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So, your future hinges on a few pages of your writing.
Assuming that you meet (or exceed) the basic requirements for admission for the schools you're applying to, then
your essays and résumé are the most important part of your application. In fact, since you have little control over
your GPA, work experience, and GMAT -- and since the MBA admissions committees
really only use GPAs and GMATs as a first glance -- you should consider essays and your résumé to be the core of your application.
Your essays will win or lose you admission, regardless of anything else in your application.
is not necessarily for that: it's to help you bring out color in your writing in unexpected ways.)
This list won't be easy to put together; it'll take
a lot of thought and time. Here's an approximation of some of my list:
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If your work experience is non-standard, then your essays should focus on selling your career choices and
your success. If you have international experience and a strong career at a top firm like Morgan Stanley, then
you need not sell your career choice. If, however, you're like me, then you will have to. I worked for
six years at the University of Maryland, College Park -- the school I graduated from as an undergraduate.
Therefore I had to sell the admissions committee that I didn't stick around just because it was the easiest
course to take. I had to sell why I chose to work there; I had to sell my success there.
Note that this can be good: you have the advantage of not being like most of their applicants.
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The committee will assume, unless you convince them otherwise, that your only reason to want to earn an
MBA is to get an instant salary raise which you could not achieve otherwise. If they believe this is
your reason for applying, you will be rejected.
The common denominator of success --- the secret of success of every man who has ever been successful --- lies in the fact that he formed the habit of doing things that failures don't like to do. |
Humility - Let me put it this way: you're not going to "impress" the admissions committee - they're probably
MBAs themselves and they see 1000s of applications of amazing people
who have accomplished 1000s of interesting things and you're just another one. They don't want to hear you brag on and on about
how you were elected class president and were elected treasurer of the polo club and how you've traveled so much. Instead they will
be touched by how your essays aren't boastful - how you're a nice, real, and fun person. They want to read about how you'll fit in
there. Who would you admit (knowing that your students will be stuck with them
in a study group at 3AM on a Tuesday night): a hot-shot full-of-himself rich-banker or an energetic yoga instructor?
I live across the street from F. Scott Fitzgerald's grave. The resigned last words of The Great Gatsby, "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past," are etched into his headstone. The quote refers to Gatsby's dreams that he could never realize, yet always appeared to him to be just within his arms' reach. Regrettably, Gatsby did not have 150 close friends and colleagues faring those currents with him. I would like to add my strengths, support, generosity, and goodwill to your group of students, not just in the classroom, but on a personal level for many years to come. |
Section 8: Essays (page 2)
