{"id":45551,"date":"2019-05-13T03:32:07","date_gmt":"2019-05-13T10:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/business-school-application-failure-essays-series-part-iv-organizing-the-essay\/"},"modified":"2019-05-13T03:32:07","modified_gmt":"2019-05-13T10:32:07","slug":"business-school-application-failure-essays-series-part-iv-organizing-the-essay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/business-school-application-failure-essays-series-part-iv-organizing-the-essay\/","title":{"rendered":"Business School Application Failure Essays Series \u2013 Part IV: Organizing The Essay"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Failure<\/a><\/figure>\n

[Don’t forget to dig into Part I<\/a>, Part II<\/a> and Part III<\/a> of this series! Wahoo!]<\/p>\n

Dartmouth Tuck<\/a> used to ask applicants to \u201ctell us about a time you: received tough feedback, experienced failure, or disappointed yourself or others. How did you respond, and what did you learn about yourself as a result?\u201d<\/p>\n

The multi-part question is a lot to bite off, but the idea
\nbehind each of these sub-topics is the same: how do you handle failure? Do you
\ngive up, do you blame others, or do you take responsibility and improve? This
\ntopic is absolutely worth taking the time to think through, because it contains
\nbasically every version of the \u201cfailure story\u201d question all in one prompt. If this
\ntype of question doesn\u2019t come up on any of your application essays, it almost
\ncertainly WILL come up in the interview, and folks, this one is a biggie. <\/p>\n

Think of this as a drill you run in football practice. The exercise may seem like it has nothing to do with the game, but when you\u2019re at the season playoffs and you complete the game-winning pass you\u2019ll realize all that prep you did WAS relevant: you were building muscle memory. In this series, we\u2019ll break down this question and address each piece, building that muscle memory so that when you come across a \u201cfailure\u201d question either in an essay or in an interview, you can make like Tom Brady and bring home the ring. Here, we dig into Part IV. <\/p>\n

PART IV: Organizing the Failure Story in Your Essays<\/h3>\n

Alright, so you\u2019ve got the meat of these failure essays
\ndown: you know you need to get comfortable with being vulnerable, have your
\ntime machine at the ready to bring us back to your old, misguided ways of
\nthinking, stand up and OWN your failure, and then show us how you grew.
\nBut\u2026where do you start to organize that into a cogent, eloquent essay that will
\ndrop jaws? <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the step by step to get you started penning your
\nfirst draft of this kind of essay. <\/p>\n

Section 1: Your original course of action, and why it was unimpeachable<\/h4>\n

Sell us on how you FIRST approached this situation or
\nchallenge, establishing at the same time what the \u201cgoal\u201d was. This is where
\nthat time machine comes in handy\u2014take us back to what your thinking was at the
\ntime, given what you knew (or what you didn\u2019t know), and make sure that we\u2019re
\nJUST as convinced as YOU were that you were DEFINITELY on the right track. <\/p>\n

Section 2: Where it all goes wrong<\/h4>\n

Womp womp. This is the actual FAILURE part, and while we
\nwant a clear picture of how it all turned upside down, you don\u2019t need to go too
\ncrazy here. Give us a concise, transparent picture of the undesirable outcome,
\nand THEN, more importantly, tell us about YOUR role in it. What did YOU do
\nwrong? Take ownership, and don\u2019t be afraid to be vulnerable. Just as you put us
\ninto your mindset and thought process leading up to the failure, we want to see
\nhow you FELT and what you THOUGHT through this part too. How did you deal with
\ngetting this feedback, seeing this failure, or failing to meet expectations?<\/p>\n

Section 3: So?? What did you DO about it?<\/h4>\n

How did you RESPOND to that failure? What did you actually
\ndo? This is important because it reveals to the adcom how you handle failure,
\nhow open you are to criticism, and how willing you are to address your
\nshortcomings and grow. Did you get defensive? Did you push through, and solve
\nthe problem by sheer force, or luck? Or did you reflect and improve? Obviously,
\nthe latter is the RIGHT answer, and your job is to show us what steps you took
\nthat demonstrate that kind of thinking.<\/p>\n

Section 4: Growth, and proof of that growth.<\/h4>\n

Finally, before wrapping up you need to PROVE that you grew
\nfrom this experience. If it was a one-off failure and you fixed it and moved
\non, never to encounter a similar set of choices, then it isn\u2019t of much use to
\nanyone. However, if you can show that the NEXT time you faced a situation
\nsimilar to the one in which you first fell short, but THIS time you took X
\ndifferent approach or applied Y lesson learned, then you are PROVING to the
\nadcom that you took that failure and made it into a positive outcome by
\nbecoming BETTER. Growth is applicant gold, and that\u2019s what you\u2019re cementing in
\nthis last section.<\/p>\n

Even if your target b-schools don\u2019t explicitly ask you this
\nquestion in your essays, this is a drill worth doing. This WILL come up in your
\ninterviews, and answering this question is an art form that requires practice.
\nRunning through a draft of the failure essay will help you master this way of
\nthinking so you can execute it flawlessly, either in an essay or in an
\ninterview. <\/p>\n

===<\/p>\n

***NEW Admissionado Products & Services for MBA\/Masters!<\/a>***Now, read up and get smart:<\/p>\n