Re-Applicant Predicament

Question

Hi Guys!

I am re-applying to Ross this year. My goals essay last year had two MAJOR faults: (i) A typo in the first sentence which killed the theme (but if they overlooked, it was worded well!) and (ii) It only focused on the industry/function switch and not on the leadership aspect.

The re-applicant guidelines include the following:
  Submit a letter to update us on your achievements and goals since your original application. Please upload the letter with your updated resume. 
 OPTIONAL: You may choose to answer one or more of our current essay questions.

From the above, I have a dilemma where I need help:

Does it make sense to write the goals essay again since I am anyway writing a goals update in the the letter required for re-applicants. If they have the old on file, they'll see the typo?
Should my not writing the 2017 essays (goals+personal), indicate a lack of interest? I am really keen on the school.

Any thoughts?

ThadGA08 · Answer

Hey  gmat7m . Just a fellow applicant here, but I think you should submit a new goals essay as well as the letter. Ross' app is exceptionally to the point, so I would just see it as an extra opportunity to provide more info and get your personal brand across. I would do the goals essay first and include the leadership aspect you think was missing from last year. Your revised essay will likely present a clearer narrative with the inclusion than your old essay + the update in the applicant letter combined separately. Make it easier to make your best case to the adcoms this year given what you took from your application last year. The reapplicant letter you might focus more on achievement updates rather than the goals updates, but I'm guessing you also can elaborate on your goals a bit more and take advantage of the extra space (within reason). Perhaps you can demonstrate your ability to reflect and be self-aware in speaking on how your more refined goals in your essay are different than what you shared before. There might even be actions you took/achievements already that came out of that reflection. If that did happen I think those are things you'd want to include in the reapplicant letter or some other aspect that doesn't fit with the essay prompt. Probably to avoid annoying the adcoms you'll want to mention something that doesn't match as easily with the essay prompt or is particular to reflection from last year's essay rather than just adding things that couldn't fit in the word count of the main essay (IMO). Not sure if you're doing GMAT re-take and how many other schools you are applying to, but with almost a month left I bet it will be a good use of time.

Also it's not in your control right now whether they'll look at your original essay or not, but without submitting a new essay it's probably much more likely they'll be taking a very close look at the one from last year.

Sort of unrelated I was listening to the Preparing For Round 1 webinar recording last night and from Soojin's reflections on the new short answers it sounds like they are pretty excited to see applicant's responses and I think there was a comment about how they did them deliberately because they think this will help the adcoms learn who you are as a person more easily. You might already be planning to do those new essays as well, but if not, might think about doing those as well if you have the time. To your question about whether not doing them would show a lack of interest, I think the effort you put in last year and the resiliency in coming back and applying again I think would weigh that out, but it can't hurt to provide more info and show extra effort just in case.

MBAPrepCoach · Answer

Everything Thad said, however I think that you could potentially say everything you need to say about goals (that was lacking from last time) in the reapplicant essay and tackle one of the other essay questions.

https://MBAPrepCoach.COM

gmat7m · Answer

Thanks  ThadGA08  and  MBAPrepCoach

It certainly seems than I should present renewed clarity on the goals essay.

As for the other factors, I have a 50pt increase in GMAT to 760, a certification in line of career goals and elevated responsibilities at work.

ThadGA08 · Answer

Congrats  gmat7m  on the increase and great overall score! Sounds like you will have a lot to talk about in the update letter anyway. One piece of advice I have received from Ross friends and past applicants is to make a really strong effort to demonstrate your interest in Ross when you have a high test score. They didn't want the adcoms to think Ross was my backup. Potentially another reason to redo this year's essays to show that interest. Just a hunch here and nothing official but would guess it probably wouldn't hurt you a ton if you don't do the new essays but could have the potential to help you a lot in demonstrating that interest and that Ross is one of your top schools.

MBAPrepCoach · Answer

@ThadGA08 GREAT advice re: test score. Or whenever your score is significantly higher than their average, to demonstrate lots of effort put in to school research. https://MBAPrepCoach.COM

gmat7m · Answer

Thanks, the advice seems logical and sensible.

I will write a full application. Now onto interest - that I have but needs to be translated into words.

lbatra · Answer

Hey folks, is there a length/word limit for the re-applicant essay/letter?
The instructions don't mention anything about the length of the re-applicant essay/letter.

abhimahna · Answer

Hi lbatra , I don't think so. None of the schools mentions this. Hence, we can provide whatever we can that could strengthen our profile. But that also doesn't mean you are writing too long. It would still stick to a maximum of 500 words or may be less. Good Luck

bb · Answer

Re-Applicant Predicament

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