R2 In @ Johnson

voxindeserto

Background
Undergrad – average US college
GPA – 3.5+
GMAT – 750+
WE – 5 yrs in tech
EC – Volunteering for over 2 years after college

Here are some things I've learned in this application process. Hope they can provide you some helpful insights.

1. Practice
Like most things in life, applying to schools isn't difficult but requires a lot of practice.
Let's exclude the super gifted, help-me-decide-between-Harvard-and-Stanford type. Most of us aren't going to give our best shots in our first shots. Writing essays takes certain skills. Asking for and, for some of us, writing rec letters takes certain skills. Interviewing takes certain skills. Connecting with alumni and asking them the right questions takes certain skills. Most of us don't possess these skills. But like all other skills you've acquired, they become natural to you after repeated effort.
I applied to two schools. I got rejected by Tuck, my dream school, in EA round and got in Johnson in 2nd round. In this process, the biggest mistake I made was probably applying to Tuck first. If I could do it again, I would apply to Booth, Kellogg, Sloan, Fuqua, Ross, Darden, and Stern (good schools that don't interest me) two years ago just for practice and then apply to Tuck, Yale, and Johnson for real. Yes, this approach is an overkill for some, but the message should be crystal clear: if I can only give one piece of advice, practice.

2. Essays
Writing essays is the hardest part of application, because you never know just how good yours are. These 2 tricks may be useful to help you shape your best stories.

a. Read as many essays as you can find
This seems so intuitive. Everyone is doing it. But, are you doing it for the right reason?
Most people read some essays, find one that they like, and copy its structure and content. It ain't gonna work.
If you watch a lot of movies, you should know that 99% of remakes are worse than the originals. It's a bad idea to mold your essays into someone else's.
If essays are movies, the adcoms are critics and you, a typical reader, are the typical audience. The audience seeks excitement, thrill, joy, etc in movies, while critics look for mistakes. That's why many highly acclaimed and perfectly executed movies are as entertaining as a cow chewing grass from audience's viewpoint. To win the critics' applause, you must read and write as a critic. A critic won't be taken by one or two clever sentences or an interesting anecdote but will be pleased with a well crafted but boring piece. Boring in content and flawless in writing, that's what you should aim your essays at.
As you read the sample essays you've found, look for their mistakes and think about how to eliminate them. If you can improve all the sample essays, you will make yours solid, whereas if you merely copy the best essays you can find, yours won't ever be as good as they are.
Let me complete the 1st tip - read as many essays as you can find, and improve them.

b. Talk before write
When I started my essays, I sat in front of a computer and thought and typed for days. If you are doing the same thing, stop.
The purpose of essays is to communicate in writing. Communicating comes before writing. Before writing anything, you ought to talk to someone about your goal and career path and life in general, and make sure your story is logical and connects with people. If you can't talk out your story in Chinese, you can't write it down in English.
Also, articulating your stories will prepare you for the interview.

3. Interview
I can only comment on Tuck's and Johnson's interviews. Their interviews serve 3 purposes. 1st, make sure the applicant speaks English. 2nd, confirm the applicant's story. 3rd, assess the applicant's ability to converse. 3 purposes and in this order. You need to tell your story in English, not introduce facts that aren't in your application, and be flexible with your sentence structures and word choices, and that's it.
Tuck's interview is really straightforward. They, usually the 2nd yr students, ask standard questions and you just answer them with whatever you've memorized. They tend not to drill you for more details, which is good and bad. It's good because you won't be asked to answer a question you haven't prepared for; it's bad because if one of your answers doesn't make sense, the interviewer will take it as such and won't give you a chance to clarify. But, since I got rejected by Tuck, don't take my words too seriously.
Johnson's interview is slightly trickier. They, 2nd yr students and adcom officers, start with standard questions and drill you for details. If you are well prepared and, like most applicants I encountered, over prepared, you definitely get the opportunity to expand your answers and make some strong cases. But if you aren't prepared for follow up questions (tell me about this, why didn't you try xxx, what would you do differently if you were xxx, give me another example of xxx, ...), you'll need to be really good at bullshitting for 40 minutes.
I feel adcom officers genuinely want to know more about the applicants while the 2nd yr students care less, so I'd advise you to say a little more to the adcoms and be brief with students.
To prepare for an interview, you need to over practice, because most likely you won't perform as well as you've practiced.
It's nice to know how to say the same thing in different ways, because it prevents you from sounding too scripted and makes the whole interview comfortable and conversational.
It's very important to tell the same story in different lengths: 3 minutes, 5 minutes, and 10 minutes. No matter what question is asked, your initial answer needs to be under 3 minutes, except for "Walk Through Your Resume". If the interviewer is interested in your initial answer, he will ask follow up questions, and then you can give him the 5 or 10 min version, depending on the level of details being asked for. If he doesn't ask follow up questions and you want to express something, you will get the chance to say it at the end of the interview.

Finally, pleast keep in mind that my advise is worth what you paid for it, which is 0.

Pythagoras

恭喜恭喜！

nlarthur

原来65篇是这样看的，牛
恭喜楼主

Stan屎蛋

big cong! hope 2 u guys @ Johnson.

abjure

感谢分享。

HarrisZheng

各人有各人的方法。

65篇有不少我觉得也平平无奇。时代不同了，那65篇估计现在也有不少要被ding的。

ralphsong

This essay can be called a master piece of English writing.

bobo00n

恭喜恭喜?