Top MBA Essay Analysis from Jon Frank---P11: THE MOST IMPORTANT THING MBA APPLIC

JonFrank

Ready to rock your MBA application essays? The essays are your golden opportunity to differentiate yourself from the competition and show the admissions committee a unique, lustrous version of you. But MBA essay questions are often tricky, cryptic, and more complicated than they seem. Game plan is everything. In our essay analyses, our MBA experts break down each question and divulge the best strategies for attack.

JonFrank

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING MBA APPLICANTS SHOULD KNOW

From application essays to LORs to the infamous MBA interview, there’s a LOT that goes into getting into b-school. And that means there are a lot of application Do’s and Don’ts.

DO write a compelling essay. DO NOT use industry jargon.
DO choose the recommender that knows you best. DO NOT write your own LOR.
DO prepare questions for your interviewer. DO NOT spend 15 minutes summarizing your resume for your interviewer….

Yeah, it can get pretty overwhelming. So what is the most important thing you should know as you approach those MBA applications? We asked our team of rockstar consultants for their best advice/greatest nuggets of b-school wisdom/opinion on the one thing you should keep in mind as you work on your apps.

And here is what they had to say:

MARK:
Don’t tell the adcoms what you THINK they wanna hear; that just triggers their B.S. detectors. Do the opposite: SHOW them what you’re about. And win their hearts.

KYN:
The easiest way to get rejected is to be identified as a “manufactured” applicant who is simply trying too hard to look good. Be authentic and true to who you are within your applications. You’ll naturally put in more passion and enthusiasm into your essays and that WILL help you to stand out from the pack.

LEE:
There are plenty of high-achievers applying for MBAs.  In your app, be clear about what you’ve accomplished, but don’t forget:  it’s often the PERSONAL aspect of your story that makes you stand out, and helps contextualize your goals. Help the Adcom get to know YOU, not just your resume.  This is the time to be introspective about the experiences that have made you who you are, as well as the interpersonal, human angles of the stories you are telling.

DAMON:
Sometimes a person applies to business school not because he or she really wants an MBA, but because of some other reason — to move to another country, to be in the same city as a loved one, or even to stall for time as true motivations are revealed. All these reasons are as VALID as getting the opportunity to join Goldman Sachs or McKinsey, so long as the applicant is truthful to him or herself. So my best piece of advice: know EXACTLY why you applying and you won’t go too wrong.

MANDY:
Spend the time to do your own research on each of the schools – and provide detailed, specific reasons why you want to go there.  What clubs will you be involved in?  Which classes do you want to take?  Which entrepreneurs in residence do you want to meet with?  Prove that you know the school inside and out, and show how you’ll hit the ground running on day 1!

YARON:
Be open-minded about your choices of MBA programs!

Remember that the MBA is not your end-station. I’ve seen candidates often limit their choices of MBA programs by World Rankings, although they haven’t visited the school, done research into the program, and have even arbitrarily chosen a ranking system. Your goals are not to “get an MBA from the highest ranked program,” but rather to go the program that will enrich you the most, teach you the most, and give you the best possible opportunities to reach your goals and dreams.

ALEX:
Don’t be afraid of adding dramatic flare to your essays, folks.  At the end of the day, an AdCom is reading HUNDREDS of essays day in and day out and you need someway to stand out, someway of getting the AdCom to talk about you during their coffee break.  In truth, many of you have super impressive accomplishments so unless you single-handedly developed the marketing plan for the iPhone 5, it’ll be tough to stand out on nothing more than your accomplishments.  What I encourage you to do is to paint a narrative, give the reader some vivid context which puts them in your shoes and thus, truly appreciate the gravity of the situation.  Make the reader bite their nails when you’re talking about how stressful your greatest challenge was; make them cheer for you when you go into your greatest failure.

Not many of us are gifted writers so it might be tough to write such flowing narratives, however, you have an advantage – unlike fiction, you actually lived the moments you are writing about.  You saw, smelled, felt, heard, and in some ways, tasted the moment, so all of the material for this is locked into that awesome brain of yours.  For some help in writing, follow the greats!  Look at some of your favorite novels and go back to the best parts and see what the authors did to convey that feeling.  Even movies with great scripts, V for Vendetta for instance, are wonderful examples of fantastic use of emotive narratives.

Be yourself. Be honest. Be specific. Be bold.
That’s the kind of stuff that will get you into b-school.

JonFrank

Happy New Year, Eeveryone!

JonFrank

Prove your success by quantifying your achievement with numbers

You KNOW that you’re a smart, hard working person who’ll do your future school proud, but how do you showcase that in your application? Anyone can SAY that they’re a hot prospect (and everyone will) but to make your application stand out, you’ll have to PROVE it.

The first thing you’ll need to do is line up some achievements: anyone can say that they’re smart, hard working or a demigod on paper but that doesn’t mean a thing. You need QUANTIFIABLE achievements  – i.e. stuff you can prove.  That alone won’t be enough, though. Say you were “employee of the month” at your previous job; that’s a quantifiable achievement but there’s still a lot you can do to make it shine.

Take a look at these three tips and soon you’ll be knocking them dead with your outstanding accomplishments.

Mention your achievements as often as possible! Now is not the time for false-modesty – if you can insert an impressive accomplishment in your essay, do so! That way, “I worked at a bank” becomes “I was the fastest rising junior employee at Bank of X” and “I was sales manager” becomes “As manager, I tripled our sales for the year leading to record company profits.”
Numbers are your FRIEND! Whatever your achievement, make sure to use numbers and statistics to back it up. “I got a bonus” says very little, “I earned three consecutive bonuses worth over $50K for increasing company earnings 15.5% over the past five years, ultimately saving our parent company $1.3M” says TONS.
Use the RIGHT numbers! Which of these sentences sounds more impressive? A) I finished 38th in my class. B) I finished in the top 5% of my undergrad program. Both of those sentences mean the EXACT SAME THING but the second one is MUCH more impressive! You should NEVER lie or fudge the truth, but there’s no reason not to present the facts in the best light possible.
Let’s put this all together. From “I was employee of the month, earning a promotion” to…

“As employee of the month, I increased sales 300% leading to the best quarterly earnings in five years, earning a promotion and becoming the youngest sales manager  in company history.”

Now THAT’s a quantifiable achievement!

So remember:

-          Mention your achievements as much as possible.

-          Use numbers to make your achievements look impressive.

-          Make sure you use the BEST numbers and statistics possible – the most impressive looking ones.

JonFrank

Prove your success by quantifying your achievement with numbers

You KNOW that you’re a smart, hard working person who’ll do your future school proud, but how do you showcase that in your application? Anyone can SAY that they’re a hot prospect (and everyone will) but to make your application stand out, you’ll have to PROVE it.

The first thing you’ll need to do is line up some achievements: anyone can say that they’re smart, hard working or a demigod on paper but that doesn’t mean a thing. You need QUANTIFIABLE achievements  – i.e. stuff you can prove.  That alone won’t be enough, though. Say you were “employee of the month” at your previous job; that’s a quantifiable achievement but there’s still a lot you can do to make it shine.

Take a look at these three tips and soon you’ll be knocking them dead with your outstanding accomplishments.

Mention your achievements as often as possible! Now is not the time for false-modesty – if you can insert an impressive accomplishment in your essay, do so! That way, “I worked at a bank” becomes “I was the fastest rising junior employee at Bank of X” and “I was sales manager” becomes “As manager, I tripled our sales for the year leading to record company profits.”
Numbers are your FRIEND! Whatever your achievement, make sure to use numbers and statistics to back it up. “I got a bonus” says very little, “I earned three consecutive bonuses worth over $50K for increasing company earnings 15.5% over the past five years, ultimately saving our parent company $1.3M” says TONS.
Use the RIGHT numbers! Which of these sentences sounds more impressive? A) I finished 38th in my class. B) I finished in the top 5% of my undergrad program. Both of those sentences mean the EXACT SAME THING but the second one is MUCH more impressive! You should NEVER lie or fudge the truth, but there’s no reason not to present the facts in the best light possible.
Let’s put this all together. From “I was employee of the month, earning a promotion” to…

“As employee of the month, I increased sales 300% leading to the best quarterly earnings in five years, earning a promotion and becoming the youngest sales manager  in company history.”

Now THAT’s a quantifiable achievement!

So remember:

-          Mention your achievements as much as possible.

-          Use numbers to make your achievements look impressive.

-          Make sure you use the BEST numbers and statistics possible – the most impressive looking ones.

Come back next week to check out how to write about race, gender, and sexual orientation for Western readers!

JonFrank

AVOIDING “APPLICATION FATIGUE”
Applications are a tiring business. In addition to costly fees and varying requirements, each school tries its best to ensure that its essay questions are as unique as possible to stop applicants from using material written for other schools. Unfortunately, the temptation to reuse and recycle material is strong: by an applicant’s third essay, fatigue often sets in and schools start to blend together. That’s when mistakes happen…

Yes, sometimes you’ll recycle material – the key is to do so sparingly. Instead of cutting corners by reusing entire essays, be smart about it and follow these five tips. By treating each essay as its own entity, you’re far more likely to a deliver an outstanding application to each school instead of a great one for your first submission… followed by increasingly disjointed ones later on.

Don’t “fix up” an essay for a different question. If School #1 asks you for a 500-word essay on your long-term goals and School #2 asks you for 250 words on why you want to join THEIR school, avoid the urge to “squeeze” your first essay to fit the second question. You’ll spend just as much time editing it to fit the new requirements as you would writing a new one. Furthermore, since the questions asked are different, you won’t deliver YOUR BEST work with unrelated material.
Never “fill in the blanks.” Likewise, if you DO have to answer two similar questions, never “fill in the blanks” by changing a school’s name. It’s a surefire road to embarrassing mistakes – you don’t want to accidentally tell Harvard that Yale is your dream school.
Rewrite stories. Instead, your best bet is to rewrite your story a second time – keep in mind all of the lessons you’ve learned during your previous application but start fresh. You’ll be surprised at how quickly you can tackle a topic the second, third, or fourth time—and most of the time, you’ll write an even better essay.
Reuse sentences. Ok, so you don’t wanna reuse entire essays, but if you’ve written a particularly brilliant turn of phrase, there’s no reason NOT to reuse it. Just stick to individual sentences instead of entire paragraphs.
Tired? Try something new. If you’re truly stuck, however, it may be time to find a new topic. While your short-term and long-term goals will stay the same, some essay questions are more open-ended. You don’t NEED to use the same failure story each time; if you’re suffering from writer’s block, your best bet is sometimes to try a new approach and a different story.
So remember:

Don’t “fix up” an essay for a different question.
Never “fill in the blanks.”
Rewrite stories
Reuse sentences, not entire paragraphs.
Tired? Try something new.

JonFrank

Be specific about what makes you unique

This is a question at the core of every great application: What makes you a unique and interesting person? What special qualities will you bring to this school and what separates you from the pack?

For applicants who’ve grown up in more conservative societies where conformity is prized over originality, this can be a challenge; we’ve had several applicants who’ve answered “cooking and sports” when asked for activities that separated them from the pack! Well, unless you’re cooking wild boar and going bungee jumping, that answer won’t cut it!

Don’t worry, though; here are three quick tips on how to showcase your own unique, personal qualities:

Think of something only YOU enjoy in your peer group: poetry, interior decoration, painting, theater, a pet cause, activism. What’s the one weird thing YOU enjoy that your friends just don’t understand? Maybe you collect a lot of comic books, maybe it’s something more traditional that isn’t cool anymore like knitting. Whatever that strange little quirk is – THAT is what makes you unique.
Be SPECIFIC and SHOW us examples. Anyone can CLAIM they have qualities but the UNIQUENESS is in the details. Don’t just say that you’re “laid back and attentive” because ANYONE can say that. Instead, say you’re a “laid back and attentive girl who loves to knit sweaters.” THEN connect those qualities to the activity – it’s relaxing, you get to spend time alone with your thoughts and it allows you to make gifts for friends. By backing up all of your qualities with examples and activities, you’ll SHOW the admissions committee how special you are.
CONNECT it to the rest of your essay. Take our last knitting example – those special and unique qualities (calm, attentive) make our applicant the PERFECT candidate for a position as a financial analyst who’ll need to go over a lot of data. You can do this by showing us what your special activity has taught you. Something like “Knitting taught me patience and discipline, it can take me a year to finish a blanket so the long nights I spent going over the Greenberg account at Capital Banking was a piece of cake in comparison.”
So remember:

-          Think of something only YOU enjoy. Something that ISN’T popular.

-          Be specific and show us EXAMPLES of how it’s important to YOU.

-          Connect it to your career and show us how these special qualities make you who you are.

JonFrank

Use your into to grab attention and set up your story

An essay opener needs to check a few boxes: is it surprising and clever enough to grab the reader’s attention? Does it hint at the content in the essay and you want to read on? Does it set the stage for the STORY the applicant is trying to tell?

After drilling the writer with some hard-hitting questions, here’s what his revised opener looks like:

75 stories above the ground in my corner office, I realized my decisions would change the world. The feeling was indescribable: we rarely think of data analysis as glamorous but looking around I thought that from the planes in the sky to the roads on the ground, everything relied on data.

Here’s why this works: describing the setting and the writer’s feelings gave this story drama. “33 stories above the ground” lets us PICTURE this in our mind and his “realization that his decisions would change the world” makes us want to read on to find out why. Then he ties it all together by introducing the connection between the imagery (sitting on top of the city) with what he does (data analysis). With just a few simple changes, this intro’s gone from a non-starter to a great way to introduce this candidate’s goals and, even more importantly, his story.

So remember:
•Attention grabbing.
•Hints at the content making the reader want to continue.
•Sets the stage for the applicant’s story.

JonFrank

Essay structure is what keeps all of your content organized and in place:
who’s the best fit for their program. Now, just because two candidates are coming in with undergrad business degrees and three years of business experience doesn’t mean that you can compare them directly and get a good sense of how they match up. Undergraduate degrees are not created equal (a BA from Harvard and a BA from Hicksville College are NOT the same thing), and even comparing two different people’s “business” experiences can be tricky, depending on what kind of business they were in and what amount and type of leadership experience they gained.

So, what else can an adcom look at to try and compare candidates “side-by-side?” The simple answer is the GMAT. The GMAT is the equalizer, a single test that EVERY MBA applicant can prepare for and take, making it the “fairest” way to take Candidate A and compare him to Candidate B. Now, is the GMAT a perfect way of showing how much you know about management? Of course not. Some (like the guys over there trying to get you to take the GRE) might even say it doesn’t prove anything about someone’s ability to manage. But it doesn’t matter – at the end of the day, if you want to get into business school, you gotta take the GMAT.

Which brings us back to the question: how important is your GMAT score in the application process? Short answer: pretty damn important. The GMAT is kind of like the “first impression” the adcom gets of you before reading your essays, resume, etc. And you know what they say about first impressions… you only get one.

Sure, a low GMAT score can be explained with an essay… because almost ANYTHING can be fixed with a great essay. But, the GMAT is way more important than your undergrad GPA. It really shows the adcom that you’ve got what it takes to handle the workload coming your way in b-school. That you’ve got the chops to take on all that quant work, etc.

So what does that mean for you? Well, if you’ve already taken it and are finding that your score doesn’t measure up to the schools you’d like to apply to, do some test prep (study guides, practice tests, formal prep classes) and retake it. Don’t let one bad day of test taking limit your chances of getting into the best b-school you can. We know TONS of people who have taken the test 2, 3 even 6 times! So give yourself another shot to do better. Besides all that extra time lost to studying (again), you have nothing to lose.

And if you don’t have time to re-take it? Should you forge ahead anyway and apply to a school if your GMAT is lower than their minimum or average? Of course. The GMAT isn’t the end-all, be-all, friends. If there are OTHER parts of your app that are fantastic (great work experience, compelling essays, amazing recommendations, etc) that will make the adcom forget about that GMAT score for a minute, well, that can be a very good thing.

Hope that helps.
Good luck out there,

– Jon Frank

JonFrank

STANFORD GSB MBA ESSAY2 TIPS
Essay 2: Enlighten us on how earning your MBA at Stanford will enable you to realize your ambitions.A strong response to this essay question will:

Explain your decision to pursue graduate education in management.
Explain the distinctive opportunities you will pursue at Stanford.

Same deal, gonna borrow some KEY words from Stanford. Your decision. Distinctive opportunities. Stanford.

This is what I want to do—and here is why YOU should be excited about it. (This doesn’t require a ton of backstory or setup—some setup, yes—you need our buy-in. If your idea is uninspired, guess what, so too are “you.” Sell it. Give us just enough background and then in simple terms, walk us through your aspirations. With surgical efficiency.)
I’m confident I’m gonna succeed because I’m good at it, I know what it takes to succeed, and I frickin LOVE the thing to death. Lemme show you what I mean, this is how it’s all gonna look, step by step. Notice how each step as I’ve laid it out SNAPS into place perfectly. I understand the logic behind all of it because I “get” it, I “get” my vision, only people who get it so keenly are likely to succeed.
This confidence comes from careful consideration of how it’s all gonna go down, which has led me to recognize the importance of not just why an MBA is key, but why Stanford in particular supports my vision the BEST—I am, in effect, turning down Harvard, Wharton, Booth, etc., you name it, because none of these places can do XX YY and ZZ to catapult me toward my vision like Stanford can.
That’s the essay. In a nutshell. That’s what we call “the subtext.” Underneath the actual stuff you write, this should be communicated.

In order to NAIL this essay, you must understand Stanford and what they’re all about. This may take some research on your end, and this is what Stanford is hoping—that after a TON of research, you have determined that THIS place, unlike any other, is your best fit. Articulate THAT not just when you address the “why Stanford” piece, but even as you articulate your goal. The folks who get into Stanford demonstrate a synergy with the school in every fiber of their application. It’s gotta come through everywhere. Evvvvverywhere.

But so, after you’ve walked us through points 1 and 2 above, let’s dig in a bit to point 3.

How to understand Stanford well enough to approach this? Spend time on the website. Read about the school elsewhere—articles, anything written by current or former students. Talk to former students. Talk to current students. Visit the campus. Los of ways to engage—where there’s a will, there’s a way. Read stuff by current or former professors. Notice the trends of what kinds of professors came from Stanford. Notice what kinds of companies were started at Stanford. Get a sense.

Now, whatever you do, please don’t think that there is a magical phrase or a set of classes you can name drop that will trigger a successful outcome. The demonstration of “fit” here is a wildly organic one. It’s in between the lines, never the lines themselves. Stanford’s assets have to match YOU in a way that won’t necessarily apply to the guy sitting next to you. This is the whole point about “individuality” and “uniqueness.” Stanford is curious to see how aspects of its program and culture uniquely affect your appetite for an MBA, or for your career goals. It’s not “mentioning a class,” folks. Or “a club.” Or “a professor’s name.” It’s much much much more than that.

It’s an argument.

An argument that PROVES connectivity. Proves that there is something about Stanford that not even a place like Harvard or LBS or Wharton or Top School X can quite satisfy in the same way. That’s a great conceit to adopt here. You have a free ride to HBS. Why would you PAY to go to Stanford instead? Convince me, as though I’m your spouse, why this is not an insane decision. A great essay here can be between 400-500 words, no need for it to live outside that range.

JonFrank

Writing with confidence isn’t about bragging or boasting
Applying to your dream school is like a first date – you want to appear confident, interesting and impressive; not needy, nervous and unprepared. Yet far too many college applicants do little to impress the school, instead asking or even begging for a spot – and that just won’t work.



Writing with confidence isn’t about bragging or boasting – it’s about proper research and presentation. If you don’t even know WHY you’re applying to a specific school, how can you project confidence? Likewise, if you’re not certain about what the school WANTS, it’s hard to showcase yourself in the best light possible. You can’t fake it; the best way to look ready is to BE READY.



Don’t worry, though; here are three quick tips to project confidence in your writing from preparation to presentation:



Prove your statements. Making claims without backing them up is a surefire way to look unprepared – after all, anyone can say they’re “the perfect applicant for Gradford” without knowing what Gradford stands for. Do some additional research and SHOW the admissions committee that you’re a great fit by backing up your claims with examples. “I’m the perfect applicant for Gradford thanks to my experience in genetic-law, a Gradford strong-suit.”
Make them want YOU. Don’t spend time sucking up – your dream school ALREADY KNOWS that it’s great and telling them this is a waste of words. Instead, focus on what makes YOU a great candidate for the school. For example, instead of writing “I would be thrilled to attend a world-class school like Gradford with its world class business-ethics course…” go with something like “Having studied business ethics during my undergraduate degree and interned for several consulting-firms specializing in ethical business practices, I’m a prime candidate for Gradford’s business-ethics course…”
Write as if it’s going to happen. Rather than write in the conditional tense (If I was admitted to Gradford, I would…) write as if you KNOW you will be admitted to project certainty (Once I’m admitted to Gradford, I will…) This applies to ALL short- and long-term goals. By stating that you have a plan and will accomplish it, you’ll demonstrate a will to accomplish your goals, whether the school wants you or not.