Q: What are some of the worst mistakes applicants make with their essays?
A: First and foremost, not answering the question. After completing the essays applicants should have someone read their responses without providing the questions. See if they can decipher from your essay responses what the original question was. Some applicants write generic responses that could fit any school or program. Copying and pasting the same essay responses for each school you are applying to is not effective. We also find the wrong school name in essays all the time, a very common mistake.
Q: What about types of essays, for example, where they’re asked about their greatest achievement or something?
A: Well, that’s a pretty consistent industry standard essay. Given our entrepreneurial focus at Babson, we take a different approach and ask applicants to describe their own entrepreneurial experiences to get a sense of their appreciation for the entrepreneurial mindset.
Q: So if you have a feeling of, “So what?” after reading an essay, that’s the death knell?
A: Well, if the applicant has written a 4–5 sentence response, or it appears little effort was put into the essays, that’s not a good sign. We’re reading thousands of essays each year and comparing them to the other applicants in the pool. Applicants should really do some self reflection prior to writing the essay responses and be very clear [about] why they have chosen to apply to your program.
Q: How else do applicants try to impress but wind up having the opposite effect?
A: Essays that are 4–5 pages long will not impress us. Applicants should clearly and concisely respond to each question. 1–2 pages should be sufficient for each question. When an international applicant writes a perfect essay and the writing style is better than most U.S. candidates, we question whether the candidate wrote the essay [him or herself]. We do compare the writing style to the Analytical Writing Assessment on the GMAT.
Q: If you can sum it up quickly, what makes for a successful essay?
A: Genuine and sincere responses. We want to know who you are, what are your interests, background, experiences, and goals? How will you add value to our community and on teams? We are assessing if you be successful in our program and post-MBA.
Q: The economy has been brutal. How has this had an impact on the type of applicant you’re seeing?
A: On the full time MBA application side, we are seeing an increase in applicants that are only 2–3 years post undergraduate. Candidates are seeking out the MBA earlier in their professional careers and many are career changers. At the same time career opportunities are changing so a growing trend is more interest in renewable energy and social responsibility careers.
Q: How heavily are the essays weighted in admissions at Columbia?
A: The essays are part and parcel of the entire application; they are not weighted higher or lower. They are utilized as a means of getting information that we want to know. We use them to see how people think and how they pull together all of the pieces to come to a solution. In other words, it’s as much about how they arrive at the answer as the answer itself. For example, I’m thinking about the essay question that asks about an applicant’s career goals and why they want the MBA and why at a particular school. This is without a doubt one of the most important essays they will write. Someone may say, “My short-term goal is to become an investment banker.” What we want to know is how they plan on accomplishing this. This essay is meant to provide applicants with a vehicle to go through their entire thought process and bring us with them. Unfortunately, a lot of people miss that.
Q: What competencies are revealed in the questions you ask?
A: Their analytical abilities, written communication skills, organizational skills, and knowledge of themselves as well as their career paths are brought out in their essays. Assessing these competencies in their essays has become very difficult, given the amount of coaching available today.
Q: You bring up an interesting point. Is a “coached” essay easily visible to you?
A: What becomes evident are the irregularities you see among test scores and writing abilities. Those discrepancies make you more aware that they may have had help.
The analytical writing question on the GMAT helps provide a context for the skill level of the applicants’ writing, though the GMAT no longer sends us the physical sample—we may request it. But generally speaking, if you have a low score, a 2 or 3 on the writing assessment, or your verbal GMAT score is very low, and we’re reading an essay that is wonderful, there is a disconnect and it does raise flags.
Remember, there are so many checks and balances built into admissions. There are recommendations, which may speak of someone’s communication skills; there is the GMAT we mentioned; work record; and in many cases, an interview. All of these elements help us make a decision.
Q: But what do you do when you see the irregularity?
A: Again, this is a holistic review process, and these irregularities are taken into account.
Q: Does your application ask if they have had any essay assistance?
A: No. Our application asks them to sign an honor statement that the work they present is their own. We have not asked specifically about essay help.
Q: How do you read through so many essays? What will be a “standout” to you?
A: First of all, I personally do not read each and every essay. My staff reads the essays and the entire application. They will then provide a summary of the application, which I then review. When there is something amazing or distinctive noted, I will refer back to that portion of the application.
Q: So yours are … another pair of highly important eyes?
A: Yes.
Q: The economy has been brutal. How would you suggest an applicant address a weak employment record? Is there less of a penalty these days?
A: I don’t know that there was ever a penalty for unemployment. What’s important is why you’re unemployed. When you see someone not employed in good times, that’s a trigger for something that may be amiss, but not always. For example, someone in the media world who is involved in production might hold four different jobs in four years. This would be normal for someone in this profession but not for someone working in marketing. Today you see people getting laid off due to a downturn in the economy.
You obviously would not hold that against them, as it is not their fault. But then we want to know, what are they are currently doing? How are they spending their time? This becomes what’s important.
Q: What are some examples of good things they’ve been doing?
A: Pro bono work, giving their time and expertise to their communities. People have been working in unpaid internships at companies they hope to work for. There are those who have gone out on the creative side and done something they’ve always wanted to do. Some choose to travel, which may or may not serve their application well.
Q: What is your ideal use of the optional personal statement? What is a turn-off here?
A: The ideal is when the applicant tells us something that we need to know but they didn’t have the opportunity to express earlier. Remember, this is an optional essay. If you feel you’ve done a great job in presenting yourself in your application, then you don’t need to use the optional essay. But if there is something we failed to ask you that you wanted us to know, this is your opportunity. It is an open-ended essay not reserved for just the GMAT or GPA explanation.
Q: What’s the biggest risk you saw an applicant take with an essay that worked?
A: Let me answer with this first: Sometimes people think they’re being funny or cute in an essay. They don’t realize that what may be funny or cute to them may be seen as inappropriate to an admissions committee. If you write very well and have the ability to use humor, then go ahead and do so. But if it’s something you’re trying to create but that doesn’t come naturally to you, you can come off as flippant or too casual. This essay may crash and burn. There is an example of the best essay I ever read, where the premise could have backfired, but didn’t. It needs a little setup. The author of this essay was a Latin American male who was applying to Columbia a few years ago. He wrote an essay about being very macho. According to this applicant, Latinos are, by nature, a macho culture. This meant that being the male in his marriage, he was the most important member of the couple. At the time, he was working as a banker. His wife was a psychologist. There was an important dinner for the principals at his firm, and obviously he felt it important to take his wife along. The day of the dinner, his wife received a phone call from a client in crisis. The wife worked with this client all through the day and gave thought to not going to the dinner because of the seriousness of the situation. The husband, Mr. Macho, thought this was horrible. How could his wife do something that might damage his career? The wife went to the dinner.
I know what happened here. The client killed himself. It didn’t take the applicant long to rethink his priorities and recognize that he was indeed not the center of the universe. The part of this essay that could have gone awry was not just the macho part, but in handling the true drama of this story. What stuck with us, and still does years later, was his self-awareness. This was a very dramatic way for him to share with us his perspective. It certainly assisted him in gaining admission to Columbia Business School and several other top programs.
This is an example of an essay that had a major impact on someone’s life. Many years ago, I worked in undergraduate admissions. I was speaking to an applicant’s parents about their child, a young man whom they thought was the greatest. According to them, their son had everything: leadership, great grades and scores, wonderful extracurricular activities, and genuine commitment to these endeavors. So why, they wanted to know, did he get rejected from the school? Because, I had to answer, he looked like everyone else.
The point is, all of these candidates are great. At least 85 percent of the people who apply to the top ten business schools are all amazing, all are great. You just can’t accept them all. That’s a reality. So if applicants can distinguish themselves and let us get to know them, it may be the key to their admission.
Remember, we are trying to bring in to Columbia the most diverse and interesting class so that all may learn from one another.
Q: How have things changed since you’ve been in MBA admissions?
A: The rankings are much more important. I started here ten years ago, and at that point you saw a lot of people referring to the rankings, but not many applications came directly from the rankings. In the last six years, business schools have seen a reduction in the number of applications but a much more focused set of applications. I think that’s a function of people having a different information source. Instead of going to a professor and saying, “I’m interested in studying finance at graduate school, where do I go?” and then having the professor recommend schools they think would be good for you, prospective MBAs go to Business Week or U.S. News & World Report and say, “What’s the best school in finance?” or “What’s the best school in marketing?” And they’ll start looking at those schools and benchmarking programs from that perspective.
Q: How has the Internet affected MBA admissions?
A: The Internet has been huge in the way people go about looking at schools. When we started offering online applications, the first year it was maybe 10 percent of our total applications. The next year, it was to the tune of 35 to 40 percent, so we’re getting double-digit increases annually in online applications. That implies that the Net is also where they’re gaining a lot of the information about the schools where they’re applying. I think the Web has taken on a much bigger role, but not in the way that a lot of people think. People don’t go online to learn about business schools in an advertising way. They tend to be much more selective when they go to the Web. They want immediate gratification related to their interests. If they’re interested in financial aid or whether a school has a marketing program specifically for brand management, they want it right now in two clicks. If it’s not there, they’ll go to another website.
Q: Has the Internet bred a more savvy MBA shopper?
A: I was talking with a former admissions director at a top-tier school the other day. When we started, a big part of your day was spent telling people about the school or talking about very general issues—how do you apply, what materials you need, who needs to write your recommendations. Those days are gone. Very few applicants come in and say, “Who should I get to write my recommendations?” Because that information is there. Very quickly that comes across. People are increasingly self-selecting. The quality of our applicant pool is by far better than ever, and that seems to be a trend in the top-tier schools. I think that may be a real difference between schools that are nationally and internationally ranked and schools that have to inform applicants of every detail of the program.
Q: With so much information available online, what kinds of questions are applicants asking when they meet you in person?
A: Because people are much more savvy about their expectations in a school, they’re asking a lot about what will be delivered in the program, about the team emphasis, about the breadth of requirements and the kind of knowledge you’re going to get coming out of the program. People are much more specific: Why should I go to Tulane? What kind of experience am I going to have? What will the people I’m working with be like? How will it impact my future? Their questions are much, much more pointed. The idea of going to business school and knowing exactly what you want is a myth. While you might look at a business school and say, “This school has a very strong finance program and so I’m going to go there,” you still haven’t had the experience, the contact with people from all around the world, the opportunities you get from being immersed in such a program.
It’s the sponge effect. When you encounter people, intellectual qualities, and academic qualities that you had no experience with before, it gives you an opportunity to see that things may be done differently in China or that things may be done the same way in Japan. So it either validates your current way of making decisions or it challenges you. And that may push you into looking at things differently. It should.
Q: How do you reconcile recruiting applicants with well-defined career goals with admitting applicants who are open to new experiences and ways of thinking?
A: If I could have any skill I don’t possess, it would be clairvoyance. What you look for in applicants is a track record. Most have success written all over them, academic and professional. But what you’re really looking for in an MBA applicant is not just a successful person but somebody who can recognize opportunities for change and incorporate them into his or her life. Some of our most recent essay questions seem to be very abstract and off-the-wall, and part of that is because we can already see what you’re going to do with your career. Sitting where you are today, it’s pretty obvious what your resume and your academic background will support. The things you can’t see in an MBA application are how you go about making decisions, how you’re influenced by other people, and how that influence manifests itself. In a community like the MBA program you’re trying to get the exposure to diverse ways of thinking and new ideas, but it’s only good if somebody is going to learn from it and walk away better because of it. Finding those applicants is the challenge.
Q: What are your essay questions?
A: We’re running two right now. One is to identify the person that most influenced you in your life. That’s pretty insightful not because of who it is—I would say 75 percent of the time it’s Mom or Dad—but because it shows what influences people and how they react to it. That’s something that has to be conveyed in the material you’re presenting to the admissions committee. It’s fine to say, “My mom made me honest,” but was it through weekly beatings, was it through her exemplary behavior, or was it through the way she communicated with you?
Q: How long should an essay be?
A: I’m into brevity. One of the biggest challenges is to keep your essay within 200 words, which is like trying to summarize your life in a paragraph. Communicating effectively in a small space is a challenge. Not coincidentally, it’s something you have to do in business school. Twenty-two-page essays are not a productive thing around here when you’re trying to get through management communications.
Q: So one question is, “Who influenced you and why?”
A: Because we have a large international applicant pool, another essay question we’ve asked for a couple of years is to assemble a group and take them on a tour of your country. Tell us who will be in that group and what you will see. Part of what we’re trying to gather there is the individual’s perspective on the world. It’s a twist on the old “If you could have dinner with anyone, who would it be and why?” But it’s insightful for us because it gives insights into different nationalities and what those individuals would highlight about their backgrounds, history, countries, or needs in a way that is not so common to why would we admit you.
Q: Can you think of an essay response that impressed you with its unconventionality?
A: The tour essay that impressed me the most with its originality jumped across time to pull different people from history who had encountered the country and what readings about that person had influenced the applicant to think about or want to show about their country. I thought that was a really interesting way to approach the standard question.
Q: Is creativity important?
A: Creativity for its own sake is not a good thing. Most creative essays are not successful because in the essay I’m looking for some core values that are part of the person and how they’re illustrating that. This is not the Faulkner Prize. We’re trying to understand how you make decisions rather than how well you write. The GMAT includes two essays, so we already have a writing sample. The application essay is something you have a little more time to think about, and you should be able to produce something that is the best that’s going to come out of the individual.
Q: How are the essays weighted?
A: If the applicant pool has self-selected itself to the point where they’re close to qualifying academically and they’re close to qualifying by their career interests, you’re looking at a group of people who are fairly qualified on the objective measures. What you end up looking for are subtle skills that then get played out in the MBA program—how people interact with one another and function in an environment. So the essay and the interview tend to be more validating of how we expect people are going to function in the program and benefit from their experience.
Q: Can you think of an example where an essay made the difference, either for better or for worse?
A: We see both cases. An inconsistent application is the surest kiss of death. You want to open up an application and see that someone’s resume, their recommendations, their essays, and their interview all support a set of goals that are compatible with what’s going to happen to them over the next two years. Inconsistencies there raise red flags and, in a competitive pool, the red flag is what gets you taken off the table. So if somebody has a fabulous GMAT score, great verbal abilities, and an undergraduate degree in English and then his or her essay is riddled with errors, you look at that and say, “How attentive to detail is this person? How much effort was applied to writing that essay?” Something’s wrong, and that will get you taken away. On the other hand, you might look at people who were very active as undergraduates or who did something that had [a negative] impact on their GPA, but then in talking to them and looking at their recent behavior, you might be a little bit more forgiving. So an interview and an essay that are very positive can have a heavier weight with some candidates.
Q: How have candidates changed in recent years?
A: A decade ago, people’s bosses and parents encouraged them to go directly into graduate school. Remember [that] an MBA is a management program. These are people who are targeted for mid-level jobs when they get out of the program. Employers are looking for people who can be groomed quickly into supervisory roles, so with no prior experience—no track record of success—you really are at a disadvantage. I think that message has really been communicated over the last six or seven years, that you need experience.
Q: Has the economy had an impact on applicants?
A: I have a counter-cyclical theory. The students in top MBA programs tend to be much more focused on managing their careers. So while the economy has a role, it’s only one factor in a long-term process. We see people who have been planning on an MBA since high school. They’re on a twelve-year track. They’ve thought about this for years. They’ve kept tabs on the rankings for five or six years. They have a very refined idea of what they want to accomplish. With these applicants, I don’t think the economy has an effect. Last year we witnessed some dramatic economic events, but only about 10 percent of the class could be traced to having a direct correlation to the economy. The remaining 90 percent of the class was basically on target for what they had planned on doing for a long period of time.
Q: What areas are applicants most interested in?
A: Eight years ago the emphasis was on general management with a broad range of skills and then whatever other experience you got thrown in was fine. Certainly in the case of all the major MBA programs, the first year was spent on a breadth of skills. That has largely changed. When you walk through the door, you need to be focused on the industries that you’re interested in and the kinds of things they want, because those opportunities are going to appear much earlier in the MBA life cycle. You’re going to be taking electives in that first semester, you’re going to be exposed to speakers and opportunities in that first semester that have long-term career impacts.
Q: Is industry looking for specialization rather than a generalist?
A: I think that’s definitely true. A company will come in and look for someone who has the training as an MBA, who understands marketing and finance and human resources, who has some knowledge of the international marketplace, but fundamentally you’re being hired to run a finance department. Or you’re being hired to run a brand in the case of the brand management area. So you have to understand all of those things but you also have to have deep knowledge in your subject, and you can get that through prior experience and specialization in your program.
The University of Missouri Crosby MBA Program will help you discover and unleash your true potential—not just professionally, but personally. To that end, we’ve created an empowering community where you can thrive. You’ll play an active role in taking on real challenges in new and exciting ways through experiential consulting courses and professional development initiatives. You’ll gain real-world experience and perspective by working alongside executives and faculty who are genuinely focused on helping you attain your full potential. Your Crosby MBA colleagues will be a diverse group of individuals from all backgrounds, including science, engineering, liberal arts, journalism, agriculture and business and from many universities around the world. You can choose from specializations in finance, marketing, advertising, corporate or non-profit management, accounting, entrepreneurship, or your own unique career interest. You can also pursue a dual degree in law, health administration or industrial engineering.
As we review applications, we look for individuals who will both benefit from and contribute to our community. Essays provide you the opportunity to tell us your story and help us understand your goals and aspirations. Your written thoughts can convey your self-awareness, show how your experiences have informed your goals, and demonstrate your drive and passion. Use your essay to differentiate yourself in the application process and to tell us why you believe a University of Missouri Crosby MBA is right for you.
As you consider where to earn your MBA degree, it is important for you to find a program that best fits you—your interests, your goals, your hopes for the future. We invite you to visit campus to meet our students, faculty and staff and experience our community for yourself. At the University of Missouri Crosby MBA you can explore, you can collaborate and you can thrive!
Q: How heavily are the essays weighted in admissions at Crosby?
A: It is one of the important factors that we consider when we are evaluating an application. We are going to look at other factors as well, especially GMAT score and undergraduate academic performance. Essays are valued quite heavily in addition to those numbers as a way to differentiate.
What we’re really looking for is to get to know that person, to see how well they know themselves and if they can connect their strengths (and/or weaknesses) with experiences they’ve had that leads them to want to be in our MBA program.
We’re truly looking for an individual’s personal story. We want to know about what they’ve been doing, something that shows they have drive, compassion, and interest in and where they want to go with it and why our program will help them get there.
Q: Are you able to easily recognize a “coached” essay?
A: Often we can. That’s because it sounds a little canned. It’s almost too perfect in terms of language and word selection, and it’s also often not personalized.
Q: How do you read through so many essays? What will be a “standout” to you?
A: We have more than one person look at most applications. At the beginning of the process we talk about what we’re looking for in applications, come up with guidelines for how to evaluate applications, and then we have specific people read different applications. Ultimately people who are admitted, or people we want to interview or look at further—there’s more than one person reading that application.
Q: In recent years, so you find that applicants are using the essay to address a weak employment record? Is the essay the right place to address this?
A: I have not seen too much of that. In fact, people should probably address it more than they do. I think it would be a good idea to address it. At this point there’s not necessarily a shame attached to having lost a job. I think it’s probably good to address it and talk about how that may have affected them and how that may have contributed to their decision to go back and own a MBA.
Q: What are some of the worst mistakes applicants make with their essays?
A: The most obvious ones are grammatical errors. Also people who are obviously doing cutting and pasting and you see another school name in the essay … that’s not good. If they’re talking about something we don’t have in our program and we know they’ve used the essay for someone else, or if they’re not answering the question. Sometimes people will write the generic essay and send it of without really addressing what we’ve asked for and that’s a big turn off for us.
Q: What’s the biggest risk you saw an applicant take with an essay that worked?
A: A risk that can pay off is someone who will talk about a failure that they’ve had, in either a personal situation or a business setting, and address what they’ve learned from it and how it has changed things. It can be risky because you’re talking about something that you did wrong, but if handled well and if it talks about lessons learned that we can believe are true lessons learned, that can be good.
Things that sometimes don’t work out well is that people try to get too verbally dramatic about something. Lot’s of times people will use quotes that they say have inspired them. It can work, but sometimes it sounds too affected. As if they’re trying too hard to write what they think we want to hear rather than what is truly motivating them to apply to the program.
The Notre Dame MBA program asks more of business, by asking its students to lead with integrity, foster effective organizations and consider the greater good. With more than 90 elective courses, six concentration tracks and two formats, the Notre Dame MBA program provides students with a challenging and flexible educational experience.
Our MBA students learn leadership skills so that they can solve some of the toughest problems in business, and do so with a consciousness of how their actions impact the larger community. The curriculum provides a balanced mastery of all functional areas of business—finance, accounting, marketing and management. Signature courses in Problem-Solving and Innovation give students the tools to diagnose problems, understand the critical issues and frame innovative solutions.
Further, students are exposed to the complexities of global business through a series of engagements with leaders worldwide. Immersions in Asia and Latin America provide opportunities to experience other cultures first-hand. Signature lecture series, such as Ten Years Hence, bring in internationally renowned experts to discuss some of the most vital trends and issues facing the current age. Students also have the opportunity to broaden their problem-solving and entrepreneurial skills by participating in service projects in locations ranging from Jamaica, South Africa and Mexico, to here in the Midwest.
Q: How heavily are the essays weighted in admissions at Mendoza?
A: They are weighted equally with other facets of the application such as GMAT, work experience, GPA.
Q: What are the essay questions you guys ask? Is there more than one essay that is required?
A: We have one that is required, and that is “What are your career plans immediately after graduation? Explain how your past experiences prepare you for your desired position.”
The second essay can be chosen from a group of 6, one relates to our MBA values statement, the second one relates to a personal failure and what they learned from it, the third involves trust or lack of trust and how that’s impacted your professional experience; the fourth is describing a time when you were given a project in an area that was not well-defined and how you handles it; the fifth one is what brand would you most like to manage and how and why; and then sixth is a essay as it relates to the book Risk and Other Four-Letter Words which talks about the financial crisis of 2008–2009 and asks whether the book takes on the appropriate level of risk.
We also have a PowerPoint requirement in the application. We limit it to four slides. It’s static, so we don’t look for video, or music, or hyperlinks. It gives us a neat insight into the candidate. The business world relies on that type of communication so it’s applicable to their future careers.
Q: What competencies are revealed in the questions you ask?
A: We’re looking for creativity, insight into who they are as people outside of what we would learn through the application process. We get a lot of data—but this allows us to really look into that person and see what’s important to them and how creative they can be.
Q: How do you read through so many essays?
A: Every application goes through at least two reads, then if there is a conclusion within the first two reads then we just move forward with that conclusion. If there is a divide it goes to third read which is part of the committee review and who we send it to depends on the issue.
Q: So you basically spend a lot of time with the essays?
A: We owe that to the applicants. They’ve put in a great deal of time and effort so we want to give everybody the fair valuation no matter what their background or GMAT score. It’s just the right thing to do.
Q: What makes an essay a “standout”?
A: I can give you an example of one that stood out for me. A candidate [who] was from Jackson, Mississippi, who now works in New York for NBC in their finance area. He is an African-American man and his essay started off with essentially a description of his grandfather and his life prior to education. I can remember the sentence almost perfectly. He said, “My grandfather was tired of looking at the south end of a mule going north.”
He made the determination that education was the way for his family to move along in life and get better. So essentially he was setting the foundation that education was the key to success. Then he just went on from there to talk about why he wanted to earn an MBA and what he planned to do with it.
I had another candidate who wanted to get into brand management and her essay started off with “Snap, Crackle, Pop … Snap, Crackle, Pop.” Those things really stand out in my mind, but you need to be an excellent writer to do that. If you’re not a good writer than you need to shift your methodology to more of a newspaper-type mode. For example, “I plan to go into investment banking in New York on Wall Street.” Then build from there.
Q: What are some of the worst mistakes applicants make with their essays?
A: When they write what they think we want to hear. I don’t think that is the way to go.
You need to write from the heart. If you believe in what you’re writing and that’s important to you, it’s going to come through. The candidates that write what they think we want to hear—you can tell. When you read as many essays and Power Points that we do the ones that aren’t from the heart really stick out. The applicants that do the “group/replace” mode in their essays—that really sticks out too. Spelling and punctuation and grammar have to be perfect.
Q: How heavily are the essays weighted in admissions at the Simon School?
A: The essay is an important component that helps to differentiate candidates from one another beyond the basic metrics of work experience and GMAT score. It gives us a sense of what the candidate has to say about themselves and it is a way for us to assess their level of judgment in terms of what things they choose to share with us and fit with our program in terms of the background they bring and whether they have the potential to bring an interesting perspective to the MBA classroom.
A: Fit is quite important. I would say that the majority of the students who apply to our program are academically qualified. For the most part, these are students who can handle the rigor of a top MBA program and they’ve done their homework on places where they think they’d make the cut academically, so the essay is very important for getting to know the candidate and hearing about examples of prior work experience or volunteerism or leadership or team skills. Oftentimes that helps to determine which candidate we end up inviting for interviews.
Q: What competencies are revealed in the questions you ask?
A: Rochester has two required essays. One of the required essays asks the student to talk about their reasons for choosing to apply to business school at this particular juncture and specifically why they’re interested in the Rochester MBA program and where they think the MBA will take them. It’s very important to get a sense of their rationale and reason for pursuing school and the thought they’ve put into their post-MBA career search.
The other required essay asks students to discuss two leadership examples. That’s important in terms of what students choose to write about and how that might translate into leadership inside or outside the classroom and after they graduate.
Q: How do you read through so many essays?
A: We have an admissions committee of full-time admissions officers whose goal is interacting with candidates during the recruiting season. We go out there and travel and met with candidates who come on campus for information sessions and interviews. We’re heavily invested in the entire recruitment process and have a good sense of how to select candidates who are the right fit for the program.
We have our busy season, very similar in timeline to when accountants have their busy season, but ultimately we feel it’s very important to invest the additional hours to read through the essays as part of the process of getting to know candidates and differentiating among them.
We’re a very small program relative to some of the programs that are out there and so we want to be really careful and make sure that each of the students we are selecting is going to be part of the right mix. We really can’t afford to make a mistake. So we spend a great deal of time trying to assess fit and background and all those sorts of things so that we’re bringing together a class that’s going to be the right mix for the type of environment we offer at Rochester.
Q: What is your ideal use of the optional personal statement?
A: Our optional essay is truly optional, and that’s a big misconception among candidates. It is an opportunity for a candidate to talk about a weakness in the application that they feel needs an explanation, for example, a gap in their resume or a significantly below average academic record in college.
Q: What are some of the biggest mistakes students make?
A: Well, there are some fairly obvious things that some students may not fully consider in their desire to promote themselves to us. One really obvious thing is to pay attention to the nuances of the essay question. We realize that the candidate may be applying to multiple schools, but the topics tend to be slightly different depending on the school. The boilerplate essay template oftentimes doesn’t fully reflect answering the question or even staying with the word limit. Those are some of the obvious ones along with spell checking your essay and grammar checking and that sort of thing.
In terms of the content, the most important thing is authenticity and also relevancy. Authenticity: being yourself, telling your story, and really helping us to get to know you but relevancy in terms of hearing the information that’s most relevant to your b-school application. So there may things that are very authentic about you that have very little relevance to the b-school application process. Striking the right mix between authenticity in the way a candidate presents themselves while being concise and relevant and sharing the things that are really most important to answering the questions asked.
Q: What’s the biggest risk you saw an applicant take with an essay that worked?
A: There have been instances when a candidate chose to be authentic in a relevant way but in a sense may have revealed a potential weakness but were able to do so in a way that was genuine and appropriate. This isn’t something that’s appropriate for every candidate—it just really depends on what the area of development is and whether it’s relevant to the business school application. It is risky to be that transparent, but ultimately it come’s down to us assessing the candidate’s judgment in terms of what they choose to share with us about their background and the way that they choose to share it.
The Foster MBA Program, located in Seattle, offers a highly customizable MBA experience, top notch faculty, a collaborative learning environment and access to a diverse array of companies and industries. The Foster MBA is unique, and so is every candidate who applies. Think of the essays that you submit with your application as your voice to the admissions committee. The essays present you with an opportunity to tell the admissions committee exactly how this program is going to help you accomplish your goals. The Foster MBA application requires three essays – the first asks you discuss your career goals and how the Foster MBA fits into your plans, the second asks you to outline your plans for involvement in the program (beyond the classroom), and the third is a choice between two essay topics – your greatest professional accomplishment, or a time when you faced a great challenge. The first essay is by far the most important essay. Although most schools ask a similar question, it’s crucial that you very specifically explain how the opportunities available at Foster will help you move closer to your short-term and long-term career goals. The other two essays take this a step further and help the admissions committee assess how you will contribute to the program in terms of your desire to get involved, your drive and leadership potential, and your ability to handle challenging situations. Finally, the Foster MBA application offers you the opportunity to write an optional essay. The optional essay is a great place to tell us something unique about yourself or to explain a potential area of concern in your application (such as a gap in your resume or a low GPA). In summary, the application essays are an excellent tool for helping the admissions committee understand not just what makes you a great candidate, but what makes you a great candidate for the Foster MBA Program.
Q: How heavily are the essays weighted in admissions at Foster?
A: Like other pieces of the application, it’s just one part. In our application, there’s no one piece that’s weighted more than another. But don’t underestimate the importance of the essay. There’s a tendency to focus on things like the GMAT, and the essay can be the last thing that candidates think about, but I like to recommend starting on them really early because they are a great tool for helping the candidate think through why they want to be in school and why they are interested in a particular program. It helps them put together a better application and can help them interview better.
Q: What competencies are revealed in the questions you ask?
A: For our program, what we call the “goals essay” is important. It’s basically telling us why you want to be here. We have three essays, but the goals essay is our first and longest. But for all that we ask the candidate to cover in the essays it’s really not that long. One of the biggest challenges is addressing the whole question in a relatively short space. You really want to make sure that you specifically read the question. Our goals essay has several questions within a question and it is important to address all of them.
Q: Is a “coached” essay easily visible to you?
A: Getting feedback is not an issue, but you don’t want your essay to be something that could be submitted to any school. You want to make sure that it’s really specific to each school to which you’re applying. I can tell when someone hasn’t researched our school. You also want to make sure you’re speaking from the heart. Rather than using clichéd phrases, I’d rather hear specifically what your plans are. For us, its more important that a candidate answers the questions and speaks very honesty than having a really eloquently written essay.
Q: How do you read through so many essays? What will be a “standout” to you?
A: We really do read every single essay. There’s no applicant who applies to our program whose essays aren’t read at least twice. But the strongest essays are the ones that very specifically answer the question and are honest and straight from the heart and you can tell that they genuinely want to be a part of the program. A real standout would be one that does all of these things and brings something unique in either their writing style or in a specific experience that they share.
Q: The economy has been brutal. How would you suggest an applicant address a weak employment record? Is there less of a penalty these days?
A: If someone is laid off from their job, particularly these days, it’s not the being laid off that we’re concerned about as much as what you do afterwards. Even if it’s just really actively networking and researching your career goals, just spending all your time applying to business school isn’t necessarily going to standout. If someone has been laid off, we are interested in hearing what they have been doing to keep their foot in the door.
The challenge with the goals essay is that you want to make sure that you are not too focused on our experience of the past. In the goals essay we’re really curious about how did you get to where you are now and then where are you trying to go and how are you going to get there. Part of that might be telling us, “I was recently laid off and here’s what I’ve done so far to get closer to accomplishing my career goals,” and not just applying to MBA programs. That could mean asking for feedback on long-term goals or making preparations to be an engaged student.
Q: What are some of the worst mistakes applicants make with their essays?
A: It is important to abide by the minimum or maximum word count. A lot of people feel, “Well, you know. I have a lot of interesting things to say” but everyone has really interesting things to say. Part of the challenge is to say it succinctly and straightforwardly. The first priority for the essays is just to make sure you’re answering the questions, and that might seem very obvious but people have such a tendency to want to really stand out and be unique but may tend to get caught up in piece of writing that is really nice to read but is not getting at the question. So the first priority is to make sure that you are very specifically answering the questions. If it’s nice to read, that’s sort of a bonus for the admissions committee.
Q: What’s the biggest risk you saw an applicant take with an essay that worked?
A: Humor is one of those things that can be risky, and I don’t necessarily recommend it to people. It’s a talent to be able to add some humor into an essay and still be able to seriously state your reasons for wanting to go to business school. But some people do have a talent for maybe not making the whole essay funny to read, but throwing in little examples that are really just another way of speaking from the heart. I can think of a time when a candidate talked about getting up to give a presentation and he was really nervous and felt unprepared and how it was sort of the instigator that propelled him to want to go to business schools and learn to polish up these things. It was just an opener—he whole essay wasn’t necessarily humorous after that, but it was a nice, personal example. If you’re not sure, or you’re worried that you’re being too casual, you might want to veer away from that. I would also assess the culture of the school to which you are applying before you attempt to do that.
The Wisconsin MBA is highly specialized. With ten different areas of specialization, our application requires that students not only complete the two general essays but also complete the two specialization-specific essays. Those essays range from covering good brand versus bad brand and brand and product management to why you want to be a part of a supply chain. Make sure you do your research and understand the program to which you are applying and make sure you have a passion for that specialization. Really capitalize on those essays to speak to that passion and explain why you would be a good fit.
Q: How heavily are the essays weighted in admissions at Wisconsin?
A: While we don’t ascribe them a specific weight we do put a lot of emphasis on the essay. The essays are what allow us to get to know the individual on a personal level and usually precede an interview we would do with them. So we read the essays to get an idea of who they are and then we use the essay as a guide throughout the interview process to reconcile the two. Quite often you will get applicants who are heavily coached on their essays or choose to write their essays about an experience that is maybe only based 10 percent in fact. When we interview them we can very clearly see that there is a disconnect between the person in the essay and the person we are meeting face-to-face, and that’s a huge red flag.
Q: Has there ever been an applicant who you normally wouldn’t invite for an interview but who you decided to meet because the essay was so strong?
A: Absolutely. Here at Wisconsin we’re a little different than most MBA programs because we offer a specialized program. We have ten different areas of specialization, and because of that, we are really looking for students with passion. If a student can clearly communicate and articulate their passion to us, we will very often invite them for an interview even though their metrics may not have qualified them for one.
Q: How can you tell if an essay has been “coached”?
A: A lot of big words … a lot of buzz words. It’s very much the “thesaurus read.” Coached essays also typically don’t answer the questions. They’re very political. They go all around the question but they never actually answer the question. I think there’s a fine line between “coaching” and being smart enough to have people proof your essay. You certainly want as many eyes as possible to look at your essay and you want to choose people who know of your aspirations in business school as well as people who don’t know and have them read it and tell you what they think your aspirations are, because that is what the admissions committee’s take would be on it. So you want someone who can proofread it—if your mom is a high school English teacher all the better, because certainly those grammatical errors can be the kiss of death—and you want someone to proofread for content who may not know your aspirations and passions so they can assess whether your essay does a good job of communicating that.
Q: How do you read through so many essays?
A: We do read all of the essays that come to us. Again, here at Wisconsin, we’re a little different. Our MBA program has ten specializations, and so within each specialization there is a team of people reading admissions essays and then there’s also the admissions team that’s reading them as a whole.
Q: The economy has been brutal. How would you suggest an applicant address a weak employment record? Is there less of a penalty these days?
A: You need to use your essay to address a lack of employment and talk specifically about the efforts you’ve made in the context of your employment difficulty. And it’s not an excuse as much as an explanation. We want to see people who are talking about what they’ve done in the meantime since they haven’t been able to find full time employment such as becoming involved in their community, volunteering, etc. We’re not looking for people who have been sitting on their couch playing Wii all day long. We want people who are going to be out, and about, and involved. A few may have even taken a risk and taken an unpaid internship or started their own consulting firm—all of those types of things are things you ma want to include in an essay.
Q: What is your ideal use of the optional personal statement?
A: We look for people who can write about overcoming obstacles. Let’s say a student has a low undergraduate GPA and they use the optional essay to address that and they talk about how they worked full time during school to support their family … those are obviously the things that we look at and take into consideration.
Q: What are some of the worst mistakes applicants make with their essays?
A: Besides grammatical errors, the one that we see most often is when people do a search and replace in their essay for the name of the school they are applying to and they don’t catch them all. We get that all the time, and literally, we’ll just cross you off the list immediately. It doesn’t mater if you have a perfect GMAT or a perfect GPA and three years of perfect work experience—that’s just enough for most schools to cross you off the list. The big mistake is not having another set of eyes look at it, because if you are the one reviewing the essay that you wrote you are not going to see all the mistakes that you may have made.
Q: What’s the biggest risk you saw an applicant take with an essay that worked?
A: There’s a fine line between sharing personal information and sharing personal information. That’s always a risk people take and it also goes to their comfort level. Some of our programs are geared more towards people who have a personality where they might be more comfortable sharing personal information so that an essay that’s more personal might actually give them a leg up. It just depends on the specific program to which they are applying. One of the biggest things students can do to prepare themselves is get to know the school. So do a lot of research, reach out to alumni, and really get to know the school that you are applying to and get to know the kinds of essays they are looking for. The people that are truly passionate about what they’re writing, and the one ones that are succinct and detailed, grab your attention. I love the essays that I don’t want to put down.
Q: How heavily are the essays weighted in admissions at Olin?
A: Probably no more or less significant than any of the other components of the application we consider. Usually there’s a few things that we look at and the essay bears as much weight as the other elements of the equation (test scores, academic record, work experience, interviews). The interesting thing about the essay is that it allows the applicant to tell us about his or her candidacy beyond just the objective data. The essay allows an applicant to more fully describe their candidacy to an admissions committee. So while it’s not necessarily weighted any more or less than any of the other components, the essay is a very different type of data that we look at.
Q: What questions do you ask?
A: Our essay question currently is fairly broad. Historically we’ve asked all sorts of essay questions, but in this version of the application we ask for a statement of purpose. In the instruction we guide the person about some of the things we’d like them to touch upon and those things are typically related to their reasons for attempting to go into an MBA program, but frankly they can write whatever they want about themselves.
Q: I imagine this is a real source of creativity for some students and a fairly scary prospect for others.
A: That’s right. If you look at something like academic record and standardized test scores it’s pretty clear what’s a good score and what’s a bad score, a good GPA and a bad GPA; it’s never completely clear what a good essay and what a bad essay is. Now, there are certain things that we look at, including a person’s ability to express themselves in writing in a professional way, and perhaps even in a creative way. The rest of it is somewhat objective.
Q: What competencies are revealed in the questions you ask?
A: I can tell you that one of the important things that we look for in the essay is that the candidate can articulate their reasons for wanting to pursue an MBA, wanting to pursue it at this point in time, and also wanting to pursue it at my specific institution. MBA programs have similarities, but they have dissimilarities as well and we want to make sure the applicant gives us evidence that they’ve done enough research to be able to comment intelligently about a particular institution and why the school is a good fit for them. Beyond that, we want to make sure the essay talks about the MBA as it relates to the landscape of their future, that they can articulate their professional goals. Most candidates (and rightly so) will talk about they expect to be doing from a professional perspective as they graduate the institution and about what will happen in at least the mid- to long-term future, not only right after graduation but 5 years from now, 10 years from now. That gives us a sense of each candidate’s focus from a professional perspective and an idea of what they’re trying to do with the MBA.
Q: How do you read through so many essays? What will be a “standout” to you?
A: There are essentially four people who do all of the file reading and most of the interviewing as well. We divide them up in the beginning in a very preliminary way to screen applicants to see who will be invited for an interview. In our process we interview everyone who is admitted to the program, but we can’t possibly interview every applicant, so for us the first step is to do a preliminary screening and see who we would like to interview. During the file reading each person does an assessment of the application he or she has read and then we get together as an admissions committee we talk about each candidate and at that point a determination might be read or it may be that another reading has to be done by another person. I will do a reading of every applicant who comes across my desk, and particularly those we intend to admit.
Q: The economy has been brutal. How would you suggest an applicant address a weak employment record? Is there less of a penalty these days?
A: I think there are two places a person can address this: one is the essay and they other is the interview. Transparency is definitely important. I think that most schools, including our own, give applicants the change to complete an Optional Essay where they can talk about other points of their application that might not be clearly described in other parts of their application. So I think a person can address this in the standard question we ask or they can do it in the optional essay as well. We see that a lot these days. We see a number of people explaining various things that they might see as deficiencies in their applications and one of them can certainly be gaps in employment history.
Q: What are some of the worst mistakes applicants make with their essays?
A: One is obviously to cut and paste from one business school essay to another and leave the other school’s name in it. That happens with more regularity than you might imagine. The problem is not so much the cutting and pasting but more that the person has not thoroughly proofread their essay. That we can extend to other issues of whether the applicant has attention to detail and is truly committed to the process.
Another example is an applicant’s response to a specific question like “talk about your long and short-term goals.” If a person avoids the question or answers a different question, that can be a very common problem. Making sure that an applicant reads the question carefully and makes sure they understand what the parameters of the question are is very important.
A lot of applicants are, for lack of a better term, “wishy washy” about what they’re trying to do with an MBA and that might have something to do with their not having carefully thought out why they’re pursuing the MBA. That can sometimes comes across in the essay when applicants talk about multiple things that they’re interested in pursuing in terms of career goals, and multiple things that are completely divergent. I think it’s fair to say that most admissions committees want people who have given careful thought to the notion of getting an MBA at their school and part of that answer has to be a fairly straightforward and relatively focused statement about what they’re going to be doing in their professional life.
Q: What’s the biggest risk you saw an applicant take with an essay that worked?
A: I think the risks sometimes have to do with the applicant wanting to express themselves in a creative way. This is one of the few areas of the application where an applicant’s personality can come out. This is a chance for a great writer to shine. It’s also a chance for a poor writer to make mistakes and take risks that maybe he or she should not have taken. When people do take risks and open up to the admissions committee and allow us to understand something about their personality–it can come through creativity, it can come through humor, it can through a lot of different ways—they really stand out as being successful beyond just answering the question.
Our editors aren’t asleep on the job.
The essays in this book appear exactly as they did for business school admissions officers. We only changed the layout, and in some cases, protected the anonymity of individuals, institutions, and organizations. Because we have not edited the essays, you may find errors in spelling, punctuation, and grammar. We assure you that we found these errors as well, but we thought it would be most helpful for you to see what the business school admissions officers saw—not what they could (or should) have seen. We still recommend that you carefully proofread your own personal statement, but should you miss an error, take comfort in the fact that others (accepted applicants, even!) sometimes did too.