Social work contributions or Extra curriculars - MBA application

Question

Hi Team,

Since, B school places special emphasis on extra curricular and social work activities - I am looking for suggestions on 
1. How can we articulate hobbies, say dancing, to an extra curricular activities in the application. Do we need certifications or awards to substantiate the same?
2. If we don't have community work experience, how can we gain experience in less than a year.

Thanks!

MBAGuide · Answer

Hi  SK241  , If the school you are applying to has a specific ECs essay, then I suggest you make a list of all the activities you have done outside of your school classroom life or professional work life. Some activities may come to mind immediately such as dancing or music or singing, however, what the school wants to know is how passionate are you about any of these and what initiatives did you take to encourage these activities within your community. For example. as a dance enthusiast you may have organized dance competitions and dance classes, recorded dance video tutorials online or may have even pursued a specialization in a particular dance form. Any awards or recognitions that you may have received for pursuing an interest also demonstrate and substantiate your active interest and passion.

If you do not have any active community work that comes to mind, I suggest you ponder over any unobvious, mundane or subtle actions of yours that may have had a positive affect on people around you. Consider the following examples to get ideas:
1. You are an advocate for women inclusion at work. You have often highlighted the low women to men ratio at your company to the HR
2. You are an advocate for diversity and inclusion, you may have been part of gender diversity clubs, or clubs with specific diversity agenda such as the African American Society Club, Working Mothers Club, LGBT Club and so on 
3. In your formative years, you may have supported your family through financial problems by taking tuitions, dance classes, small home businesses and so on
4. You may have helped people of staff working in your school, home apartment complex etc
5. You may have organized workshops at your office or in school, or participated in street theatre to create awareness around certain social issues such as AIDs, female infanticide , mental health etc.

Show your empathetic nature with a bunch of trivial yet impactful examples such as above to make an impression through your essays.

Best wishes

SK241 · Answer

Thanks team !!

MBAGuide · Answer

Many applicants panic when they are suddenly faced with a dedicated ECs question in their dream B-School application. Having spent a lifetime chasing academic and professional triumph in extremely competitive environment, people often put their interests and leisure pursuits on backseat. If you are someone who has come to realize the dearth of Extra Curricular activities in your profile, take ideas from the following successful examples to weave a narrative that still shows you created broader perspectives and developed a well-rounded personality.

1. Begin by talking about your formative years
Beginning your narrative with some context of family situation and social environment helps the admissions committee to create a character sketch of you as a child or young adult and evaluate your involvement in school activities objectively. For example, a successful applicant once talked about making extra effort to adapt to her continuously changing schools due to her family’s relocations (shows adaptability). She went on to say that she pushed herself to participate in debates, elocutions and public speaking to overcome her intrinsic shyness and lack of self-confidence (shows persistence).

2. Small actions make big impact
Another successful applicant talked about helping her family during financial crisis by taking up odd gigs such as organizing coaching/tuition classes for neighborhood kids, starting home-made snacks business she marketed through social media connections and starting a women’s dress boutique at home where she worked with artisans on profit sharing basis. Through her undertakings in adolescence, her entrepreneurial bent of mind is evident even before she started college.

3. Show that you took a stand on social issues in your society/community
A successful applicant talked about participating in theatre and dramatics during her college days. She set the context well saying she comes from a conservative and regressive rural society where vices such as female infanticide, domestic violence and AIDs are prevalent but frowned upon when discussed openly. She decided to create awareness on such issues by writing and directing street plays which her team performed in villages to echo a strong message.

4. Are you an inclusive team leader at work?
If your time is all consumed at work and you do not have any active interests outside of office, talk about how you make your office a better place for others. Another successful applicant talked about creating an apprenticeship program for women employees to make the onboarding process more women-friendly in a highly male dominated field sales team (his LOR also substantiated this). Another successful applicant talked about organizing book club events in her US office where books from economically emerging countries were read and discussed to develop deeper perspectives and better inclusion at an extremely diverse workplace.

Profoundly thinking about your actions in hindsight is a great way to uncover aspects of your personality that created a strong impact on people around you. ECs need not necessarily be be about continuous community involvement or hobbies, rather, bringing a unique frame of reference through your occasional but strong stance on issues can also help you make a strong impression.

Social work contributions or Extra curriculars - MBA application

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