How to distinguish yourself in MBA application essays
MBA application essays are an integral part of the application process. Whether you’re planning to apply for Harvard business school or want to join the MBA program at INSEAD, you’ll have to write a few MBA admission essays and sometimes an MBA personal statement while submitting your application.
With the right approach and a few tricks, you can easily optimize your MBA application essays and improve the odds of getting accepted into the desired MBA program.
In this article, we’ll share some tips from our personal experiences of training applicants with their LOR, MBA application essays and MBA statement of purpose and the unique journey we create for our applicants that you can follow to craft the perfect MBA admission essays and make your MBA application essay distinctive, even if you belong to an over-represented pool of applicants.
INTROSPECT, INTROSPECT, INTROSPECT!
Before you delve into writing your MBA admission essays, make sure you constantly question yourself about your goals, aspirations, and personality in your post MBA goals essay.
To help you get started with your MBA application essay, question yourself the most basic ideas. Why are you thinking of doing an MBA at this point in your life? Do you think you can achieve your short-term and long-term goals without an MBA?
By the way, what are your short-term goals? And long-term goals? Why do you have these goals and vision?
Do you have any vision? What do you want to achieve from this life? And so on……
Question yourself at each single point. Answer the most uncomfortable ones. This will help you go a long way in your journey of MBA admission essays!
5 STEPS TO CRAFT PERFECT MBA ADMISSION ESSAYS
1. FOCUS ON ANSWERING THE QUESTION IN YOUR MBA APPLICATION ESSAY
While this sounds pretty easy, many MBA candidates fail to answer the question being asked in the MBA application essay. While writing answers for MBA application essay questions, each candidate wants to share his/her personal story with the committee. No doubt, the more you tell about yourself through your MBA application essay, the easier it’ll become for the committee members to understand your personality, but it can also backfire in some cases, especially if your answers are going in a different direction.
To stay on the safe side, make sure that you have a clear understanding of the question being asked in your MBA application essay.
2. BE SPECIFIC WITH YOUR ACHIEVEMENTS IN YOUR MBA APPLICATION ESSAY
When it comes to writing MBA admission essays, mentioning your career achievements might work in your favor, considering you don’t go off-track while writing the MBA application essay. If you mention your achievements in your MBA application essay, it’ll become easier for the committee members to distinguish you from other candidates. However, instead of mentioning these accomplishments in one word, try to be more specific in your MBA application essay.
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For instance, if you were working as a manager in your previous organization, you would want to write “While working as a manager at <organization name>, I managed a team of 20 people and took care of <your job responsibilities>” instead of writing “I have worked as a manager” in your MBA application essay.
3. BE YOURSELF- REFLECT YOUR PERSONALITY IN YOUR MBA ADMISSION ESSAYS
We always advise our clients to be themselves while writing an MBA application essay. Instead of writing in a robotic manner, try to showcase your personality through essay writing for your MBA personal statement. The general thumb rule says that you should share your true opinions on the asked topics — as opposed to writing what you think would get committee member’s approval. This will help you blend your personality into the writing style and make your MBA application essay stand out in the crowd.
4. MBA STATEMENT OF PURPOSE (SOP)
Now, many business schools also ask the candidates to write the “ MBA Statement of Purpose” — most commonly known as SOP.
For people who don’t know, an MBA statement of purpose is a separate MBA application essay (600–800 words) in which the candidate has to explain his intent behind applying for a specific MBA program.
Believe it or not, but the MBA statement of purpose can be the greatest tool for any candidate to showcase his/her personality (as well as accomplishments) to the committee members. In your MBA statement of purpose, you can also mention how this particular MBA program will cater to your career plan and what are your plans after completing MBA.
5. PROOFREADING YOUR MBA ADMISSION ESSAYS
Once you’ve successfully written the initial draft for your MBA admission essays, the next step would be to proofread it carefully. Make sure that the MBA application essay doesn’t sound like a robot has written it. While you’re at it, you would also want to remove grammatical errors as they can easily lower the quality of an MBA application essay.
One important (and a secret) step that we follow with our applicants for their MBA personal statement is after the final draft, we get it reviewed by family and friends to make sure the MBA admission essays are truly authentic to the candidate’s personality.
CONCLUSION
MBA application essay writing for MBA admission is not a simple process, especially if you want to join a highly competitive MBA program. But, with the right tactics and assistance from professional MBA assistants, you’ll be able to complete your MBA admission essays and MBA statement of purpose without any hassle.
This is not a race. Some may take 100 days in completing the same MBA admission essays & MBA statement of purpose and some, just 15 days! You have to know for yourself where you are at and how much time you need. And if you need a guided direction in your journey of writing an MBA application essay. And fret not, we are here with you and for you! You can always schedule a 45 minute extensive profile evaluation with us to know where you stand and what help you need!
