Write a Graduate School Essay that Will Knock Their Socks Off

Your graduate school personal statement may initially get only five minutes of an admissions officer’s attention

Writing an amazing graduate school essay is probably far more straightforward than you might think. Graduate school admissions officers aren’t looking for gimmicks. They’re looking for passionate, motivated, and prepared applicants who are ready to hit the ground running in their program. Read on for more details in creating your best graduate school essay. If you’re looking for one-on-one assistance, check out Topadmit.com.

Know what the admissions officers are seeking

Don’t make assumptions about your graduate school personal statements. Many programs simply ask you to submit a personal statement without any further guidance. Other programs will tell you exactly how they want the essay structured along with word count limits and formatting requirements. Review the prompt thoroughly and plan your essay before you begin writing to ensure that you create an essay that will be an effective and persuasive addition to your application package.

What should you do if the program doesn’t give you any specifics? With greater numbers of applicants to graduate programs, the trend is toward shorter essays. This is especially true of graduate programs in the STEM fields. Unfortunately, longer essays tend to be skimmed rather than read thoroughly, and most any admissions officer will tell you that the best essays that they’ve read are always shorter essays. Think about what is absolutely essential, and write about those aspects of your experience with passion.

Personal, personal, personal

Did we mention personal? Some graduate programs will ask you to write an additional essay about an issue within your chosen field. However, your personal statement should be about you as an individual. Write about issues only if they relate specifically to your personal experiences. For example, ‘In Africa, a child dies every minute. This stark statistic prompted me to join an NGO aimed at providing nutrition and healthcare for children in Namibia.’

Keep your anecdotes focused on your life after you began college

It is common for graduate school applicants to start their personal statements with an anecdote about something that happened during childhood or high school. On the surface, this makes sense because that event was what started the journey that has culminated in an application to the program. However, graduate programs are for professionals, and writing about your childhood is more appropriate for an undergraduate essay than one for graduate school. If you feel that you absolutely must include something from your childhood, use it as the starting sentence of your concluding paragraph.

Know your program and make connections

Securing acceptance into a graduate program is more about being the best match than about being the most highly qualified. Among applicants who meet the program’s minimum requirements, they’ll choose an enthusiastic and informed applicant over one with higher test scores and a better GPA who doesn’t seem to know much about their program.

During your graduate studies, you’ll likely do research, and graduate programs want to know that you can both participate in ongoing research as well as find a mentor for your own project. In your essay, write about professors in the programs whose work interests you and why. Also, there is life outside of the classroom. Does the school have a close-knit traditional college campus? Is it located in the heart of the city? Especially if you will be moving with your family, show the admissions officers that you will thrive in their environment.

Finish with a strong statement about why the school is your top pick

This doesn’t necessarily mean that the school is your only pick. However, generic essays have no place in the graduate school application process. Form letters aren’t persuasive, and generic essays won’t help your application package. If you can’t sincerely write that the school is a top pick, then why are you applying there? Instead, focus on creating stellar essays for the ones that actually interest you. Help the admissions officers understand your overarching vision for your future career and how your time at the school will prepare you to realize these goals.

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UT McCombs School Fall 2019 MBA Essay Tips

The UT McCombs School of Business is a globally recognized MBA program, located in Austin, Texas, a center of technology and business for the region.

When approaching these essay questions think about the reasons you are pursuing an MBA, particularly at McCombs. Thorough school research will help you come up with specifics, by talking to current or former students, visiting campus, or attending admissions events.

Stacey Kammerdiener, Senior Texas Full-Time MBA Admissions Officer advises, “While it may be tempting, do us (and yourself) a favor and avoid the snooze-fest/shock-factor extremes. Instead, approach your essays genuinely and with reflection.” More advice can be found at the www.topadmit.com

ESSAY ONE

Introduce yourself.
Select only one communication method that you would like to use for your response.

• Write an essay (250 words), OR
• Share a video introduction (one minute)

For an open-ended essay with a creative option (the video), it can be daunting to think of a topic. Rather than focusing on how you are going to communicate, start thinking about what you want to communicate to the Texas MBA admissions committee by introducing yourself to your new study group.

The best essays will dive deep into your motivations and aspirations, perhaps getting into your cultural background, formative moments in your life and friends, family and colleagues who have influenced you. To identify one or two key stories you may want to tell, think about those pivotal moments of change in your life.

For many people, the transition from high school to college and from college to work led to personal change. Others had formative childhood experiences or experiences that led to shifts in perspective like travel or living outside your home country. Anyone of these moments could be a good way to illustrate who you are and what motivates you.

Once you have identified the content of your essay you can decide how to present it. A video could give you the opportunity to add elements of emotion, such as humor, that are harder to convey in writing. A video also allows you to include graphics, photos or other visual elements. If your story fits better into a written narrative you may choose the written essay instead.

If you choose a video essay you will still want to write a script for your video. Think about the bullet points you want to cover and any important points you need to convey. If you decide to talk into the camera, rehearsing will be especially important, and consider having a friend or family member there so you can talk to a person instead of the camera. If you are able to edit the video after you record footage it will be easier to keep it smooth and on topic. Either way, make sure you take the time to record several takes of the video content so you can choose the best one to submit to McCombs.

ESSAY TWO

Picture yourself at graduation. Describe how you spent your two years as a Texas MBA student, and how that experience helped to prepare you for the post-MBA world. (500 words)

This essay is your opportunity to demonstrate strong fit with the Texas MBA program. As part of your homework before starting this set of essays you have hopefully learned as much as possible about the school, now you can bring in your own aspirations and goals. Use your imagination to think about how you might describe your MBA experience at graduation. You’ll likely have experienced both professional and personal growth, and met interesting people who will be part of your lifelong network.

To help you get started, research some of the unique opportunities at McCombs like the Venture Labs, if you have entrepreneurial dreams, and The MBA+ Program, with opportunities to work with influential companies through a variety of touch points. Being part of the city of Austin is another unique benefit to the program that you may want to consider in the context of your background and goals.

For example, perhaps you were interested in working for a major technology firm to learn product management skills to use in starting your own business. While at McCombs you might have tested ideas with the Venture Labs, and also consulted for major companies like Adobe or HP to learn how large companies worked. These experiences were likely formative as you made career plans.

Don’t forget the personal – McCombs has an active and engaged student culture with many student organizations you likely joined. And your classmates and friends you made in the program were definitely an influence as well.

It is always useful to read other people’s work to get a sense of what good essays are. To assist you, TopAdmit provides you some MBA essay samples written by counselors and editors hailing from prestigious schools including Harvard. This page contains personal statement samples, statement of purpose samples, and application essay samples for college. But please remember, these are for your reference only; it is not to your benefit to copy their style or concepts. It not only violates academic ethics and could lead to an automatic rejection by the admissions committee — the point of our service is to help you construct a unique essay — not one similar to other essays.

Tuck’s Own Insider Guide To Its MBA Essays

Tuck School of Business

These days just about every business school has a blog or two that regularly dispenses advice to MBA applicants. And, of course, there is no shortage of places you can go on the web to get perspectives on exactly how to respond to a specific essay question at a given school, whether it’s the blog of an admissions consultant or even Poets&Quants.

But it’s rare when that advice is as clear and concise as the insider’s guide published recently by Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business which has long had a reputation as one of a handful of schools that really get to know the candidates who apply there.

As the admission folks at Tuck put it, “Within days of publishing these essays, there will inevitably be sources willing to help you analyze Tuck’s questions, as well as our thought process behind them. Instead of relying on second-hand advice, here’s all the guidance you need to write an excellent essay—straight from the admissions committee.”

Here’s how Tuck is helping applicants do their best MBA application:

1) (Required) What are your short and long-term goals? Why is an MBA a critical next step toward achieving those goals? Why are you interested in Tuck specifically? (500 words)

This question is as straightforward as it seems. Pursuing your MBA is a big commitment. There has got to be a good reason for this, right? We want to know that reason. What do you hope to be doing after graduating from an MBA program? How does your path thus far play into that? If the logical path isn’t clear, make sure you tell us why you’re making this transition.

Also, we want details! You want to lead a company, make decisions, problem solve, help people? Great, but does that mean consulting or product management? Healthcare or technology? What companies interest you? What roles do MBAs play in those fields? Pulling out these details will not only make you a more competitive applicant, but will also give you a great foundation when presented with all your career possibilities. Business school is great for exploring different industries, roles, and companies, but without a plan it can be overwhelming.

As for the final part of the question, every MBA program is different. What about Tuck specifically will help you get from where you are now to where you want to be in 3, 5, or 15 years? As an admissions committee, we have only 285 seats to fill every year. We want to make sure we’re offering this incredible opportunity to those who 1) understand why they’re in an MBA program to begin with, and 2) are excited about spending two transformative years at Tuck.

What programs, classes, clubs, treks, or activities does Tuck offer that will help you achieve your personal and professional goals? It’s true that we like people who are enthusiastic about Tuck—we want students who will dive in, not blend in! However, that doesn’t mean that you should try to flatter your way in. There are many, many opportunities at Tuck—you owe it to yourself to do some research and figure out those that are truly most appealing to you.

Other tips:

If you can take Tuck’s name out of this essay and replace it with another school’s name and it still makes sense, then you need to go back and show you know what makes Tuck (and the other MBA programs you’re considering) unique. We don’t want a laundry list of classes, clubs, or qualities at Tuck. We know what Tuck has. We want to know that you understand why those things are meaningful to you. Be authentic, be straightforward, be specific, and tell a story that makes sense.

2) (Required) Tuck’s mission is to educate wise leaders to better the world of business. Wisdom encompasses the essential aptitudes of confident humility, about what one does and does not know; empathy, towards the diverse ideas and experiences of others; and judgment, about when and how to take risks for the better.

With Tuck’s mission in mind, and with a focus on confident humility, tell us about a time you:
received tough feedback, experienced failure, or disappointed yourself or others. How did you respond, and what did you learn about yourself as a result? (500 words)

Life isn’t all successes; there are plenty of failures in there too. We are not trying to bring in a class of perfect people. We’re looking for people who are self-aware, growth minded, and humble, people who recognize those less-than-perfect moments or traits in themselves and then figure out where to go from there. That’s why we focus on confident humility.

Tuck is small in size and big in collaboration. It’s not about being right, being the best, or winning. We don’t seek success at the expense of others. You won’t blend in or be anonymous. You will work with diverse people, with different ideas, perspectives, and experiences that shape them. In business school (and life!), you will be one smart and talented person among many smart and talented people.

We love that our students listen and learn from each other in class and over dinner, that they lean on their study group mates in areas where they’re less strong, and that recruiters highlight how Tuckies stand out as being able to work well with just about everyone.

We’re looking for honesty in this essay. This is not a trick question. We’ve all received tough feedback, failed, or disappointed someone. Show us personal accountability and action. And like the first essay, details are important. Be specific enough that we get a clear picture of the situation, the result, and your role in it. Finally, don’t get to the end and forget the last part of our question: How did you respond, and what did you learn about yourself as a result?

Other thoughts: Stick to one particular example instead of a string of several instances, and avoid being too vague. Consider both your immediate reaction and your reaction once given time to think and reflect.

3) (Optional) Please provide any additional insight or information that you have not addressed elsewhere that may be helpful in reviewing your application (e.g., unusual choice of evaluators, weaknesses in academic performance, unexplained job gaps or changes, etc.). Complete this question only if you feel your candidacy is not fully represented by this application.

Optional is optional! We are NOT docking you for an empty optional essay. Actually, quite the opposite; if you give us an extra five paragraphs to read and it’s not necessary, we will question your judgment or your ability to express yourself succinctly elsewhere. For example, you do not need to further declare your love for Tuck here when you can articulate that in the first essay and the interview.

Reasons you should use this space:

Explaining an unusual recommender, or why you didn’t include your current direct supervisor.
Explaining a particularly incongruent semester/class from undergrad, or a poor record overall.
Anything else that may need additional explanation—as in, without it we will not understand the true context behind something.
A good rule here is to keep it to a reasonable length. If you’re unsure if you should explain something, err on the side of including it—just do so as succinctly as possible.

4) (To be completed by all reapplicants) How have you strengthened your candidacy since you last applied? Please reflect on how you have grown personally and professionally. (500 words)

This question is very straightforward, but similarly to the optional essay, try not to repeat a bunch of stuff from elsewhere in the application. Naturally, it might happen here and there, but use your best judgment. If you received reapplicant feedback, you should specifically address that feedback—all of it.

Word Counts: All noted word counts are meant as a guideline. While we’re not going to count every word, if your essay is exceptionally short, you either haven’t explained something fully, or simply did not put in much effort; if your essay is exceptionally long, you should consider revising it to be more succinct.

Credit: Poetandquants

30 Tips For Your MBA Admissions Success

Fortune may favor the brave, but when applying to business school it is careful planning and meaningful self-reflection that win the day.

With round-one deadlines for the world’s top MBA programs less than six months away, this is the time to put together a plan for admissions success. You’ve got a lot of ground to cover:

• Introspection about your personal and professional goals

• Research to identify the schools that match your objectives

• Study for the GMAT or GRE, and any courses that boost your academic record

• Outstanding professional performance to strengthen letters of recommendation

• Purposeful community engagement and genuine leadership opportunities

• Outreach to b-school students and alumni combined with campus visits

That’s quite a to-do list, but MBA admissions success doesn’t just happen — you create it. And that means accepting all the challenges that are involved, and not just pursuing the ones you like.

(Photo by Jens Schlueter/Getty Images)

You don’t have to go to business to make a success of your life, but this is your chance to shape your own path, and not rely on somebody else’s. To more accurately quote business philosopher Jim Rohn, “Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do. Don’t wish it were easier; wish you were better.”

So where do you get started? Pursuing the theme of insightful quotes, I asked my colleagues at Fortuna Admissions for their advice, based on years of insider experience working in the admissions offices of the world’s top business schools.

Here are their 30 tips for MBA admissions success.

Self-Awareness And Defining Your Personal And Professional Goals

1. “Be your authentic self in your application. The most engaging candidates strip away the pretence, and don’t try to fit into a mould.” — Judith Silverman Hodara, Wharton

2. “Start with good questions — they are the best way to find great answers. Business schools want to know more about you than just your resume. They want to get a sense of what makes you tick. What do you want from your career? What are your strengths and weaknesses? What have you learned about yourself from times you have excelled and times you have failed? Don’t skimp on introspection—or waste the gift of choice.” — Caroline Diarte Edwards, INSEAD

3. “Spend time talking to many people in careers that seem interesting to you so that by the time you apply, you have a much better sense of your post-MBA plans. If you’re looking to make a career transition, consider speaking to people at your current company in positions that you’d like to go into after your MBA since they could be great resources that are highly accessible.” — Dina Glasofer, NYU Stern

4. “When talking about your long-term goals, think big. You will inspire the reader with your plans to change the world, not with your goal of retiring at 50. Find the thread that links your past decisions with your future goals. Make sure your story makes sense with a clear vision of where you want to go.” — Heidi Hillis, Stanford GSB

Selecting And Researching Your Target Schools

5. “Don’t settle for the ordinary — by definition a stretch school is within reach and by stretching yourself you will improve your reach. Believe in yourself, so that the admissions office can believe in you.” — Julie Ferguson, Chicago Booth

6. “Look beyond MBA rankings. List the factors most important to you and talk to students and alumni to help assess the fit.” — Dina Glasofer, NYU Stern

7. “Don’t settle for general statements about the school. Repeating well-known facts proves nothing. Identify and be able to explain your personal passion for the school.” — Karen Ponte, London Business School

Mastering The GMAT

8. “If you’re going through hell on data sufficiency or critical reasoning, keep going. You may have to fight the GMAT battle more than once to win it.” — Judith Silverman Hodara, Wharton

9. “Improving your GMAT score by 100 points is achieved in 10 point increments. Test success is the sum of small efforts practiced day in and day out.” — Cassandra Pittman, Columbia Business School

Personal Branding

10. “Think like a marketer — define and design your brand. What’s your unique expertise and contribution to the MBA program? Leverage that in each part of the application.” — Katherine Johnson, Harvard Business School

11. “As you look to set yourself apart, consider the lens that has influenced your worldview—and then find ways to project that understanding of yourself into your application.” — Brittany Maschal, Wharton

12. “Every school wants diversity – think how could your professional background, upbringing, nationality, age, future ambitions or interests add a unique dimension to your MBA class.” — Melissa Jones, INSEAD

Resume

13. “Be specific – demonstrate your value with objective evidence, don’t just ask the reader to take your word for it.” — Jodi Keating, Wharton

14. “Tone back the technical language and take it back to basics, highlighting the skills relevant to the role and ones the school will be looking for.” — Nicola Sandford, INSEAD

15. “There is probably someone applying to your target school with the exact same job title as you. Your resume needs to show exactly why you are better at that job.” — Jodi Keating, Wharton

Application Essays

16. “Telling a story that illustrates the type of person you are has far more impact than telling the reader what kind of person you are. Show, don’t tell.” — Heather Lamb Friedman, Harvard Business School

17. “In your essays, go for the why, not the what. The resume tells what you did, it is up to the essays to explain what motivated you.” — Heidi Hillis, Stanford GSB

18. “Don’t just cut and paste essays from one school to another. Each application should feel like it was written specifically for that school, including concrete examples and specific school offerings rather than generalized statements.” — Dina Glasofer, NYU Stern

19. “Focus on depth over breadth! Talk in a non-technical manner when explaining your career — your file reader may come from a different background to you.” – Nonie Mackie, INSEAD

20. “Show self awareness. When talking about your weaknesses, be honest. A strength disguised as a weakness could very well backfire. Remember that you need to show that you still have something to learn.” — Michel Belden, Wharton

Extra-curriculars

21. “Go for quality not quantity. It’s better to get deeply involved in one thing you’re really passionate about, than to start four new activities simultaneously.” — Emma Bond, London Business School

22. “Devote your time and energy to something that supports your personal purpose in life. Don’t just get involved because it’s an admissions criterion. Do it because it genuinely resonates with who you are, your values, and your sense of purpose.” — Catherine Tuttle, Duke Fuqua

23. “Don’t underestimate the importance of your passions outside of work. The 10 years spent training as a ballerina shows dedication and drive, and can help you dance your way to the top of the applicant pile.” — Melissa Jones, INSEAD

Letters Of Recommendation

24. “Work on developing a relationship with your recommenders now so that when you ask them for a recommendation they are inclined to do so.” — Michel Belden, Wharton

25. “Don’t assume that your recommenders know what they are doing. Details, depth and insight add value; generalisations and do not. Help them to help you.” — Caroline Diarte Edwards, INSEAD

Interviews

26. “There is a misconception that schools are looking for perfect candidates, when in fact schools are looking for candidates with the right fit.” — Malvina Miller Complainville, Harvard Business School

27. “Practice, practice, practice! Have great examples to hand and a clear story, ensuring you tell the interviewer what you did do, not what you would do.” — Nicola Sandford, INSEAD

28. “Prepare your key selling points and stories ahead of time, and go into the room feeling confident that they wanted you there, and enthusiastic about the prospect of joining the school’s community.” — Malvina Miller Complainville, Harvard Business School

Staying On track

29. “Focus on what you can do, rather than what you cannot undo. A brand-new start is not an option, so put your energy into a brand-new ending.” — Brittany Maschal, Wharton

30. “When tackling the most challenging areas of your MBA application, get up early in the morning and be sure to complete these first!” — Nonie Mackie, INSEAD

It is clear from the insider experience of my colleagues, and decisions they made to admit certain candidates and reject others, that successful and unsuccessful applicants do not vary greatly in their abilities. They vary in their desires to achieve their goals. So what is to stop you?

Source: www.forbes.com

Writing tips for the new MBA admissions essays

With MBA admissions essay requirements rapidly changing as schools and universities overhaul their MBA applications, one thing has become incredibly clear: the essay just isn’t what it used to be.

So how are MBA applications changing?

Some schools have added new components to their MBA application – like the Kellogg School of Management’s new mandatory video essay – or removed, reduced, or made optional portions of the essay segment. Why the new formats and new lengths? Soojin Kwon, director of admissions at Michigan’s Ross School of Business, told US News & World Report: “So many people were spending a lot of time on the essays and probably not as much time thinking about the other things…the whole purpose of the essay and the interview is to just get a better understanding of where they’re coming from and where they want to go to. And I don’t need to read 1,000 words, 2,000 words, to understand that.”

So how does an applicant get these new changes to work to his or her advantage? The prospect of a shorter essay – or one in a completely different format – can be daunting. But with the right attitude and approach, these new MBA admissions essays can actually provide a significant advantage.

In her blog, Kwon wrote that “our total maximum word count has been reduced by 450 words, and hopefully you’ll be able to use that found time to craft the most compelling essays possible.”

How does the MBA applicant adapt?

Avi Gordon, is the author of MBA Admissions Strategy: from Profile Building to Essay Writing. In his opinion, the most important things for an MBA applicant to remember while writing an essay or MBA cover letter–especially in one that is short, and therefore in which every word must be made to have the maximum impact – are as follows:

The Dos

•   DO remember to check spelling and grammar
•   DO actually respond to the question
•   DO write several drafts of each essay
•   DO tell stories from actual work experience
•   DO make sure that you accurately express your motivations and overall fit for the program

The Don’ts

•   DON’T praise the school (they know they’re good)
•   DON’T repeat items on your résumé
•   DON’T denigrate anyone or any organization
•   DON’T whine about life’s obstacles or blame others
•   DON’T state the obvious — if you are talking about water you needn’t add that it is also wet

Remember: keep your MBA cover letter and admissions essays unique

Jia Ma is IMBA marketing and admissions director at Beijing’s School of Economics and Management. He reflects that, “candidates always impress me most by [delivering] quick and genuine answers with great wisdom or humor.” The essay is one of the best opportunities for an MBA applicant to truly showcase character and distinguish him or herself as a valuable candidate.

That’s why it’s important to avoid uniform MBA cover letters and MBA admissions essays, despite the temptation to re-use them – particularly when other aspects of the MBA application process, such as GMAT preparation, appear to demand more time and attention.

“Standardized letters sent out to different schools are really obvious,” says Dirk Buyens, academic dean at Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School. “They show a lack of dedication.” Essay space is not for reiterating information easily gleaned elsewhere in your MBA application; it is for highlighting the fit between the MBA applicant and the school. Be sure to craft each MBA cover letter and essay with the school and program you are applying to in mind.

Most importantly, says Lynn Thornber, marketing and development coordinator at Durham Business School, “A failure to properly address the question asked is probably one of the most common mistakes, along with too much embellishment.” Since space is at a premium, now more than ever it is necessary to practice succinct and thoughtful expression.

Source: www.topmba.com

MBA Essay Tips

Most graduate business programs require applicants to submit at least one MBA essay as part of the application process. Admissions committees use essays, along with other application components, to determine whether or not you are a good fit for their business school. A well-written MBA essay can increase your chances of acceptance and help you stand out among other applicants.

Choosing an MBA Essay Topic

In most cases, you will be assigned a topic or instructed to answer a specific question.

However, there are some schools that allow you to choose a topic or select from a short list of provided topics.

If you are given the opportunity to choose your own MBA essay topic, you should make strategic choices that allow you to highlight your best qualities. This may include an essay that demonstrates your leadership ability, an essay that showcases your ability to overcome obstacles, or an essay that clearly defines your career goals.

Chances are, you will be asked to submit multiple essays – usually two or three. You may also have the opportunity to submit an “optional essay.” Optional essays are usually guideline and topic free, which means you can write about anything you want. Find out when to use the optional essay.

Whatever topic you choose, be sure to come up with stories that support the topic or answer a specific question. Your MBA essay should be focused and feature you as the central player.

Common MBA Essay Topics

Remember, most business schools will provide you with a topic to write on. Although topics can vary from school to school, there are a few common topics/questions that can be found on many business school applications. They include:

Why attend this business school?
What are your career goals?
What are your short-term and long-term goals?
What will you do with your degree?
How will a degree help you achieve your goals?
Why do you want an MBA?
What matters to you most and why?
What are your strengths and weaknesses?
What is your biggest accomplishment?
What is your biggest regret?
How have you failed in the past?
How do you respond to adversity?
What challenges have you overcome?
Who do you admire most and why?
Who are you?
How will you contribute to this program?
Why do you have leadership potential?
How do you explain weaknesses in your academic record?

Answer the Question

One of the biggest mistakes that MBA applicants make is not answering the question they are asked. If you are asked about your professional goals, then professional goals – not personal goals – should be the focus of the essay. If you are asked about your failures, you should discuss mistakes you have made and lessons you have learned – not accomplishments or success.

Stick to the topic and avoid beating around the bush. Your essay should be direct and pointed from start to finish. It should also focus on you. Remember, an MBA essay is meant to introduce you to the admissions committee. You should be the main character of the story.

It is okay to describe admiring someone else, learning from someone else, or helping someone else, but these mentions should support the story of you – not cover it up.

See another MBA essay mistake to avoid.

Basic Essay Tips

As with any essay assignment, you’ll want to carefully follow any instructions you are given. Again, answer the question assigned to you – keep it focused and concise. It is also important to pay attention to word counts. If you are asked for a 500-word essay, you should aim for 500 words, rather than 400 or 600. Make every word count.

Your essay should also be readable and grammatically correct. The entire paper should be free of errors. Do not use special paper or a crazy font. Keep it simple and professional. Above all, give yourself enough time to write your MBA essays.

You don’t want to have to slop through them and turn in something that’s less than your best work simply because you had to meet a deadline.

See a list of essay style tips.

More Essay Writing Tips

Take time to reflect on yourself, your goals, your accomplishments, your strengths, your weaknesses, etc. before you begin writing your essay.
Research the school until you have a good understanding of the school’s mission, culture, programs, and approach.
Create an outline to organize your ideas before you start writing.
Use anecdotes and personal stories to make your essay original.
Don’t be too academic – an MBA essay isn’t a term paper. It is a marketing packet designed to introduce you.
Be specific and detailed. Use examples. Support your statements.
Keep it real. You want to impress, but honesty is key.
Don’t be afraid to be creative. If you’re asked where you see yourself five years from now, you can avoid the standard answer and write a diary entry for that day in the future or pretend that you’re telling your children about your first job after grad school.
Make your essay interesting. Some admissions reps read more than 1,000 essays answering the same question. Hook them with the intro and keep them interested throughout to make your essay stand out among everyone else’s.

Remember that the #1 rule when writing an MBA essay is to answer the question/stay on topic. When you have finished your essay, ask at least two people to proofread it and guess the topic or question you were trying to answer. If they do not guess correctly, you should revisit the essay and adjust the focus until your proofreaders can easily tell what the essay is supposed to be about.

Source: www.thoughtco.com

Must-Have Tips for Writing Effective MBA Application Essays

Think carefully about essay questions. Make sure you take note of what the question is really asking so that you can answer it carefully and completely. Pinpoint key information that you want to share with the reader. You want the admissions committee to get to know you better and understand why you want an MBA and why a particular program is the best fit for you. Many essay questions are really two or three part questions, so don’t leave out any of the information you are being asked to convey.
Start with an outline. By now, you have thought about key points that address your reasons for applying to business school. Make a list of all of the topics you would like to discuss in your essay. Don’t worry about writing your list in order; it is more important to first get all of your ideas down. Next, look back through your list and consider numbering each item in the order that makes the most logical sense. This will be the outline you will use to build your first draft.
Write your draft. Using your outline as a guide, begin writing your draft. To make your essay more interesting, be sure to vary your sentence length and work on making smart transitions between points and ideas. If you feel like your paragraphs are stale or disjointed, look up transition words that you can incorporate for a better flow. Be sure to pay attention to word limits set by each school and adhere to those guidelines.
Read, read, read (and read). Read your essay to make sure it is flowing smoothly and to ensure that you are addressing each of the items in your outline. If you find that the essay reads better in a different order than your original outline, make use of the cut and paste feature and then continue to fine-tune it. You want your essay to be logical, truthful, thoughtful, and compelling.
Ask yourself questions. Want to make sure you’re on the right track while you write? Ask yourself some questions:
- Am I answering the question(s) fully?
- Is my essay coherent and smooth?
- Is this essay a good representation of me, and would someone who has never met me get a sense of who I am from this essay?
- Does my essay show that I am driven and focused? Am I being honest and memorable?
Edit and polish. You have already read your essay several times by now, and sometimes that can make it difficult to see mistakes—especially the ones that a spell checker may have missed. This is a good time to ask for a second set of eyes. Ask someone you trust to read your essay without telling that person your essay questions. Asking a third party to try to figure out the essay question based on your answer is a great way to see if you are doing a good job answering the question. Once you have taken into account any feedback from your second set of eyes, conduct a final review (or two) and then you’ll be ready to submit!

Source: http://www.mba.com

Ten tips for perfectly pitched essays

Essays are an incredibly important part of the application process, says Stacy Blackman, an MBA admissions consultant. Seemingly straightforward questions require a great deal of introspection. Make sure you budget time to draft and redraft, try new approaches and carefully edit so that each line packs the maximum punch

1 As soon as you know that you are going to apply to business school, you can start to prepare in a low-stress way. Keep a notebook and jot down anything interesting that comes to mind. An inspiring lecture, a disappointing performance review, an enlightening conversation with a friend, a travel experience, running a marathon, a stimulating book—all of these can be terrific material for your essays. Don’t agonise over whether it will make a great topic, just jot it down. You will find that you quickly have a plethora of material to choose from.

2 As you begin to approach essay-writing time, consider putting together a “brag sheet”. Write down all of the things about you that would not necessarily appear on a résumé: languages you speak, all extracurricular involvements, family traditions and more. This can also be mined for essay content.

3 Once you have the essay questions in hand, there may still be a few stumpers. Even with lots of content, when you are faced with answering a question such as “What matters most to you?” it is difficult to decide. Here is an exercise that stops you from over-thinking: set your alarm clock for 3am. When you wake up, ask yourself the question. The first thing that comes to mind might surprise you. Do this for a couple of nights and you may come up with a few options or find that you are building a consensus around a certain topic.

4 Before you actually write the essays, take the final step of mapping out the general topics you will cover in each essay. As you map a topic to a question, check it off on a master list of stories you want to cover. This way, you can make sure that a given school is receiving all of your key stories, and that you are spreading out different stories across an application and not being repetitive.

5 Everyone works in different ways: some work best first thing in the morning, others are night owls. Some need to outline concepts on paper, others go straight to computer. So develop a plan that supports your individual style. Many find that the first application can take around 40 hours of work—brainstorming, drafting, editing, refining. As you approach this process, make sure you have the time. Tackle one application at a go. Do not take work leave or attempt it in a single week. Essays require time to gel. Therefore make sure that you have plenty of time to do it right. You may require six weeks, or you may even want 12.

6 Many applicants are inhibited by perfectionism. They can sit at the computer for hours, unable to generate that “perfect” essay, rewriting so furiously that they don’t get past the first few sentences. It is often easier to edit than to write. So just type. A page full of so-so text is less intimidating than that blank page.

7 It is essential that you research your target schools and understand how to appeal to each of them. Each will have a slightly different ethos and look for something different in their students. But…

8 …you can also save yourself a bit of work. There are certain qualities that all business schools want to see in a successful applicant:

leadership
team skills
ethics
communication skills

Just saying “I am a strong leader” is not enough. Every claim you make must have supporting stories that help the reader believe you. You do not need to check off every quality on the list. Select a few that apply to you and reinforce those in an honest and compelling way.

9 Nobody is perfect. The schools know this and you need to show them that you are realistic and self-aware. Revealing your humanity—in the form of quirks, weaknesses and flaws—can often help the admissions committee to like you. A story about how you learned from a failure, improved upon a weakness or struggled with challenges can be compelling. The other side of this is the ability to demonstrate that you can really benefit from the MBA degree. If you know everything already, an admissions committee may wonder why you want to return to school.

10 Get some help. Even the most meticulous writers benefit from a second or third set of eyes. Ask someone to review your essays, look for typos and tell you if you are hitting all of the points in the right way. Is your attempt at humour coming off correctly? Do you seem too humble, too cocky, too serious, not serious enough? After you have been buried with your essays for weeks, a fresh perspective can often help you see the application as an admissions-committee member does: for the first time. Enlist someone who knows about the application process and make sure they are not just reassuring you that all is well, but are actually giving you some quality feedback.

Source: http://www.economist.com

Top Tips for Writing a Strong Admission Essay

What is an admission essay? And why is it so important for US colleges and universities?

While most European universities offer their future students to take several exams, US teachers and professors ask their entrants to prepare and present an admission essay. An admission essay is a piece of writing, which shows your ability to write well, your attitude towards education, and your fit to the chosen university or college. This essay will help the committee understand your personality, intellectual curiosity, and educational achievements. In this essay, you can explain what your main positive features and unique skills are.

So, how can an average entrant create an admission essay, which will be powerful enough to be accepted at the desired University? You can use the main tips described in the paragraph below or you can go to topadmit.com for professional advice and support. The choice is yours. Adjust your expectations and make the first step.

5 Tips for a Strong Admission Essay

Focus on one thing. Don’t try to describe everything in one essay. Choose one preferable theme, issue, or person to start with. When a student tries to write about many things in one small piece of writing, he/she tends to make it too boring, flat and watered down. Always use the method of brainstorming before writing your essay. Choose only a few good ideas.
Avoid perfection. This means you shouldn’t describe yourself as an ideal person without flaws and weak sides. Be objective. Feel free to describe what aspects are more difficult for you than others. No one expects you to be a perfect student.
A clear thesis. Your admission essay should contain a clear thesis, describing what you are going to tell about.
Proofreading. Never neglect additional proofreading and editing. Give your admission essay to someone else who knows you a little bit more than others. Ask them to read your essay aloud and to tell what impressions they have after reading it.
The simpler the better. Many students write about too difficult things to make their essays stand out. And those essays become complex, even for themselves. In reality, the essays that stand out the most are about simple things and everyday topics. The simpler your essay was the better. What is important is that your essay should express your personality, experiences, and perspectives. The main aim of the admission essay is to help the committee to know the applicant.

So, the main components of the strong admission essay are focus, realness, clear thesis, good grammar and spelling, and simplicity. And keep your essay short. Don’t try to make it as long as a novel. Just avoid common mistakes, carefully consider what you are going to write about, and present your personality to the committee in the best way possible.

It is always useful to read other people’s work to get a sense of what good essays are. To assist you, TopAdmit provides you some college admissions essay samples written by counselors and editors hailing from prestigious schools including Harvard. This page contains personal statement samples, statement of purpose samples, and application essay samples for college. But please remember, these are for your reference only; it is not to your benefit to copying their style or concepts. It not only violates academic ethics and could lead to an automatic rejection by the admissions committee — the point of our service is to help you construct a unique essay — not one similar to other essays.

Credit: The global dispatch

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