{"id":32724,"date":"2016-04-12T07:00:18","date_gmt":"2016-04-12T14:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/2016\/04\/what-makes-for-compelling-personal-stuff-in-an-mba-application-essay\/"},"modified":"2016-04-12T07:00:18","modified_gmt":"2016-04-12T14:00:18","slug":"what-makes-for-compelling-personal-stuff-in-an-mba-application-essay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/what-makes-for-compelling-personal-stuff-in-an-mba-application-essay\/","title":{"rendered":"What Makes For Compelling Personal \u201cStuff\u201d In An MBA Application Essay?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Compelling<\/a><\/figure>\n

Not gonna lie, this is a very challenging concept. Things may get a little heady, so stay with me\u2026<\/p>\n

Schools often ask (in some form) what kind of person you are, getting to know who you are, personal interests, etc etc etc.<\/p>\n

But what IS<\/strong> that? What does “personal” really mean as far as making an imprint? Height? Weight? Favorite color? Favorite actor? That’s all personal info, right?<\/p>\n

It is indeed, but it won’t help in an MBA essay. Let’s figure out what WILL<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

There’s a very cool test we can apply to determine what makes for compelling personal stuff in an MBA application essay [get set, this is worth a mental note]:<\/p>\n

Can the reader make a PREDICTION about your BEHAVIOR\u2026 based on your story?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Repeat this question in your head. Chew it. Take another bite. Chew slowly, digest. It’s a tough concept to get your head around, but with a little practice, you will master it. It’ll be second nature. And when that happens, your writing will start to devastate anything in its path.<\/p>\n

At the end of reading your essay, we should be able to imagine how you would react to a certain situation. We should be able to get a sense of what your attitude is like. We should be able to say “This is the kind of person who would __________________”<\/p>\n

You can’t do that with a GMAT score, or the number of languages you know, or the number of deals you closed, the amount of money you’ve made, a GPA, etc.<\/p>\n

“This is the kind of person who would\u2026”<\/p>\n

That’s what the Adcom should be able to say after reading your application. [You’d be surprised, but majority of applications fail this test.]<\/p>\n

Here are some examples for you.\u00a0This is the kind of person who would:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Most likely take the blame for someone else’s mistake<\/li>\n
  2. Most likely throw someone else under the bus to protect himself<\/li>\n
  3. Most likely tell a white lie to avoid chaos\u2014sometimes lying is harmless<\/li>\n
  4. Most likely tell the truth, no matter what\u2014lying is always wrong<\/li>\n
  5. Most likely quietly seek revenge if they saw someone key their car<\/li>\n
  6. Most likely take down that guy’s license plate and report him to the police<\/li>\n
  7. Most likely let it go and assume he had a troubled past and can’t help it<\/li>\n
  8. Most likely rather cure cancer than invent the next “Facebook”<\/li>\n
  9. Most likely rather invent “Facebook” than cure cancer<\/li>\n
  10. Most likely give lottery money back to his parents<\/li>\n
  11. Most likely put away lottery money for his children<\/li>\n
  12. Most likely be honest and tell someone their performance was bad<\/li>\n
  13. Most likely sugar coat the truth because human emotions are fragile<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    This isn’t a comprehensive list. The questions are infinite, but hopefully you’re starting to get a sense…<\/p>\n

    What’s the secret then? How do you write in a way that makes the reader able to answer those questions? What do you need to say?<\/p>\n

    There’s no single way or formula. Sometimes it’s puuuuuure style. The aura of the writing can sometimes say a TON<\/strong> about who the person is. Sometimes it can be an earnest anecdote, stripped completely of style, but provides a window into what the person is all about. Usually, it’s a balance of both.<\/p>\n

    Frustrating that there isn’t “a way to do it.” But, it’s like saying “how do you make an amazingly tasty dish?” Well, you can attempt to apply a formula to achieve that result, but ultimately, the tastiness is determined by subjecting the dish to a test—the taster.<\/p>\n

    Similarly, you need to subject your writing to this prediction test. Be able to fill in that blank several times over: This is the kind of person who _______________.<\/p>\n

    It’s also worth noting that we have an entire series on writing killer application essays and making them stand out<\/a>. You can get started with the first post<\/a> from our\u00a0our MBA Essay Writing Guide<\/a>, or read this post about writing a personal MBA essay<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Not gonna lie, this is a very challenging concept. Things may get a little heady, so stay with me\u2026 Schools often ask (in some form) what kind of person you…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,817,775],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mba","category-admissionado","category-admission-consultants","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32724","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\/140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32724\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}