The MBA Admissions Studio

There’s a heartwarming story for MBAs and MBAs-to-be in yesterday’s Financial Times by Herminia Ibarra, Urs Peyer and Morten T. Hansen, professors at INSEAD. (I must say, surely only among academics does it take three (3) people to write one short Op-Ed piece in the FT, but I digress.)

They say: “The global recession may be almost over but the debate rumbles on. How much were MBA-trained executives really to blame? As MBA professors, we heard arguments that we had been teaching the wrong models, neglecting ethics, forgetting common sense, sitting in ivory towers made of spreadsheets and generally nurturing greed. We listened to the charge that business schools were guilty of short-term thinking, especially when evaluating leadership. MBA graduates, so the argument went, were looking for quick riches.

“So, when we came up with the idea of a ranking of chief executives based on performance over an entire career, we also decided to check the myth of the value -destroying MBA against a large and meticulously compiled data set.

“When you rank the top chief executives in the world, based on return on shareholder investment and change in market capitalisation over their entire time in the job… four of our top 10 have the letters M, B and A after their names. Could it be possible that this much-criticised degree helps a business leader to add long-term value after all?

“Our analysis of 1,109 chief executives from 1995 to 2009 found that those with MBAs performed, on average, better than those without. The difference was not large but it was statistically significant. When we drilled down one more level, we discovered that those who had reached the position of chief executive before the age of 50 benefited particularly from a business school education. In fact, on average, having an MBA sends such individuals a full 100 places higher on our list.

“Of course, the term average is important. There are many high-performing chief executives without an MBA. But the overall tendency among the business leaders we analysed is for an MBA to correlate with a higher position in the ranking, especially for those who get the top job at a comparatively young age.

“Our data set does not explain why this should be the case but there are some obvious benefits to going to business school: an MBA gives you better all-round skills; it buys you credibility and it allows you to build a personal power alumni network.”

Full text here.

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Tags: alumni network, Financial Times, FT, global recession, INSEAD, mba, ranking

The criticism / weakness / failure essay is common in MBA Admissions essays because it is a test of an applicant’s maturity, self-knowledge, honesty, and ability to learn from mistakes. It is, in other words, the biggest indicator of real leadership ability and potential.

Sample questions are:

Tuck 3. Discuss the most difficult constructive criticism or feedback you have received. How did you address it? What have you learned from it?
Wharton 3. Describe a failure that you have experienced. What role did you play, and what did you learn about yourself?
HBS 2. What have you learned from a mistake?
Columbia 3. Please provide an example of a team failure of which you’ve been a part. If given a second chance, what would you do differently?

Applicants to business school very often struggle with these essays because they feel that admitting a weaknesses or sharing a time when they failed erodes their candidacy. In fact, it does just the opposite. Leaders know their weaknesses, and can admit them to themselves and others — in order to work on them, or work around them. It shows self-insight and points to seniority. No one is comfortable talking about their weak spots and failure. But nobody is perfect or has not failed. Not Bill Gates, not Richard Branson, not me, nor you, nor the admissions officer.

So it is not admitting a weakness is what will get you dinged, because it’s like waving red beacon that betrays inexperience and a junior mindset. If you “have no weaknesses” that just tells Adcom that you don’t know what they are yet or that you’re too immature to face them. It says you don’t know yourself, therefore you don’t yet know where you will mess up. You are a liability to yourself and your company

Take a tip from George Soros, self-made billionaire, philosopher, philanthropist, social reformer, and fund manager extraordinaire – famous for “breaking the Bank (of England)” by shorting the pound sterling in 1992 – who shares this candid account of his weaknesses …

“I’m a very bad judge of character. I’m a good judge of stocks, and I have a reasonably good perspective on history. But I am, really, quite awful in judging character, and so I’ve made many mistakes. It took me five years and a lot of painful experiences to find the right management team. I am please that finally I found it, but I cannot claim to be as successful in picking a team as I have been in actually managing money. I think that I’m very good as a senior partner, or boss, because I have a lot of sympathy for the difficulties that fund managers face. When they are in trouble I can give them a lot of support, and that, I think, has contributed toward creating a good atmosphere in the firm. But I’m not so good at choosing them.”

– ‘Soros on Soros: Staying Ahead of the Curve,’ Wiley & Sons, NY, 1995, p.18

See, the greatest business leaders all have weaknesses and all have made significant mistakes in their careers and their lives. The point is not to prove that you don’t fail, or won’t fail. It is to prove that you have the insight into yourself to be able to recognize and compensate for your weaknesses.

What Adcom wants to know is not how you avoided failure, but how you managed it, what you learned, what insights into yourself you gained, and how you grew from there. They want to see that you have the will and the insight to locate and understand the source of your mess up – the underlying weaknesses that caused it – and that you have the maturity to face and work on the issue.

To summarize: the weakness / failure essay is not testing to see if you have weaknesses. We all do. It is a test of your self-knowledge and maturity. The committee wants to see if you can candidly face, discuss, and work on your flaws, or if you will you try to hide them or blame circumstances or other people. This is a significant test of your readiness for senior leadership.

A note on tone
Soros is candid, straightforward, and objective in his self analysis. He shares measured self-insight with the reader. He doesn’t try to slip in softening or deflecting phrases, or hide behind humor; nor is he self-excusing or whining and looking to blame others – the mark of a too-junior applicant.

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Tags: b-school, Columbia, essay writing, Failure essay, HBS, maturity, Tuck, Weakness essay, Wharton, writing style

I’m only speaking from a point of expertise about Harvard. It’s where I went to school, so I’m speaking as an alum and also as an admissions director. The case method, which is our pedagogy, is truly distinctive. We’re educating leaders to be effective. Leaders operate in gray areas. It’s not about the specific analytical tools you have in some imaginary toolbox. It’s developing the judgment to know which tool to use when, to be comfortable in uncertainty, to be able to make decisions day in and day out with imperfect information, not enough information, never enough time, and to be able to take a stand and to be able to communicate it to others and to bring people along with you.

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Tags: case method, Harvard, Leadership, MBA Admissions Consulting

One of the biggest problems I have as an MBA admissions adviser – friend, coach, confidant, drill sergeant, etc., to applicants trying to crack top-tier schools – is explaining to clients that “good is nice, great is nicer,” but neither will get you into a top-tier MBA program. Only “good + special” will get you in.

Everyone knows that there are far fewer places than excellent candidates, but not everyone understands the implication of this, which is that the standard “good profile” application is more likely to fail than succeed. I do ding analyses: often there is something clear to point to, but often there is not. I’m left saying “there was no juice,” and I don’t mean this as a carry-all cop-out. What I mean is – putting it another way – the applicant has provided reasons for Adcom not to reject them, covering all bases, saying the right things, but has not given Adcom a compelling reason to say yes.

Easier said than done. What if there is no specialness (distinctiveness) there? “I haven’t done anything that special,” they will say. “I have not won Olympic medals; never hot-air ballooned over the Atlantic; not pulled anyone from a burning car …”

I won’t kid you – it’s great if you’ve done something memorable like this. But there are two types of specialness. Specialness of what you have achieved AND specialness of who you are. Not everyone has the first type in their bag, but everyone can have the second.

Here are examples of the second type:

1. Distinctiveness of insight, self-reflection, and self-understanding. Unfortunately (but fortunately for you, dear applicant) it appears these days that it takes a special person to be willing to reflect on their path, their roles, their identity, their motivations. But this is exactly what Adcom wants of you. That’s why they ask complex, motivational questions. The quality of genuine self-reflection is so unique among 20-something-year-olds (and so highly correlated with real leadership ability) that if you can do it right, you’ll be special just for this.

Note: doing it right means being open and honest, but also circumspect, professional, to-the-point, and focused on the essay question using practical examples and stories. It does not mean wallowing self-indulgently as if your essays were for the Agony Aunt magazine column or your personal diary.

2. Specialness of communication. Writing and (in the interview) speaking is the basis of your interaction with Adcom. Words are your tools. You do not need to be a fancy creative writing major to write a wonderful MBA admissions essay, but there are basic tools of storytelling and essay building that make a piece of text stand out. Be aware how much turgid, timid, repetitive prose your Adcom reader has to wade through. Getting your point across in a bright, clear, and organized way will make you stand out. (More about the how of this to come in future posts, and in my MBA Admissions Strategy book.)

3. Specialness of direction and goals. You can’t change your past. You should present it in the best light, but for better or worse, it’s set. Your future is ahead of you. It can be anything — you can make any claim, within reason. It is a “free hit ” in the sense that you are pretty much invited to distinguish yourself from the crowd through the extent of your ambition, and the relevance, interest, and worthiness of your career path.

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Tags: Adcom, ambition, b-school, career plan, communications, ding analysis, distinctiveness, essay structure, essay writing, interviews, profile development, self-insight, top-tier MBA

Many b-school ask for a resume as part of the applicant’s package. Fair enough. It is professional school and they want to see your professional record. But, in fact, MBA admissions resumes do make subtly different demands and it’s crucial to know what these are (see below).

However, of course much is also identical in a normal resume and an MBA admissions resume, so you should start by getting your resume as good as it can be as per conventional requirements. There are thousands of guides to this, many free on the Web. I won’t dwell on the principles at length here, but be certain to take note of at least these basic points.

A resume should:

• Be in reverse chronological order, education last
• Contain tight clauses rather than full sentences, and not use the first person singular
• Start items with verbs: “Managed at team of…”; “Assigned priority to …”; and so on
• Contain evidence, particularly quantitative amounts of budget managed or people supervised, etc.
• Not contain obvious age, gender, race or other similar bio-data. (More latitude allowed in Europe)
• Be easy on the eye (text at readable point size; layout not too dense)
• Be absolutely, completely error-free

Those are the basics. And this is first base for Adcom too. They want to see you can do this common business communications task effectively.

Once you have that, then it’s time to adapt it to the needs of MBA admissions particularly. Good resume builders will always advise you to show as much experience relevant to the job you are applying for as you can. This it true of an MBA admissions resume too, only doubly so, because doing an MBA heavily implies that you will be transitioning to or accelerating quickly along a management path. It applies a leap in career.

The mistake that most of my clients make on their first draft is to proudly present their past experiences and achievements, which are very often technical or specific to the field they are leaving. Success is always good, but MBA Adcoms don’t really care whether you cracked a complex software conundrum or isolated a biological compound or develped prefabricated housing units. What they care about is whether you will make a good manager or leader, that is, the management portion that was there (or is implied potential) in what you did.

So that is where you should focus: the management, leadership, organizational (teamwork) or innovation implications of your past experience. Don’t say: “Developed molecular compound BN6R in 3 months using ‘BitPro’ software analytics.” Say: “Was part of team that developed unique molecular compound; led presentation to the Board; liaised with company PR in media announcement.” And so on.

The other key part of making your resume an MBA admissions resume is to work carefully with the knowledge that, unlike a typical employer, Adcom has various overlapping sources of information about you – not least all your file data. So you want to augment that rather than simply repeating it, in order to get your file data, resume, and essays to elegantly dovetail rather than simply overlap.

Obviously, your resume must not leave out the basic resume attributes: dates, places, company names, and so on, even if this is already in your file data. But there are often ways to cut out repeating subsidiary information – names of products or service units and so on – that often just “block up” a resume. This should leave space to go longer on quantitative evidence of (management-oriented) experiences and successes. In fact, I counsel admissions clients to put as much quantitative data in the resume as they realistically can which, in turn, frees up the essays to be a little more personal and reflective.

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Tags: communications, essay writing, Leadership, management, mba resume, organization, Teamwork

Business Week this week interviews Duke Adcom Director Liz Riley Hargrove. The principles shared are common to all good schools, but also give a current sense of what Fuqua is “looking for.” As BW summarize it: “applicants with a propensity for teamwork who are ‘leaders of consequence.’”

Admissions-relevant highlights are extracted here:

Can you describe the Duke culture?

“It can be defined as a collaborative leadership culture. The foundation of our program and the day-to-day learning experience has often been described as “Team Fuqua.” Most of what the students will do in their MBA program will be done in some sort of team dynamic. But we also expect in this environment that they will take risks and hone their leadership skills.

“Students are involved in many aspects of the administration and running of the school: serving on the admissions committee, preparing first-year students for the job-search process, serving on the curriculum committee. Really, if you choose to enroll at Fuqua, you’re accepting partnership status. And that’s a partnership that I think differentiates Duke from a lot of other business schools—the amount of responsibility and impact that students are able to have here.”

Who wouldn’t be a good fit for Duke?

“This could be a really tough environment for people who aren’t used to working in teams. If you have perfectionist, individualistic tendencies, this could be a very frustrating experience. We expect our students to work in teams with their classmates to solve problems, and we expect that they’ll negotiate through conflict and difficult conversations.”

What are some common mistakes people make in the interview?

“In many instances, the students who don’t do well in their interview haven’t done their research to understand why they want to attend Duke. And oftentimes, instead of answering the questions, they’ll drive the interview or frame every response with what they want the interviewer to know. Have a good understanding for the story that only you can tell.

“It’s critical that your interviewer walk away understanding three key concepts: why you want an MBA, why you want one from Duke, and what you hope your contribution will be.”

Full Text: Duke Admissions Tips – BusinessWeek.

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Tags: Adcom, Admissions, Business Week, contribution, Duke, mba, Teamwork

Entrepreneurship plays well in admissions. This is because business schools want to put their effort into and brand on the person who will build great new companies or institutions, rather than someone who will become a salaryman, no matter how big the salary.

Problem is, it’s easy to say “I want to start a company,” but if you haven’t done it, it is hard to sound like you know what’s involved. Anyone can be vague. Specificity grounds your essays and makes you sound more mature and more likely to succeed.

The solution: there are good entrepreneurship success stories around all the time. As an MBA applicant considering playing the “I’m an entrepreneur” card in you application, it’s worth imbibing some of these, particularly learning of the hardships and uncertainties of this career lifestyle as well as the freedom and rewards.

Here’s a short sample, an article on Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn: ‘How I Did It.’

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Tags: Adcom, ambition, profile development

A week or so I blogged about Harvard case method and included the HBS promotional video featuring the case method. Here’s another one, this time from Darden (University of Virginia Business School).

The video “Highlights of a Darden Case Study Class” is here:

First, this shows how widespread the case method is in b-schools. In my experience, applicants think they must show their identification with the case method for Harvard, but tend to overlook it for all their other applications. For HBS it comes across as formula, unless you add a unique perspective. And there’s certainly no harm in mentioning it other places, particularly where a school has publicly featured it in their promotions.

The broader value in watching videos like this – and this blog will feature more of them over time – is they are absolutely valuable (and free!) insights into what goes on in a b-school classroom. This gives a good idea of the kind of applicant MBA Adcoms are looking for. Particularly not how much the emphasis is on discussion, communication, questioning, argument, thinking. Most of business school is not about absorbing facts or calculating answers.

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Tags: Adcom, case method, communications, Darden, Harvard, HBS, Leadership, top-10 MBA

Harvard Business School has a promotional video up at http://www.hbs.edu/mba/academics/

The video can also been seen here.

It’s an ad for HBS of course, highlighting its main point of distinction: the case method, which, according to HBS creates “special moments that pull everything we have learned into focus. When theory, practice, experience and talent all come to one sharp point — a decision.” And so on.

For the MBA admissions applicant this is a worthwhile watch for a few reasons

1. It is good insight into how b-schools work and think. It is good background on the culture and attitudes at play, including overall assumptions and ethics, and therefore what would be expected of the next class too.

2. It is good insight into the dynamics of the business school classroom, and the requirements of individual and group-based learning. The applicant positioned well to work in this way, is well positioned to be admitted.

3. It is good insight into the case method of teaching. HBS is “ground zero” of the case method, but actually almost every school uses cases to a significant degree, so it is useful for understanding all schools.

By the way, the case method has been under a bit of scrutiny, and voices have been raised that Harvard did not adequately prepare its graduates to assess risk / business failure (the credit crunch and fallout). See example stories in Forbes and Bloomberg News. But, to me it doesn’t look like HBS did worse than anywhere else …

Note also how HBS focuses on its distinctive marker – the case method – in branding and advertising itself. Same principles apply to MBA applicants.

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Tags: Adcom, case method, ethics, Harvard, HBS, team player, top-10 MBA, working in groups

Getting previous MBA Studio resources up on the blog site, where they can be permalinked, so here is the transcript of a World MBA Tour online admissions essay advice service, where Avi appeared “live” as expert essay advisor. The text is “as was,” verbatim.

MBA Studio Says
Hi, welcome to the Forum on MBA Admissions Essays. We’ll get started right away. I’ll answer as fast as I can …

Question asked by Brenda Sun
Hi. I’d like to know what the adcomm focuses the most in the MBA essays- The good writing style, the touching stories, or the logical reasoning behind. Does it need to be concise or detailed with strong supporting?

Answered by MBA Studio
What does adcom focus on the most — good writing style, the touching stories, or the logical reasoning behind – actually none of these three specifically. Style is important, but just so you can be clear enough. Touching stories bring your argument to life. Logical reasoning helps to build your argument. The most important thing is the argument – why you are an excellent candidate, what you contribute, why you fit with the school and the program. Everything follows from that.

Question asked by Graeme Lockwood
Hi, I am now writing my essays for London Business School MBA. there are 2 questions I am not sure how to tackle . What well known historical event would you have liked to have been involved in and why? (500 words) First, I don’t know what the adcom tries to know from this essay and I am not sure what kind of events I can talk about. Also, I think that expressing some opinions may be risky. On the basis of your experience of working in and leading teams (either in your professional or personal life), please reflect on how you plan to contribute to your study group and the wider school community. (500 words) In this question, I want to be sure of the kind of contributions that can be made to the school community.

Answered by MBA Studio
I’ll take these one by one. First, “What well known historical event would you have liked to have been involved in and why?” This is one of the classic types of question (The question “archetypes” — as I’ve defined in my book) This question wants to get to know more about you as a person — what’s important to you, and why. The trick is to pick something that is in itself valid and significant, but also allows you to make one of your theme points.

MBA Studio Says:
As to the second part of the question: they are asking you plain as daylight “plan to contribute to your study group and the wider school community” Tell them. Never mind what you think they want you to contribute. As long as it’s a valid contribution and you can credibly make it, they want it. What they want is diversity of contributions, not one thing.

Question asked by shruti singh
How to write a good essay in MBA application

Answered by MBA Studio
Wow, you’ll have to focus this a bit for me I have written a whole book on this … which part of the essay process would you like me to address?

Question asked by Alexander Sorge
HI Avi, nice to meet you! I´m new here! I found this TOP MBA Forum very helpful and would like to join Forum members. The problem is that I´m a Spanish native speaker interested in Chinese Culture.. to request the scholarship from Taiwan requires an appealing essay, writing an essay is a very hard-job!. what shall I probably write that possible works to get the Taiwan scholarship. Or what should never mention when writing an essay.

Answered by MBA Studio
Hi Alexander, again you’ll have to focus the question, or tell me more about yourself. Try to figure out what type of candidate gets the scholarship and emphasize your overlap with that kind of candidate.
What never to mention in an essay …? Never apologise, never denigrate yourself. If you’ve messed up at something, say so. Say what you learned, and move on to the positive

Question asked by Verma Vertika
Dear Avi, As an international student and a person who is not good at writing, I want to know whether it is a big problem. Now facing the essay topics, I think I have some good ideas. But to convey them effectively and beautifully is not my strong point. Compared to some essays I have read, I feel very worried and ashamed with my writing. What should I do now? I want to give an example of what I mean here: When telling about getting out of shyness, someone who is good at writing may write “I no longer wanted to hide under the shell of a lethargic tortoise, or act as a pariah”, a sentence which seems impossible to come to my mind!

Answered by MBA Studio
Schools “get it” that applicants come with different English writing levels. It’s business school, not literature school. So all you have to do is be clear. You don’t have to have beautiful prose, or literary allusions to tortoises etc. Having said that, clarity is very very hard, as you can see by all the turgid writing all around. What I do when I help candidates with their essays and application strategy, is I help them clarify their ideas. Why are they a valuable candidate? Why does what they bring fit with the school? What are their career goals and why do they need an MBA to fulfil them? If you have a clear mind you writing will be good (or good enough.)

Question asked by Verma Vertika
Sorry Avi, let me ask one more question. Some colleges ask us to write extra essays. One of the most common topics is why we choose it (a college). We are international students, although we have try to find as much information about the college as possible, we don’t have any chance to visit the college or see things in real life. That is the reason this kind of essay is difficult. We can’t tell with all our heart! How could we make our essay effective?

Answered by MBA Studio
No problem Verma, ask away. In this question, are you asking me about the extra essay “If you want the committee to know anything and you have not had a chance to say it, say it here” … or by college do you mean the business school? They do want to know what you know what you know about their school because, for them, it’s about the FIT between you and them. If you don’t know what they are about, you can’t explain the fit. You don’t need to visit the school (it does help) but if you can’t do your best to speak to people who are there, or from there. One great way is to phone or email current students — expecially the heads of clubs and societies you are interesed in– and ask them any/all questions you like.

Question asked by DongDong Cui
Hello Avi, I am done with tests (GRE and TOEFL) and now the final thing I need to prepare is a dreaded admission essay (I need to write two, in fact) I am applying to M.Sc. program in Business Administration (Management Information Systems) and one of the questions for the essay is as follows: Describe two events in your life to date that demonstrate your ability to do well in business. I am puzzled by the word “event” in this question. I am really not sure what to write about because I can’t think of any single event to demonstrate my business abilities. I participated in several important projects and advanced quickly from one position to another at my last job but I can not call it “an event” as it was prolonged in time. Maybe you could help me to think of an idea of event that could demonstrate someone’s ability to do well in business. Something fictions is fine, I just need to understand what kind of event it could be. Many thanks for you advice

Answered by MBA Studio
Ha ha I like it “dreaded admissions essay”! And I do them for a living (btw, I don’t write anyone’s essay for them) Anyway: Them asking for “events” is a way of focusing you on a story. Even if the demonstration of your business ability came as a part of a long process, there was probably some moment, some interaction, some turning point the brings the process to life and shows you off well. That’s your event. Giving that doesn’t mean you can’t also decribe the whole prolonged time as well. In terms of selecting your event, you’ll have to tell me more about you — either here or offline. I’m at avi.gordon@mbastudio.net

Question asked by Nikolas Pearson
Hello Avi! I have been asked to write an essay on post MBA career goals. I am not clear on how specific I should get. Also since I am interested in finance, should I talk only about finance about the MBA experience as well?

Answered by MBA Studio
Hi Nikolas, be as specific as possible. Details are the golden highway to admission. (Most people give generalities, and therefore they all sound like each other.) If you give details you will sound like a guy who knows what he is about, and where he’s going. That’s the kind of person who gets in.
I’m not sure I understand the second part of you question — can you reframe it? One more point on goals: make them big and ambitious. If you have small life and career goals you don’t need an MBA.

Question asked by samuel li
Hi! As a part of a business school essay I have been asked to evaluate a situation and communicate my decision. I wanted to know if business schools expect the case study format i.e analysis, alternatives and then recommendations or if there is some other way of structuring it. Secondly in my case the decision can be either yes or no. So the only way make my case stronger would be to give support to my decision? Have I understood it correctly? Can you tell me where I could find sample studies? I’m interested in knowing how better I could structure my essay. Thanks a lot!

Answered by MBA Studio
Hi Samuel, Which school is this for? Generally, schools don’t want you to follow formula — and it won’t help you to do it, or to seek out samples that “do it right”. They want to see how you think, and evidence of your intelligence, education, and training. You format – analysis, alternatives, reco’s sound right, or right enough. The content will be more important than the form on this one. ps when you get to interviewing, if you interview with big consulting firms, they will have cases that need to be tackled in a highly codified way. But not for admissions

Question asked by william Lee
hi Avi, I have to write a cover letter for my application stating highlights of my objectives and qualifications for admission. Could you help with links or suggestions, Thanks in advance!

Answered by MBA Studio
Hi William, Is this MIT? A cover letter is a test to see if you can extract the salient points. (Senior managers need to be able to do this — executive summaries, etc.) It forces a clarity on you — you have to be able to reduce your argument for admission into a few paragraphs. That means you have to really understand what your argument is! Again clarity is the key. The scaffolding is “These are the three reasons I should be admitted to MIT … 1; 2; 3″ Then take away the scaffolding.

Question asked by Sana Tajammul
I have this question to fill out in an application for MBA at the university of Amsterdam? Now could you please provide a few hints on how I can assess self critically? Do I have to mention negative ideas in order to stress positive ones? or should I only list positive ideas? well I hope you can help me!

Answered by MBA Studio
Sana, what’s the question for Amsterdam? Generally, don’t put negative points unless they ask for them. If you mention negative things / characteristics, also say how you intend to fix them, or how B-school will help you fix them.

Question asked by Nazli Unsur
Hi Avi! I was reading up articles on the web about writing a personal statement and some of the websites suggest writing the SOP in third person while others say that its better to write it in first person so that the SOP doesn’t look too wordy….What would you suggest????? As this is one thing which can sometimes make or break my application I just want it to be THE BEST!! Thanks in advance.

Answered by MBA Studio
Nazli, You are right that the essays make or break the application: Why is that? Because there are always too many people with great scores, great work exp., and great refs. Essays are the tie-breaker between top applicants. As to the Statement of Purpose: always always always in the 1st person. You must be personal. Try to come across as if this is a “fireside” chat with the head of the admissions committee. You get 15 minutes to tell her why you should be admitted rather than the other excellent candidates who are also wanting in.

MBA Studio Says:
All right, I’ll take advantage of a break in the questions to try to summarize a few key points, valid for all competitive MBA applications.
1. You must have a clear “argument” as to why you are a worthy candidate and should be admitted.
2. Your argument will rest on a few key points or themes. While answering the questions you have to also clearly — over a number of essays — make your argument
3. Clarity is your friend. Don’t worry about being a literary buff. Just have an organized position and communicate it in an organized way.
4. Stories help you by bringing your theme points to life. Admissions readers are human — they read stories better than analysis.
5. Be personal. They want to get to know things about you that you can’t know from the Gmat, refs, transcripts etc. Essays must add value to what’s already in your file.

MBA Studio Says:
Okay, that’s the end of the hour — let’s wrap it up here. Thanks for participating. Any more questions. We’re at www.mbastudio.net

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Tags: Adcom, admissions red flags, ambition, Community Service, cover letter, essay structure, essay writing, GMAT, GPA, GRE, LBS, mba, MIT Sloan, profiling, stories, team player, TOEFL, volunteering, writing style