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MU2011CPA
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Essay specificity 26 Jul 2011, 07:41
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When writing essays (obviously this will depend on the question) is it best to be as specific as possible with regards to tailoring your goals, experience, preferences etc... to the specific school you're applying to? For instance, if this is a smaller program, should you go out of your way to state you look forward to small class sizes at ABC school? Or if the school has an emphasis on case study, should you go out of your way to state that you are excited/like the case study method?

I'm trying to figure out exactly how specific admissions essays need to be. It seems to me that practically every essay you write (i'm applying to 6 schools, so it will be quite a few essays) should be built completely from scratch and specifically tailored to each school. Is this correct?

Another question...say you have 2 or more post-MBA career goals that are equally appealing to you. If one school fits one goal, and another school fits the other goal, can you tailor your essays to match the specific goal that the school best provides resources for? I would hate for there to be a situation where somehow school ABC finds out that I told school XYZ that I wanted to be in banking when I told ABC that I wanted to be in manufacturing. Could this reasonably happen?
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RHB
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Essay specificity 26 Jul 2011, 07:55
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Yes you need to be as specific as possible. One piece of advice that I was given is that schools don't want to hear their own marketing material. So to use your example, if a school markets itself on having a small class because of XYZ, then you should avoid saying "I value XYZ and I am therefore looking for a program with a small class size."

You need to really dig deep and learn as much as you can about the schools that you are applying to and then use that knowledge to be specific about the program in a way that is as original as possible and unique to you. Also, yes every essay should ideally be built from scratch, that's not to say that you cant reuse themes and ideas from one to the next but it's important to address the question that is being asked as best you can.

For your final question, I suggest that for the purposes of applications you choose one post MBA goal and run with it. There is nothing stopping you pursuing other options once you are accepted and you'll be much more convincing if you only have to focus on one set of goals.
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mreevit
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Essay specificity 26 Jul 2011, 08:11
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RHB
Yes you need to be as specific as possible. One piece of advice that I was given is that schools don't want to hear their own marketing material. So to use your example, if a school markets itself on having a small class because of XYZ, then you should avoid saying "I value XYZ and I am therefore looking for a program with a small class size."

You need to really dig deep and learn as much as you can about the schools that you are applying to and then use that knowledge to be specific about the program in a way that is as original as possible and unique to you. Also, yes every essay should ideally be built from scratch, that's not to say that you cant reuse themes and ideas from one to the next but it's important to address the question that is being asked as best you can.

For your final question, I suggest that for the purposes of applications you choose one post MBA goal and run with it. There is nothing stopping you pursuing other options once you are accepted and you'll be much more convincing if you only have to focus on one set of goals.
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Agree. You need to know how the unique factors at each school will help YOU and YOUR CAREER GOALS, not necessarily how they help the average student.
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MU2011CPA
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Essay specificity 26 Jul 2011, 08:39
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Thanks for the responses. This non-marketing type information that you are talking about, is this the kind of information/experiences that you would gain by going to open houses/campus visits/meeting alumni, etc...?