{"id":9089,"date":"2011-10-27T05:56:26","date_gmt":"2011-10-27T12:56:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/?p=9089"},"modified":"2011-10-28T05:57:15","modified_gmt":"2011-10-28T12:57:15","slug":"goals-essay-writing-nitty-gritty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/goals-essay-writing-nitty-gritty\/","title":{"rendered":"Goals Essay-Writing Nitty-Gritty"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post is the fourth of five posts in our <\/em>Why MBA<\/a> series. <\/em><\/p>\n

Short- and long-term goals<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before you start drafting your goals essays<\/a>, work out three levels of goals: short-term, intermediate, and long-term. It helps to have this whole picture in your mind regardless of where you\u2019ll \u201czoom in\u201d for a particular essay. Short-term is immediately post MBA to about two years later; intermediate is about two to five years post MBA; and long-term is the rest. Usually essays ask for short- and long-term goals, but you\u2019ll need intermediate as the bridge between them.<\/p>\n

Short-term goals are the most specific, for obvious reasons \u2013 they\u2019re closer in time and they\u2019re also the direct link to the MBA program. As you describe successive steps, use less and less detail in each, because the further out you project, the less certain things are. Don\u2019t go beyond what\u2019s practical, e.g., describing in detail what you\u2019ll be doing in twenty years. Adapt each phase to reality too. If your targeted industry (say, healthcare) is in great flux, that point should be reflected in your goals.<\/p>\n

Responding to specific goals questions<\/strong><\/p>\n

Different sets of essay questions<\/a> will emphasize different aspects of the goals; they\u2019ll require different lengths and have different tones. Some are open; other are focused and directed. They key is to \u201cread\u201d not just the words but the tone of the question. Anecdotally, I\u2019ve noticed a trend toward short, focused goals essay questions; there are fewer 1,000 word goals essays (Haas<\/a> is an exception), fewer essays asking for your \u201cvision\u201d (Fuqua<\/a> is an exception). Most want the facts, straight. Columbia<\/a> asks you to define goals in 200 characters. Wharton<\/a> gives you 300 words to answer, \u201cWhat are your professional objectives?\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the question carefully, and emphasize in your essay what the question emphasizes (e.g., short-term or long-term equal or do they just mention post-MBA goal?). In other words, be guided by the question<\/a>. That doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t bring in other elements, but they should support your main points. In the Wharton essay, for example, you\u2019d boil down your experience and motivation to a contextual sentence or two.<\/p>\n

Often the question asks why you want an MBA or want to attend the particular program. Link these points directly to your goals. If you can weave in your school visit<\/a> and\/or interactions with students and alumni, great!<\/p>\n

\"Cindy<\/a>By Cindy Tokumitsu<\/a>, author of numerous ebooks, articles, and special reports. Cindy has worked with hundreds of successful MBA applicants in her last ten years with Accepted. She can help you assess your strengths and weaknesses and develop a winning MBA admissions strategy.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For MBA resources at your fingertips, check out our MBA 101 pages<\/a> -- free webinars, special reports, articles, and blog posts on every MBA admissions topic!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post is the fourth of five posts in our Why MBA series. Short- and long-term goals Before you start drafting your goals essays, work out three levels of goals:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,4,113],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mba","category-career-reviews","category-applications","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9089","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=9089"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9091,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9089\/revisions\/9091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}