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This is the transcript of the
"live" World MBA Tour online
admissions advice service, where Avi Gordon of The MBA
Admissions Studio appeared as expert essay advisor.
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 ...
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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 to 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.
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Question asked by Graelme 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.
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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.
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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?
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Question asked by Alexander Sorge
HI Adam, 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 emphasise
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
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Question asked by Verma Vertika
Dear Adam, 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)
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Question asked by Verma Vertika
Sorry Adam, 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.
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Question asked by DongDong Cui
Hello Adam 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
[email protected]
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Question asked by Nikolas Pearson
Hello Adam! 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.
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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
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Question asked by william Lee
hi Adam, 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.
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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.
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Question asked by Nazli Unsur
Hi Adam! 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.
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MBA Studio Says:
All right, I'll take adv 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.
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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
Copyright � MBA Studio. All rights reserved. No part of
this document may be published without written
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