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ApplyMBAapp
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5 Tips for Acing MBA Application Essays 11 May 2016, 10:51
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5 Tips for Acing MBA Application Essays



MBA applications are a combination of quantitative and qualitative aspects. Having a stellar GPA and GMAT score does not guarantee admissions to a top B-school.

Infact several instances show that candidates with lower than median GMAT and GPA score have secured admissions to top MBA program over those with stellar academic credentials.

Often essays are the major deciding factor between two MBA applications who have a same GMAT score and similar profiles.

So what is it in the essays that make or break an application?

Essays are means of knowing the applicant beyond mere numbers. Essays bring out the personality of the applicant, her aspirations, outlook on work and life and help the admissions committee decide whether she is going is a fit for the school and whether the school is a fit for her.

All essays in an MBA application combined form a story - a story about you. You market yourself to the MBA admissions committee through this story. This is what differentiates you from another MBA applicant. So ensure that you have elements in the story right by following these 5 essentials tips


1. Start by being honest

Did we say story? Yes we did. But please make sure its not fictional. Try and answer the essay questions honestly. If you think too much what the adcom wants, you end up writing a non-passionate mediocre essays that just does not connect. If you are being truthful about your experiences , dreams and goals in life that is what will bring the uniqueness in you and in turn show to the adcom how different you are from the other applicants. In writing about things that really happened and those that you really want, your essays automatically become passionate. This helps in bringing an emotional connect with the application evaluator who will be reading your essays. You want to create a lasting impression so that the evaluator remembers you and this is a way of ensuring that happens.

2. Be confident yet humble

Invariably admissions committee looks for leadership potential in MBA applicants. So your essays need to ooze confidence to show that have achieved a lot till now and are capable of achieving lot more post MBA. However when you talk about achievements try not to make it sound like bragging. Its good to quantify your achievements (e.g. handled $10 Mn portfolio) rather than using adjectives. Let the numbers do the bragging.

3. Don’t make excuses about your failure

“Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.” - C.S. Lewis
The quote says it all. When writing about your failures in your essay, try not to say how much you tried but could not succeed. Try not to give excuses about what hardships you were facing and if you hadn’t faced them how much success you would have got. Try to find out how much you learned from such failure or while you were facing the hardships and talk about that learning. If you have used this learning to achieve something else, talk about that. No, definitely talk about that. This is what the admissions committee is looking for. Are you able to pick yourself up after a failure? Can you analyze and introspect what led to this failure? If you were able to identify what action of yours led to this failure, were you able to use this learning in some other situation so as to not repeat the same mistake again? If you haven’t failed, it means you haven’t tried.


4. Get straight to the point.

There is no need for too much preamble or delving too much into history unless that essay question particularly asks for it or there is a need for a build up. Admissions committee members have thousands of applications to review, so they cannot spend too much time on your essays. They may get turned off if there is too much rambling before they can get to the point where you say what they are asking for. Also there is word count to think about. Getting straight to the point right in the first sentence takes care of both.

5.Get help! Get your essays reviewed by another person

After writing beautiful ,passionate essays you don’t want the evaluator turned off trying to avoid grammatical mistakes or spelling errors while reading them. Find out a friend or a family member who is a major in English and have them review your essays for grammatical, spelling mistakes and sentence construction. If possible get another person (who may be a friend of a friend) to read the essays and tell you what these convey about you as a person. Is your clarity of thoughts and passion really coming across. Better still grab hold of a friend who has done an MBA and knows about the entire process to review your application or get professional help.

Many schools are yet to release their MBA application essays. So while you are waiting for your chosen school to come out with the application details, be better prepared and ready to attack when the essay questions are finally out. Here is an exercise you can do to prepare yourself for the essays
https://applymba.co/blog/business-school-essay-tips-how-prepare-writing-mba-application-essays-apply-mba-blog
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5 Tips for Acing MBA Application Essays 11 May 2016, 14:04
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Great post.. looking for such tips and hints

Thank you!