MBA essays are at the heart of applications to leading business schools. If your essays do not aptly highlight your skills, achievements, passions, intellect, and potential, you might end up wasting immense effort and an entire application year. In an enormously competitive field, being among the best is your only option.

 

MBA essays are used to brand and market applicants. Through them, you will convey both your personal values and your professional expertise. Through the essay, you need to distinguish yourself from other applicants who might seem to have similar qualifications and objectives.

 

Knowing how to tell a story, or understanding just how to let the reader understand who you are and what you have done are tasks that can befuddle even the most adept writers. After all, none of the essays that you have written in school have likely prepared you for the uncomfortable task of writing about yourself in a way that makes you come across in the most positive light possible.

 

The MBA essay is what distinguishes you from thousands upon thousands of other applicants. A well-crafted MBA essay will represent who you are, allowing the admissions board to see you as a person, rather than just another number. After all, a GPA is just a number, a GMAT score is just a number, and every recommendation letter paints every applicant in the same glowing radiance. A good MBA essay will tell your story, and allow the admissions committee to see why they should pick you from the crowd.

 

Competition for business school admission is fierce, particularly at the prestigious Ivy League programs. Your personal statements carry more weight in the admissions process than you may realize. Perfect grade point averages and GMAT scores are expected at this level, as are maturity and excellent communication skills. Your best chance to stand out in the pack is to convey the exceptional personal attributes of an effective, focused leader. Ironically, applicants often minimize the importance of the essay, reference letters, and personal interview, yet they are your best opportunities to demonstrate your strengths outside the classroom.

 

The admissions committee would want to hear your genuine voice throughout the essays that you write and this is the time to think carefully about your values, your passions, your hopes, and dreams.

 

Establish a clear strategy before you approach any set of MBA essays. It is a great idea to brainstorm to uncover your strongest stories so that you can best demonstrate important leadership, management, academic, and personal qualities. Most business schools are interested in knowing how you work as a person, how you think, and what kind of leader you are. Specific and concise examples are the best way to demonstrate who you are. Without specifics, a claim to be a leader is empty. Also make sure to answer questions completely, but do not add extra information if it is not relevant.

 

Try to choose a weakness from a few years ago and from an area of your life not discussed in other essays. Doing so allows you to reveal another side of you and gives you more opportunity to show growth.

 

As you describe your career background, describe the experiences that are most significant to your future career plans. If you are a management consultant now and want to become an entrepreneur, what transferrable skills can you define and describe?

 

Limiting yourself to one career goal is best, if it is general. If you have a couple of different jobs in mind, that is all right, too. However, your reasons for them should be easily inferred or specifically stated. If you are truly unsure of what your goals are, always admit so honestly rather than make up something. At the very least, though, give credible reasons for your indecision, and explain why you believe that this school’s program will help you overcome your ambivalence.

 

Keeping it real is the golden rule of application essay writing. You need to approach the essays with a certain level of integrity and sincerity. What the admissions committee wants is to learn about the applicant, so if you try to hide yourself, then on some level you are failing. You must recognize yourself in your work and you must be the one to write the essays, even if others look them over for you or give you advice on how to improve them.

 

Reflective, insightful essays help them envision the individual behind all of the experiences and accomplishments that they read about elsewhere in your application. Please remember that they are reading the essays taking into account all the information contained in your application. The goal is for them to understand what motivates you and how you have become the person you are today.

 

MBA programs are built around training and developing leaders, not followers. With applications to MBA programs increasing steadily, separating yourself from the rest is crucial.

 

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