know if you are the only one, or \"Thanks to my efforts, my team succeeded...\" when more likely your team succeeded due to team collaboration<\/a>, show that you think you deserve all the credit. That\u2019s not a very nice attitude, and while schools do want high achievers, movers and shakers, they also want nice, and modest, people. If your essays reflect an attitude of \"You'll be lucky to have me because I'm just so great\" or \u201cI deserve to be accepted,\" you\u2019re dinged.<\/p>\n

3. Sloppiness<\/strong><\/b><\/p>\n

A single typo won\u2019t look good, but it won\u2019t give you the automatic axe. When I say sloppiness, I\u2019m talking about serious, messy writing, like writing Harvard when you mean Booth, or just littering your essay with grammatical errors, extra words that don\u2019t belong, and misspellings. Forgetting to submit a section of the application is an obvious no-no, as is just writing very generically or superficially \u2013 clearly without much thought or attention. This latter type of carelessness reveals sloppy thinking more than sloppy writing; it is equally damaging.<\/p>\n

Rule of thumb:<\/strong> Be honest, be modest, be neat! And of course, a perfect GMAT score won\u2019t hurt.<\/p>\n

For more sure-fire ways to get rejected, please see \u201cThe MBA Admissions Directors\u2019 Recipe for Rejection<\/a>.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\"MBA<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Accepted.com\"<\/a> Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best<\/a><\/em> <\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Related Resources:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 Can You Get Accepted After Doing Something Stupid?<\/a>
\n\u2022 Important Admissions Tip: Be Yourself!<\/a>
\n\u2022 How to Edit Your MBA Application Essays<\/a><\/p>\n

Accepted.com's experienced admissions consultants<\/a> can help you create the most impressive application possible with comprehensive packages<\/a>, <\/i><\/b>or provide targeted assistance from picking perfect programs<\/a> to designing a dazzling resume<\/a>, constructing engaging essays<\/a>, or preparing for intense interview<\/a>s<\/a>\u2026and more! Accepted.com has guided thousands of applicants to acceptances at top MBA programs since 1994 \u2013 we know what works and what doesn't, so contact us<\/a> to get started now!<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on the Accepted Admissions Consulting Blog<\/a>, the official blog of Accepted.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You could have a perfect GMAT score, a 4.0 from Yale, and a list of extracurriculars as long as your leg, and still end up in the reject pile for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,6,1,939,775,113,243],"tags":[1229,1046,811,1280,1145,883],"class_list":["post-25536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mba","category-current-events","category-uncategorized","category-accepted","category-admission-consultants","category-applications","category-blog","tag-business-school-essay-tips","tag-essay-advice","tag-essay-tips","tag-how-to-write-an-applications-essay","tag-mba-essay-advice","tag-mba-essay-tips","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25536","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\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25536"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25539,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25536\/revisions\/25539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}