Calling All Kellogg MBA Applicants(2018 Intake) Class of 2020!

Try to do peer review. The person who knows you better and see what you can add or remove from the essay..

None of these sections should be "cut". As mentioned by another user above, try to mention the same thing succinctly. Go for peer review as Gnpth mentioned. Your essays should provide all the 5 things you mentioned to paint a 'complete picture'.

Hi! Yeah, I wasn't saying eliminate all together...I was just wondering which I should spend the most time on and which I can shorten

This is a question that can be answered only after you let the person review your entire essay as eliminating or shortening information from even 1 section can throw the balance of the essay off. Write your first draft and get it reviewed by someone either on this forum or otherwise. 1 thing I used to do was to write a draft previous evening and review the entire draft the next day and try to be neutral about it, even being ruthless to an extent while critiquing it.

Hope this helps.

Very helpful suggestion thank you! I probably am getting a little bit too into the woods with it, a revisit later is probably in order.

Hi All-

Checking in here. Looking forward to going through this process with all of you!

Hi JMBA Welcome. And all the best for your application!

One thing that I have learned is that there is inherent redundancy in early drafts. You'd be surprised if you do this exercise.

1. Remove a complete sentence from the essay.
2. Does essay still make sense?
3. If, then redundance.

One other thing I wanted to note is that you mentioned in #5 that you are writing about how those lessons will translate into your learning aka growth at Kellogg. I have a feeling that they might not always be the same thing.

What I mean is.

Grim situation X happened --- You did Y and convinced some other people to achieve some results Z and some other result V which was long term evidenced by P, Q and R --- In the process of Z you learned A and B -- At Kellogg you will grow by doing E F and G and use them in your goals of M and N (short and long term).

I am running out of substitute alphabets.

Do applicants generally review each other's essays on the forum?

Not sure man. I don't think there's great value or great setbacks in peer reviewing. One thing that I like to do is to give my essays to someone who does not belong to my industry and see if my draft makes overall sense and answers the question well.


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Thank you very much!

Great point but you want to use every single piece of real estate provided to you in the form of essays to directly mention something to the effect: " hey, I would love to be a part of this community as I have learnt the following a/b/c things from my experiences, that I can directly apply to enrich my experience at Kellogg..." etc. Even in 2015, I adopted this strategy for the leadership essay and only mentioned 2-3 lines honing onto the sentiment above. While for the other essay, I spent a lot of time on mentioning how I plan to grow at Kellogg.

As you said, things mentioned in #5 above and growth at Kellogg may/may not be the same thing. But you dont want to miss out on mentioning these 1-2 lines at the end.

Thanks Engr2012 - absolutely agree. If it is possible to tie up learning in the past and align them with future learning from Kellogg, that is awesome. Also, thanks so much for sticking around to help potential applicants. I am connecting with a few other Kellogg students now

For connecting with current students, 1 thing that people don't know is that you can reach out to different clubs at Kellogg (clubs pertaining to the field of interest, I'm sure that there will be a club for the industry you're looking for !! Additionally, send an email to the MBA Admissions to put you in touch with current students who've taken xyz course or are from a particular industry or even interning at a particular firm.

Both of these are great ways to connect with current students and get some good material for your essays and interviews.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

You have been amazingly super helpful, which is as usual though from you. Thanks a lot for the valuable information. We owe you a big treat

I'm a little late to the thread. I am applying Rd 1, will be visiting the Global Hub this week.

My Kellogg MBA Program Review by about to take admission. Rating:*****