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: Working to Level the Playing Field for Foreign-Educated Immigrants

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: My Extremely Specific Reasons for Choosing INSEAD

I’m starting INSEAD in January as part of the 19D class. Due to the end of my predetermined job posting last week and my habit of being compulsively early, I’ve already arrived in Fontainebleau and have plenty of time to... Continue Reading →

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: Beginners Guide to Singapore

During your time at INSEAD, chances are that you are going to experience Singapore at some point. Before coming here, I kept hearing about how great Singapore was. People were jealous that I was going to spend four whole months... Continue Reading →

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: INSEAD MBA — At some time you’d like to compose a poem for it

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: Work-life Balance 101

Only 2 weeks to go! As I am sitting to write this post I am only 10 days away from my very first INSEAD break, between P1 and P2. But before I dive deep into my classroom notes and exercise... Continue Reading →

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: Go Out Or Stay In?

When I received the news that my husband had been selected for the INSEAD MBA, I was obviously incredibly proud and happy for him. However, this would mean a complete turnaround in our happily married live, given that we would... Continue Reading →

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: What Are The Top Five Best Decisions You Ever Made?

The decisions I describe here changed my life and defined who I am today. Let me tell you how it all happened. 1. GOING FOR MY CHILDHOOD DREAM. At the age of 10, I knew exactly what I want to... Continue Reading →

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: INSEAD is a Team Sport

What a start! Period 1: the balancing act! Whooiii what a first period it has been! Even though I have been at other learning institutions, this is the first time I feel as if my horizons have truly been opened.... Continue Reading →

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09 Nov 2018, 02:00

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: INSEAD P1: The MBA Odyssey

After five years of woking in my previous job, I realised that my learning curve (knowledge vs time) had become shallow. Working in an engineering team, I eventually got involved in people and project management tasks. Yet the lack of... Continue Reading →

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: Shape Your Future with Impakter

I have always had a keen interest in social impact, even at a young age. In high school, the club I was highly active in was called Global Concerns. Global Concerns was focused on making a social impact by primarily... Continue Reading →

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: When Clarity Tastes Like Water

Two months have never flown by faster. INSEAD is many things to different people, but I doubt many who have gone through this process would disagree that one word truly captures it all: Intense. I thought I knew what that... Continue Reading →

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: The INSEAD Experience – A New Angle on Diversity

I started out my career as a Telecommunications Engineer, resulting in a pre-INSEAD career that culminated in me having worked on 3 continents in over 20 countries. I came into the MBA program with what I thought was a thorough... Continue Reading →

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: How to Make the Most of Your INSEAD Experience?

It was just last week that it dawned upon me that P1, the first out of the 5 INSEAD semesters was already over! And when I received an email reminder about this article, I thought what should I write about... Continue Reading →

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: First Impressions & Some Advice

How is it possible for the time to fly by this fast?! This is honestly the question that every single INSEAD student is asking themselves. It is the first week of P2, and I cannot wrap my head around the... Continue Reading →

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: What Should I Do If I Want An MBA?

Here is the game-plan to get an MBA and some key points that you might want to consider. I will not go into philosophical questions here, assuming that you gave this idea a good amount of thinking, made your decision... Continue Reading →

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: Notes and Lessons Learnt from the Wharton Exchange

As I write this up on a Cathay Airlines flight to Hong Kong, two days into P5 and catching up with all my colleagues on all of the typical jet-setting INSEAD shenanigans and stories, I think of how much I... Continue Reading →

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: P1 Rundown

Immediately after getting accepted, whatsapp / https://gmatclub.com/chat groups for the class of July 2019 (19J) were up and holy guacamole: the group has been buzzing! I had been relishing my pre-INSEAD experience and decided that our start at INSEAD has... Continue Reading →

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: How to not plan for INSEAD

Fairly early at INSEAD, I realised that B-school is like entering a secret place – Gondolin of sorts – that presents a world of choices and leaves it to the taker to choose what they will. But of course, we... Continue Reading →

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: Men-ority report: INSEAD’s Women in Business Conference

INSEAD is a place packed with opportunities to learn. Every week, there are presentations, panels and workshops organized by the different Clubs and the Career Development Center. You can immerse yourself in different topics and industries, gaining insight and experience... Continue Reading →

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FROM Insead Admissions Blog: 6 Surefire Ways to Know if a Portfolio Career is Right for You

When I started this blog, I received lots of questions about what a portfolio career actually is. As I define it, a portfolio career is a professional and lifestyle choice where you integrate the activities that motivate you, give you... Continue Reading →