{"id":45628,"date":"2019-05-19T06:30:18","date_gmt":"2019-05-19T13:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/?p=45628"},"modified":"2023-11-01T02:26:55","modified_gmt":"2023-11-01T09:26:55","slug":"i-wish-the-admissions-committee-had-asked-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/i-wish-the-admissions-committee-had-asked-me\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI Wish the Admissions Committee Had Asked Me\u2026\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
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A number of schools have variations on this question, and clients regularly ask what they are supposed to do with a topic like this. The answer: It depends.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The role of the optional essay<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Ask yourself: Does the application offer an optional essay space as\u00a0well<\/em>\u00a0as asking this question, or is this the only place where you will get to write about a topic of your choice?<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

If a school offers you a space to explain any academic or career \u201cglitches,\u201d use that space to do so, not this one. Remember, this question almost always comes right at the end of the essay portion of the application \u2014 it will probably be the last thing the adcom reads, so if at all possible, use it to give them something positive to remember you by.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

If that\u2019s not possible \u2013 if this really is the ONLY place where you can deal with the negative aspects of your application, you must discuss them here\u00a0(there are ways to do so effectively)<\/a>. Please bear in mind that you don\u2019t have to explain away a single C+ grade from your freshman year. You don\u2019t have to justify the fact that you hadn\u2019t started your own nonprofit organization by the age of 19. You don\u2019t have to apologize for the fact that you didn\u2019t spend your undergrad years at an Ivy League school.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

But there are things that you might have to address somehow, such as a major GPA crash in your junior or senior year, a GMAT score leaning towards (or falling below) the lowest score that the program generally accepts, a major gap in work experience, and so on. With some creativity (and hopefully enough word count left over), you can also highlight some positive aspects of your candidacy in this space as well.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The importance of highlighting your well-roundedness<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Now ask yourself this: Have you used the other essay topics effectively to illustrate your personal background and community involvement as well as your academic and professional history? Is there anything you really wanted to write about but couldn\u2019t fit in, for whatever reason?<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Sometimes essay questions simply don\u2019t give you the opportunity to give a 360-degree view of yourself, since the questions may focus exclusively on work examples, your career goals, and\/or why you are interested in attending a particular school. This essay provides you with the space to add dimensions and give that well-rounded sense of you. It can really personalize your application. You may drift out of the adcom\u2019s minds pretty quickly if you simply come across as \u201cthe project manager with the 740 GMAT,\u201d but with this essay you have the chance to\u00a0make yourself stick with them<\/a>\u00a0as \u201cthe project manager who used skydiving as a team-building exercise,\u201d \u201cthe investment banker who teaches salsa dancing to senior citizens,\u201d or \u201cthe marketing manager who taught herself five languages in her spare time.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

A positive and distinctive use of this essay will be much more effective than telling them about your second most important leadership experience (since you\u2019ve probably already had a chance to write about the most important one). And it would be a very good idea to stay away from bland \u201ccatch-all\u201d topics like \u201cI wish the admissions committee had asked me how I achieve excellence in everything I do.\u201d Those types of essays usually end up being a) far too much to handle in the space provided, and b) way too generic, and don\u2019t tend to offer the adcom anything much that they can\u2019t learn from other areas of your application.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Open-ended MBA essay questions (like Harvard\u2019s)<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In recent years, some business schools\u00a0(Harvard most notably)<\/a>\u00a0have switched to entirely open-ended questions. Harvard\u2019s is: \u201cAs we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School MBA program?\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

While\u00a0we work with clients<\/a>\u00a0all the time who are very intimidated by this question, by the end of the process we have convinced them that Harvard has actually provided a gift with this question \u2013 though, a gift one must use wisely! By providing unlimited space to answer this question, Harvard is hoping for a few things from successful admits:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n