Showing uncertainty in an essay

i agree. you should write like you have a well thought out plan to reach a goal. allowing yourself fallback options shows you are either non-committal or doubtful of your success.

Thanks for the insight. Another question regarding the specificity of my goals:

Which of these would be better, and why?

A) A clear goal about an area of focus, say social entrepreneurship that matches your story.

or

B) A very specific goal about the sort of venture that you would like to start. For example, wanting to start a program to teach business skills to people in the third world or something to that effect.


Is there an advantage to going with the second one?

I think saying you just want to be an entr in a socially responsible area isnt going to get you far Its way to generic. You dont need to present a business plan but I think you need to at least say why type of enterprise you want to found.

to put a slight spin on it. In my essays, my long term goal was clear, but i drew several paths to achieve it. All utilising the same starting point (B-school). The reason for drawing several paths is because it a bit like project planning, you need to mitigate your risks and find alternative routes to get to the goal incase one method is blocked.
How adcoms see that is another matter though.

This is something I'm struggling with, and I believe that I asked this question before, and recieved varied responses. How specific/detailed do you have to be about your goals?

Short Term: Post MBA, to move directly into a land acquisition position, then with more experience move into the design and planning phases of development (hopefully with a focus on sustainability) at a large land development firm.

Long Term: Entrepreneurial...to develop small scale sustainable housing (on my own) that would additionally focus on affordability and urban infill, as opposed to urban sprawl.

I could obviously make the prose a little more flowery...but do I need to be more detailed (if so, how much more) than that?

the more specific your goals, the better, but don't kill yourself over it.

My goals:

Short Term: To join a startup company in the wireless industry doing product management, which will help me learn the ins and outs of running a "mini-business". I listed one or two companies that I would be interested in joining.

Long Term: To apply the experience I learned into creating a company of my own focusing on <specific mobile tech>.

Not the most specific, but also not overly vague. There's a wide range of vagueness and specificity that you can do, just make sure your statement doesn't sound TOO generic that 1000 other applicants can have your same story.

Thanks guys, that clears some things up.