https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/2015-06-16_19-29-30-150x150.png By Adam Hoff, Amerasia Consulting Group This is a post I write basically every year because it comes from what I'm seeing each round, every day, on basically every application. That drum beat is really rigid, hard-to-read Why School X sections on essays. I give the same note to every single client so now I'm giving it to everybody: the simplest and most important thing you can do to improve your Why School X portion of career goals essay is to personalize any and all content. This is a great way to avoid writing something off-putting, as well as a quick and easy method for making your essays warmer, more personal, and easier to connect with. So, what do I mean by "personalizing" this part of the app? Simple: make anything you write about the school specific to you, your experience, your desires, or what you require from a program. Never just state absolutes, generalities, or even known truths and facts - always make them personally-held viewpoints. Examples are the best way to understand this (after the jump): Example #1 GOOD - "I am seeking an intense MBA experience, which is why INSEAD is my top choice." BAD - "INSEAD is one of the most intense MBA programs in the world." WHY - The first sentence is a statement about what you want (an intense experience), which is used as justification for pursuing the school. It doesn't matter whether you are right or wrong in your assessment, so long as you believe it and can then base a decision on that belief. Whereas in the second sentence, you are simply stating a fact. There are multiple problems with this: A) you might be wrong, B) even if you are right it might sound lecturing (which can irritate a reader who is far more of an expert on the subject than you are), or C) even if you are right and the reader is not mildly irritated, you still miss a chance to express something about you. Anything in any essay that doesn't tell the reader more about you, your world, and what you want is wasted space. Example #2 Good - "One thing that drew me to Duke right away was the small class size, which has always been the ideal setting for me to grow and learn." BAD - "Small class sizes are the best way to learn, which is why I love Duke." WHY - This one has a wrinkle, which is that the "bad" sentence sort of seems to personalize the statement with the "why I love Duke" part. The problem is that the revelation is still not based on a personal belief, but rather a statement of fact. Indeed, this statement of fact is even more egregious than the INSEAD statement above because it's offering up as concrete fact something that is highly debatable. Maybe large classes are the best way to learn. Maybe it's online. Maybe it's one-on-one. Who are you to say? Who am I to say? None of us are experts in the sphere of ideal learning models, so this just sounds completely arrogant. Whereas in the "good" example, we see that it's simply a personal preference that is the basis for further interest in Duke. I could go on and on and write 10 examples, but two is probably enough. The main thing is to read every single sentence you write about a program and make sure that it's always personal - told from your perspective, your opinion, your beliefs, and your desires. If it dissolves into "brochure writing" - just statements of fact, no matter how benign or flattering to the school - there is zero upside and plenty of downside. It's a small thing, but we see it crop up in probably 90% of the essays we read, so it's obviously a fairly widespread problem. And while it may not be the entire difference between being admitted or denied, it can definitely be the difference between getting a good or a bad read of your file. And in our experience, *that* is often the difference between being admitted or denied. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you are interested in making sure your essays are personalized (as well as everything else they need to be), hit us up at mba@amerasiaconsulting.com .

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: June 2017: Audacity, Authenticity, and Affection

This is my last month in Fontainebleau campus. I have decided to be more efficient, effective and optimum (read: greedy ?) in my INSEAD journey – after a careful consideration, given that this is my first time living abroad –... Continue Reading →

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: July 2017: Obama, Grow360, and INSEAD. Moving Forward!

My summer break in my INSEAD journey began on 1 July with one of the craziest experience ever. I MET OBAMA AND HAD A MEETING WITH HIM! It was a Jakarta Roundtable Meeting with the Obama Foundation (https://www.obama.org/jakarta-participants/) which was... Continue Reading →

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: Hi World!!! Welcome to my INSEAD experience

Hi World!!! This is my first opportunity as a blogger and I must say I am rather curious about the route this is going to take. I basically started this as I feel INSEAD is such a great experience that... Continue Reading →

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03 Aug 2017, 01:00

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: Letting the walking do the talking

Hidden in plain sight Over the last 2 weeks, I’ve been informing all the colleagues that I work with that I’m leaving to pursue my MBA at INSEAD. And somewhere in the conversation, one of two phrases were uttered :... Continue Reading →

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04 Aug 2017, 03:00

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: “Admissions world tour” – My path to Fontainebleau

Hi everyone! My name is Julian and in the next 10 months I will try to give you the best possible and unfiltered view on “my real life” at INSEAD. To start and to be frankly honest, I am a... Continue Reading →

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05 Aug 2017, 03:00

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: Ready for Takeoff…. almost

In a little over a week, I’m going to take a plane ride that will change my life. It’s a return trip of course, but the return flight doesn’t happen till 6 months later. Even though I’ve yet to see... Continue Reading →

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: Less than 20 days to the start, and the 8 months that got me ready for this day

In just a couple of weeks, my INSEAD journey will officially begin. While the official start date of the program may be August 23rd, the journey definitely started eight months before, on the day I received the news of my... Continue Reading →

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06 Aug 2017, 20:00

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: Business makes the world go around, and I want to go around the world with it.

There is no disaster on this earth which I enjoy experiencing quite like a good old existential crisis. To be forced to examine all the things in life, which up to that point had held meaning for me, inevitably leads to... Continue Reading →

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07 Aug 2017, 20:00

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: Turning my INSEAD year into two!

I consider myself a citizen of the world as there is no one country I particularly call home. These words that introduced my motivation essay for INSEAD are also the words that made my choosing the school a no brainer.... Continue Reading →

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08 Aug 2017, 20:00

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: The lost call

I was coming back from lunch with a friend from work. As we needed to get back to the office for a meeting, I grabbed my cell phone from my pocket to check the time. Never had a time check... Continue Reading →

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09 Aug 2017, 21:00

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: The Fault in Our Admissions Process

There is ONE thing the INSEAD admissions team is not very good at. They tend to NOT tell you why you were one of the luckiest few people to be chosen for the program. And trust me, sometimes it’s the... Continue Reading →

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: From a Yoga degree in Costa Rica to an MBA in France

Like every other morning for the past two weeks, I was woken at 6am by the Star Wars esque grunting of howler monkeys and the first rays of the Costa Rican sun seeping onto my bed. And just like every... Continue Reading →

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11 Aug 2017, 19:00

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: The road so far and the road ahead

Hello, all the wonderful readers of our blog. I was recently given access to blog like many of my 18J classmates. We all are super excited to share our stories and journeys with you and hopefully inspire some of you... Continue Reading →

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: Ground Control to Major Tom

I was sitting in a Cuban diner in South Beach, Miami when it hit me: we are now just a few weeks away from start of business school – this life changing experience that has been 29 years in the... Continue Reading →

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: I’m an alien. What about you?

If you’re reading this post, there is a strong chance that you are currently researching about MBAs and business schools. You may already have shortlisted INSEAD within your Top 3 business schools of choice, as its multicultural values somewhat echoed with your early international... Continue Reading →

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: Your job vs. your career: a perspective on changing careers.

I am a filmmaker-entrepreneur with a little more than 10 years of working experience in various creative and management roles in the industry. In the past 5 years, I have been producing television dramas and movies through my production company... Continue Reading →

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: C.H.A.N.G.E. v0

It’s a habit of mine to, while packing to move (again!), reminisce about what has happened that leads to where I am now and where I am going to be. Same goes this time as I start packing up for... Continue Reading →

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: Being Genuine, the Guiding Principle for My INSEAD Year

Even up till this moment, I’m still surprised by the fact that my MBA will officially kick off in a week’s time, even though I have been preparing myself for it for almost a year. But actually I should... Continue Reading →

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: Warming Up for the Coming INSEAD Life

During the application process, I have always been curious that what INSEADers find the most rewarding during their one intensive year. One common answer is PEOPLE. Thanks to the current technology, you can get a preview of your class even... Continue Reading →

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: From Peace Corps to INSEAD: How I Got Here

It must have been sometime in early February, one afternoon while sitting in my office at World Vision Georgia in a small town east of Tbilisi, when I received the call that I had been admitted to INSEAD’s MBA program.... Continue Reading →