Ask Jason@沃顿 (my essays inside!) Free essay advice again~

cannedpineapple

No offense taken. I'd like to think I'm trying to act out what I say (with the key word being trying..). I am embarking on a non-traditional post-MBA route because I think it is important to me; I continue to work on starting a non-profit because such things speak to my passion.

But I have much to learn too. As you say, I am young. I make mistakes. There are certainly things I wish I could redo. For instance my internship this summer didn't turn out too great- I just wasn't very committed and didn't produce much results for my company. It was, basically, a failure. I think the way I approached the internship was rather immature. That aside, sometimes I can also get stuck 'thinking' too much and not 'acting' as much. Hopefully that's something that will change as I get more mature, as well..


Jason

cannedpineapple

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cannedpineapple

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biantaishabi

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我也问个问题， jason什么时候毕业啊？

-----bo

cannedpineapple

上个月

cannedpineapple

Wharton just released their essays for this year:

http://www.wharton.upenn.edu/mba/admissions/apply-to-wharton.cfm

                  Required Question:

What are your professional objectives? (300 words)

                  Respond to 3 of the following 4 questions:

  1. Student and alumni engagement has at times led to the creation of innovative classes. For example, through extraordinary efforts, a small group of current students partnered with faculty to create a timely course entitled, “Disaster Response: Haiti and Beyond,” empowering students to leverage the talented Wharton community to improve the lives of the Haiti earthquake victims. Similarly, Wharton students and alumni helped to create the “Innovation and the Indian Healthcare Industry” which took students to India where they studied the full range of healthcare issues in India. If you were able to create a Wharton course on any topic, what would it be? (700 words)

  2. Reflect on a time when you turned down an opportunity. What was the thought process behind your decision? Would you make the same decision today? (600 words)

  3.  Describe a failure that you have experienced. What role did you play, and what did you learn about yourself? How did this experience help to create your definition of failure? (600 words)

  4. Discuss a time when you navigated a challenging experience in either a personal or professional relationship. (600 words)  

Comments:
Required essay:
I like the direction this is going. The 'why wharton why mba why now' was getting very cliched, especially because some applicants, with proper advice from colleagues and those in the know, knew what to say; others (particularly the 'diversity candidates' like the non-profit people; the minority industries; and so on) just didn't have access to such information and were getting penalised for it. For your own personal objectives, no one can coach you into a right answer. So this is a good step towards getting at what they truly want: how YOU think about your career. Make no bones about it, at Wharton, just like at every other school, there will be lots of change in your career goal once you enter the school. However, the way you think about your career is something that is unlikely to change, because that represents your ability to make good judgments. So this is still focused on how you think, and not on how 'practical' your goal is.

Essay 1:
You can see the school's desire to get candidates who care and want to contribute. The school wants to be a force for good and a force for business in the world, and they want students to be involved in this effort. If you choose this essay, be sure not to focus merely on what you find interesting (eg. purely china issues). Remember, Wharton represents a way of doing business that is global. So if you want it to be a China issue, make sure you understand how it fits in in the larger context. For instance, India's healthcare industry is a huge generics exporter in the world. In a sense, it is more global than "Indian". So it makes absolute sense that students can learn about outsourcing; exporting; multinational strategy; and so on, through the class. What will your class bring, that the world can benefit from?

Essay 2:
I think this really gets at your values. Again, it will show what kind of choices you'll make for your career, and what kind of choices you'll make later in life. We all make judgment calls and we all make decisions. With this, the school can REALLY get at what makes you tick. And btw, adcoms aren't just looking for what you claim to have turned it down for. Many times, for instance, I've seen people turn down their pre-MBA dream jobs for opportunities at brand-name firms that they never wanted, before. The reasons cited are always 'better learning experience, good challenge’- never 'money and status in society'. If the adcom reads your essay and comes away thinking that you weren't fully honest about why you turned something down, then you're in trouble. This is a tricky essay, but if you nail it, it will really show a LOT about who you are.

Essay 3:
I suspect that so many people have screwed up the failure essay with 'success stories in disguise' that they now even add a sentence: ’what is your definition of failure‘, to get you to think twice before you submit something that is really a success story dressed up to look otherwise. It adds an interesting twist, though, because a 'failure' to one person is a 'success' to another. Whether you're self-aware enough to pick a true failure, and learn from it, is a difficult thing. But just like the essay above, it can go a long way to show how self-introspective you really are. Above all be careful of your own "Ah Q spirit", and be honest that you don't always succeed.

Essay 4:
The thing that is the hardest to teach is inter-personal skills. No framework exists for such things, and so it makes perfect sense that Wharton should try to recruit students who already have such soft skills, so that we can teach you all the other hard skills you need for success. Just be sure that you're faced with a true 'challenge', and not just tell a story about a relationship you once managed. That, btw, means that you should spend some of the essay describing exactly how and why this relationship was so 'challenging', so that when you do solve it, it seems all the more impressive. BTW, this is completely different from the outsider essay. That was a question of changing your perspective (which, when I wrote, seemed very much like a 'Lauder' type of essay).. This is about how you manage relationships.

Overall:
I really like the essays this year. Really goes deep into understanding the applicant. I expect the adcom will have some interesting reading in the days to come.

narcisuss

看了这么多“爱分享”的Jason的文章，我能不能把essay写作的过程理解为：
1. 读懂学校的题目在问什么；
2. 以尽量自知并且展现“真我”的方式回答问题。

剩下的就看你跟这个学校来不来电了。

cannedpineapple

看了这么多“爱分享”的Jason的文章，我能不能把essay写作的过程理解为：
1. 读懂学校的题目在问什么；
2. 以尽量自知并且展现“真我”的方式回答问题。

剩下的就看你跟这个学校来不来电了。

-- by 会员 narcisuss (2010/6/5 22:12:55)

Sure. These are simple words, but it's often hardest to get the simplest things right Like with #2- it's important because *everyone* can talk very candidly and openly about their strengths. How many can do the same about their weaknesses? Far fewer. But it's those who can, that are then able to learn and improve, and so potentially become better leaders.

cannedpineapple

Up- there have been no questions for a while and I've been a bit lazy to write new things

cannedpineapple

It's been a while since I posted, since nobody has been asking me any questions (which is a good thing!)

Recently I've seen classmates starting to act as commercial 'application mentors' or other similar things, and I'm torn. On the one hand, I understand that not everyone has the network to get them access to good information about the admissions process (unlike some industries, like consulting, banking, etc). These 'application mentors' can provide this, and since everyone's time is valuable, perhaps a compensation is not out of the question. This argument appeals to the economist in me (I studied it in my Undergraduate days)- let's go for the free market!

But on the other hand, there can be the danger that this becomes too commercial, and 'mentors' and applicants alike fall into the trap of trying to guess what schools are looking for- rather than searching within for answers. Not everything can or should be commercialised/ marketised. I strongly believe that the 'end-goal' should be getting into a position that will help you- for some, that will mean 'not going to business school at all'. For some, it means 'turning down Wharton for Ross, because Ross is a better fit'- and so on. When you commercialise, would a mentor still be able to collect fees from a mentee whom he or she thinks really shldn't be looking at business school? Or how about a mentor who ends up getting everyone into 'not so famous schools', simply because those schools were the best fits for their mentees in the first place?

It's a tricky issue. Personally, I rather stand on the side of volunteering the time that I can spare, than to potentially put myself in a situation where I have to compromise, and not do what I think is right.

So questions, please

(PS, my offer still stands- if anyone who comes from a purely non-profit background is interested in business school, I am willing to be a more 'hands-on' buddy to guide you through the process. Just send me a private message.)

Jason