MBA Essay Critique

Congratulations to some, Don't lose hope to others..

2011-12-16T18:53:00.000-08:00

It is always mixed emotions for us when decisions go out. Kellogg and Booth released their Round 1 decisions this week, and while we are thrilled to have represented so many successful candidates at both these schools this year, our hearts go out to the folks that weren't accepted.

Congratulations to those who have been accepted, and to those who have been waitlisted or denied, don't lose hope, there's still a few schools (and other rounds) to go.

And for those waiting for Wharton, HBS, and other schools next week, sit tight and good luck :-) Our fingers are crossed for you too!

Yes, working through the holidays! :)

2011-12-16T18:37:00.000-08:00

We receive at least 2 or 3 emails a day from readers asking if we will be reviewing essays through the holidays - yes, we will be, and we will be honoring all of our turnaround times as well.

Good luck with the writing!

Chicago Booth Powerpoint Essay - Slide Presentation

2011-12-10T11:17:00.001-08:00

For some reason, this essay question is a PITA (pain-in-the-a) for all candidates. Most don't have powerpoint skills, and the ones who do (consultants?) are never happy with what they end up with. So, here are some tips to help you out:

Lots of pictures. The whole point of being given the allowance to send in a PDF or PPT is that you can be creative and include pictures of you doing things, instead of writing about it. We strongly recommend including at least 5 - 8 pictures in the deck.

Creative art / cartoons: Candidates often complain about not having enough pictures that are presentable. Then mock it up! Use a creative illustrator and create some art that can showcase the fun side of you.

Required: Fun! This essay is supposed to be mostly addressed to your future classmates. Please reserve your professional accomplishments for your written essays, and use this one to show your fun side. If you don't have a fun side (ahem), at least display your personal attributes - pictures of your family, of you growing up, doing silly things, etc. Good way to show that you can laugh at yourself!

Themes: If you are completely out of ideas, use a theme that defines you for each page. E.g., "Family Man", "Adventurer", "Researcher", "Athlete", etc.

Tell a story! The easiest thing to understand is a chronological story, from when you grew up to where you are now. An easy format that has been leveraged nicely by many candidates.

Other ideas: "day in my life", flash card format, letter format, etc.

Good luck!

(Update on 12/16: Congratulations to everyone who has been accepted into Booth in Round 1! We are so thrilled to have worked with some of you) ;)

Hello Round 2 Early birds!

2011-12-03T09:58:00.001-08:00

The Round 2 essays are rolling in fast and furious - kudos to you earlybirds! For those who are still a few drafts away from a final version, worry not! We are working through the holidays this year, as every year, and will be accepting essays for review throughout the holiday season.

Good luck with the writing!

MBA Essay Editing Tips - as the Round 1 deadlines get closer!

2011-09-24T08:05:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

A lot of folks have been asking us for basic essay editing tips, so we're publishing a list of things that we look for when we review essays. By the way, we've said this before, but let me just reiterate: PLEASE get your essays reviewed by someone you don't know! It doesn't have to be us (but we'll be happy if it is). :-) Remember, AdCom doesn't know you, so it's really important to get your essays read by at least one independent reader who doesn't know you at all, and ask for their candid opinion on your package.

Here are the editing tips:

Remove all redundant words. A lot of qualifying adjectives are redundant - e.g., "very dire circumstances", or "significantly high volumes", etc. You don't need "very" and "significant".
Quantify. When you say something is more, or higher, or has increased, please say by how much. This makes your essay more believable, relate-able, and real.
Stay within word limits: There is no reason to go beyond. No. Reason.
Keep your sentences short: The most beautiful essays are the ones in which sentences are short and succinct. Winding sentences make essays very difficult to read.
Stay chronological, as far as possible: Essays that are not chronological can be very confusing - I've had to read some essays twice to make sense of what happened when.
Emotion is good, drama is not: When you write about a situation, it's great to explain how you felt and why. But please, this is not a movie script.
Don't state the obvious: In 80% of the essays we review, we're able to free up about 40 - 50 words because of this. If you've explained something already, no need to state it again.
Finally, whatever you do, DO NOT blame someone else: There is NO excuse for this. Don't even indirectly slight someone else for what they did. Victor Lee, from the Wharton school admissions office, agreed with us in our S2S post on this topic, and called it the "kiss of death"

Good luck folks! If you're interested in getting your essays reviewed by us, email us at essaycritique@gmail.com or use the form on this page.

Round 1 or Round 2? Low GMAT Score?

2011-09-21T05:55:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

We're seeing a number of questions in our inbox from candidates who are thinking of postponing their applications to Round 2 because their essays don't feel "ready" or because they have a low GMAT score.

We asked one of our essay reviewers, a Wharton alum, to write about her experiences with past candidates and their GMAT scores:

If you have a GMAT score of 700+, please don't worry about being disqualified for your score - you will be fine, even at the top schools, as long as your essays are strong
Similarly, if you have a GMAT score of 750+, please don't think that you are a shoo-in to any school - also know that your your essays need to show all aspects of your personality even more because the GMAT already emphasizes your analytical skills
Now, if you have a score of less than 700:

If your score is below 650, it doesn't mean that you can't get in to a top school - BUT it does mean that your essays and other contributions need to be absolutely kickass.

If you had a particularly bad day, the day of your GMAT, and were doing much better in earlier practice tests, you should absolutely think about taking it again and wait until Round 2 to apply.
We don't usually make commercial recommendations in this blog, but taking the Kaplan ultimate practice test in the actual test center gave me a huge advantage with nerves on the day of the actual test
If your score in your practice tests was in that 600 - 650 range anyway, and you feel like you gave it your everything, it's okay - really. Just put in everything you got into your essays and the rest of your application and put your best foot forward.

If you have a score in the 650 - 700 range, mostly the same rules apply:

If you had a particularly bad day and were scoring 700+ on practice tests, or if you feel like you didn't really give it your 100% the first time around, take it once more
We've had plenty of candidates get in to really great schools in the past (and many of our classmates too) with GMAT scores in this range - so if you feel like you gave it everything, and the score was aligned with your practice tests, don't fret
Note - you don't have to explain your GMAT score in the "optional essay" if you are in this bracket - this is a good score.

Finally, I just want to add here: we've seen folks with scores in the 600 - 780 range get in - but I can tell you that the big differentiators have not really been their academic transcripts or their GMAT scores. Thousands of people with strong GMATs and grades apply every year. Your differentiator is your unique voice - your essays, and the rest of your application. Don't short cut even the short answer questions - they can make a big difference sometimes.

If you have other questions, email us at essaycritique@gmail.com. We're thick in the middle of reviewing essays for Round 1, but happy to answer pressing questions from some candidates.

Stanford GSB Essay Tips 2011 - 2012 from our GSB Alum

2011-09-17T07:25:00.000-07:00

Here are this season's Stanford Essay tips from our Stanford GSB Alum!

What matters most to you, and why?

Could be a person or a group of people, a hobby or interest, an event that occurred or might occur in the future, or a situation that you're in
This essay needs to be pretty introspective - and it needs to be about you. If you are going to say "eradicating poverty or hunger" or "spreading literacy", take care to not make this essay about the cause - it must be about why it matters to you.
The essay isn't just about stating why something or someone matters to you - it's about explaining the deep relationships or connections that make this so important in your life.

What do you want to do—REALLY—and why Stanford?

The guidelines for this essay clearly state that you shouldn't repeat and reiterate your accomplishments from your resume or other essays - it must be forward looking.
Career aspirations can be simply stated - i.e., "be a CEO of a Fortune 50 company" - but you should explain in very pragmatic terms the path leading to it and how the MBA fits into that path
The "why Stanford" piece should follow naturally from your career goals - and remember, this is not an essay about Stanford - this is about how what they offer fits into your goals.

Answer two of the four questions below. Tell us not only what you did but also how you did it. What was the outcome? How did people respond? Only describe experiences that have occurred during the last three years.

Try to pick two questions that showcase different aspects of your life. These are all leadership questions, so they aren't easy to tackle, but the key is to tell your story in a unique, authentic voice that resonates with the reader.

Tell us about a time when you built or developed a team whose performance exceeded expectations.

The most important part of this essay is that it should be clear to the reader what the expectations were of your team - because without this baseline understanding, it is challenging to prove how you went over and beyond
"built and developed" - for candidates in consulting, make note that you often don't build and develop short-lived teams; so don't forget to address this piece - how did you coach the people on your team? how did you attract and retain talent?
The most engaging responses to this question respect the idea that building and developing a good team is extremely challenging.

Tell us about a time when you made a lasting impact on your organization.

If you work in a large multi-national company, this is not an easy question to answer in that setting; unless you are confident that your actions really made a sustainable impact on your company, avoid using this question
Candidates will often rely on their own characteristics to answer this question - e.g,. "as a woman... " or "as the youngest Manager.." - if you are going to do this, be very careful not to slight others that don't share the same characteristic as you - and remember again, the impact must be sustainable and organization-wide.

Tell us about a time when you generated support from others for an idea or initiative.

This can be done in a professional, community or personal setting - you must describe why it was challenging to gain this interest and support - this is harder to do when you have established authority - i.e., you were the founder of a non-profit or Chair of a club - your job is to generate support and interest, so these types of responses may not be as interesting

Tell us about a time when you went beyond what was defined or established.

This is a good question to take on, because it is fairly individualistic, so it is easier to relate why you did something and how you changed what was defined
Again, pick a practice such that it is obvious to the reader and seems natural why things were established or defined a certain way - so that your efforts jump out as something that was "over and beyond"

Dartmouth Tuck MBA Essays 2011 - 2012 Tips

2011-09-16T11:53:00.000-07:00

We've seen an increasing number of candidates interested in Dartmouth's Tuck school. Tuck doesn't constrain you to a word limit, but has suggested a 500 word estimate. You can go higher in one or two essays, especially the first one, but try and stick to that benchmark for the rest. Here are our essay tips for this admission year:

Why is an MBA a critical next step toward your short- and long-term career goals? Why is Tuck the best MBA program for you?

Very similar to many other school's goal essays - set the context with your background, explain your goals in a meaningful, substantive manner, and then integrate Tuck's offerings into your vision
Remember, this is an essay about you, not about Tuck - so anything that you mention about the school must be tied into your story and your goals

Discuss your most meaningful leadership experience. What did you learn about your own individual strengths and weaknesses through this experience?

Describe just one experience - it can be a challenging opportunity that came your way, a career milestone, or a personal or community experience
A leadership experience doesn't have to be one where you came out a winner - it can be a situation in which you experienced a very big challenge, part of which you were able to overcome, with other parts that didn't go so well - that is why the question asks both for your strengths and weaknesses
Please, do not use spun-around-strengths like "perfectionism" or "taking too much work on my plate" in the weaknesses section.

Describe a circumstance in your life in which you faced adversity, failure, or setback. What actions did you take as a result and what did you learn from this experience?

A failure or setback or adversity essay must expose you - and your vulnerabilities. This is not about how you created a problem and then owned up to it or fixed it.
It can be a bad situation that was dealt to you, or something that you did that resulted in a failure or setback, or a time when you chased something that you just weren't good enough for
To answer the "actions" piece, don't try to recreate the situation and explain what you did the next time around; what the reader wants to know is, after the failure, what did you do because of it - did you try again? Did you make amends? Did you apologize or forgive someone or give up on something?
Please, do not try to show anyone else in a negative light in this essay - e.g., someone stepped on your toes or acted politically etc. - this just reflects immaturity on your part

Tuck seeks candidates of various backgrounds who can bring new perspectives to our community. How will your unique personal history, values, and/or life experiences contribute to the culture at Tuck?

Diversity is not just about where you're from - diversity can be derived from your specific story - your experience that make you unique to the classroom and community
So, if you're a Caucasian male who has spent three years in a consulting firm, your "diversity" can be from something that's a tradition or value that's been in your family for years, a sporting experience that shaped you, a community that you are tied to that you will bring to campus with you, etc.

Chicago Booth Essays 2011 - 2012

2011-09-16T11:00:00.000-07:00

The Booth MBA has gained tremendously over the last five years, and has become a favorite of many financial services Firms. Here are our essay tips for the school's 2011 - 2012 essays.

What are your short and long-term goals, and how will a Chicago Booth MBA help you reach them? (600 words)

Set the context of your past experience in a few short sentences; and then move on to describing your tactical and visionary goals; remember, the goals must be clear, specific and vividly imaginable for the reader
While it's important to tie Booth's offerings to your goals, please don't overdose on this - this is not an essay on Booth, it's an essay on you and your goals; the Booth part should be supplementary.

At Chicago Booth, we believe each individual has his or her own leadership style. How has your family, culture, and/or environment influenced you as a leader? (750 words)

This is a really important essay for Booth - do not try to copy / paste bits and pieces of other essays and force fit into this one - it won't work
What is a leadership style? A leadership style is really your way of owning, managing and leading the way. How do you motivate people? Think about the different leadership styles of Steve Jobs and Apple's new CEO, Tim Cook. They are vastly different styles, and arguably both very effective. Do you see yourself as a rousing-the-troops by being out there, shaking hands and being-seen type of leader, or do you see yourself as a more quiet, reserved leader who leads through the lines? How much ownership and accountability do you delegate? Where do you sit on the "niceness" scale? These are tough questions to answer, but important to do so to truly describe your style.
Pick no more than one or two themes and attributes, and one or two examples to support each attribute of your style
The experiences or examples you select should naturally lead the reader to understand what leadership style you are describing, so you shouldn't have to state it explicitly - the story-telling of these experiences has to be strong
Your environment also plays a big part - if you were an analyst in an investment bank for a few years, that has a different influence on your style than a consultant or a volunteer or a political staffer, etc.

Considering what you've already included in the application, what else should we know about you? In a maximum of four slides, tell us about yourself.

This one is also a time-consuming essay. One word of caution here - you can never stop editing. Know when you are done and know when to stop, or you'll drive yourself crazy.
The question clearly says, "what else?" - so avoid reiterating the things you said in the first two essays - try to cover the parts of your life and personality that may not have been discussed already
In creating this deck or PDF, think about what's most important to you? If you were describing your life to a classmate, what would you say? What matters the most to you? What motivates you to go to work everyday? Who inspires you? These are the questions that you're trying to answer here.
A good combination of words and pictures is ideal - think of it like a story book on your life - but keep the words succinct and engaging, this is not another essay.
Follow the instructions and read the pointers - hyperlinks will not be clicked, so don't try to stick in your blog or your twitter feed into this, and remember, the document will be viewed electronically, but no videos or music is allowed.

Berkeley Haas Essay Tips 2011 - 2012

2011-09-16T10:21:00.000-07:00

If you're looking for a smaller MBA program with an extremely tight knit community, Haas might be the place for you! If you're a budding entrepreneur, even more reason to apply to this school. Here are our essay tips for this year's questions:

What brings you the greatest joy? How does this make you distinctive? (250 word maximum)

This question seems so much easier than it really is! If you write about the things that bring you great joy, how do you make them sound distinctive to you? By making a deep, meaningful connection between your passion and your life. Why is this thing meaningful to you? What does it say about you?
Most common answer to this question - "making others' lives better / doing things for others / bringing joy to others". It's okay to say this, but PLEASE, know that a lot of people also write this and AdCom reads thousands of essays, so the "distinctive" part has to be really strong.
It's perfectly fine to say something like dance or writing or mountain climbing or spending time with your family or another hobby brings you great joy - but please explain why it is meaningful to you, in a way that really says something about you.

What is your most significant accomplishment? (250 word maximum)

A lot of people ask if this must be limited to one accomplishment - absolutely, yes.
The accomplishment can be professional, personal or community - depending on what you are discussing in the other essays, the overall set should be balanced.

Describe a time when you questioned an established practice or thought within an organization. How did your actions create positive change? (250 word maximum)

Use the words you have in this essay about 50:50 to describe both, what you did, and what impact it had - many essays we read are very one-sided and describe either one or the other
The change should ideally already have happened when you write this essay - not something that you "hope" will change in the future
Remember, broad cultural changes are hard to bring about - it is best to focus this essay on a specific practice or way of doing things that you were able to change

Describe a time when you were a student of your own failure. What specific insight from this experience has shaped your development? (250 word maximum)

Please people - a failure is a failure. It's not supposed to make you look good - i.e., don't use examples where you fixed something that you broke
Take only 2 - 3 sentences to describe the failure itself - and spend the majority of this essay explaining why it was important and what you learned from it
You do NOT need to reiterate what you learned by saying that you were in the exact same situation later and reacted a different way

Describe a time when you led by inspiring or motivating others toward a shared goal. (250 word maximum)

This will ideally be in a professional or community setting. If you are going to use a non-profit setting, be aware that a lot of candidates do this, and you must really get into how you brought people on-board to your vision and goal.
Choosing examples where you influenced without authority - i.e., brought people together that didn't necessarily report to you - is also a good idea, but also know that many people use this too, so you must bring your unique voice to the essay if you use this type of situation

What are your post-MBA short-term and long-term career goals? How have your professional experiences prepared you to achieve these goals? b) How will an MBA from Haas help you achieve these goals? (1000 word maximum for 6a and 6b)

Standard goals question - the big challenge here is writing a 1,000 word essay with smooth transitions, a tight structure, and content that keeps the reader interested and engaged in your story

Michigan Ross MBA Essay Tips 2011 - 2012

2011-09-05T14:46:00.000-07:00

Introduce yourself to your future Ross classmates in 100 words or less.

This is your elevator pitch. The best advice I can offer here is - KEEP IT SIMPLE. Give your reader a few clear signals to remember you by - "he's the Peace Corps guy from NC", or "he's the marathon runner from McKinsey" or "she's the professional dancer from India", or "she's the Indonesia Govt emissary..". You get the message.
Keep your "change the world" ambitions out of this one - how would you really introduce yourself to other classmates? Where you're from, where you grew up, what your professional experiences have been, what your goals are, what your interests and hobbies are - that's it!

Describe your career goals. How will an MBA from Ross help you to achieve those goals? What is your vision for how you can make a unique contribution to the Ross community? (500 words)

Spend about 250 words describing your short term and long term career goals, including post-MBA next steps and your career vision; use the rest to answer how the MBA from Ross will help you, and how you will help the Ross community
You may have to describe your past experiences when you start this essay to set the context - it's okay to do this, but don't use up too many words doing this

Describe a time in your career when you were frustrated or disappointed. What did you learn from that experience? (500 word maximum)

Please, try to avoid blaming someone else through this essay - a large number of candidates will write about a co-worker who let them down or a horrible boss - remember, this is an essay about you, not them!
A lot of candidates also think "what you learned from the experience" actually means "how did you fix the problem" - please don't fall for this trap. It's okay just to describe a setback or challenge, and what you took away from it - you don't have to describe how much better you were the next time you faced the same issue or how you resolved it.

What are you most passionate about? (300 word maximum)

Can be a cause, a hobby, a sport, a professional objective, a personal goal, etc.
If you don't have a passion, it's okay. A lot of people don't. Don't force one, this is an optional question.

Describe a personal challenge or obstacle and why you view it as such. How have you dealt with it? What have you learned from it? (300 word maximum)

Somewhat similar to the third question, except that this is in the personal domain. Almost everyone we know has a great personal situation or experience they went through to share, so try to use this question if possible.
Again, what you learned from the experience is not "how did you solve the problem", or "how did you deal with the same situation the next time around"; please just stick with your takeaways from the situation :-)

Yale SOM Essays 2011 - 2012 Tips and Analysis

2011-09-05T11:54:00.000-07:00

Yale SOM promises to be an exciting place, especially now that Edward A. Snyder, ex-dean of Chicago Booth moved there this summer. Here are the school's essays for this year, and some tips from our reviewers on them.

At the Yale School of Management, we believe the world needs leaders who understand organizations, teams, networks and the complex nature of leadership; understand markets and competition in different contexts; and understand the diversity of economies throughout the world and the relationships between business and society. What experiences have you had that demonstrate your strength in one or more of these areas?

This question is a mouthful - but piece it apart, and it'll seem less challenging. The question is really asking what key experiences have shaped and developed your leadership skills? In the context of how teams work, how economics work, and how business and communities work with each other
This question is open ended - gives you a great chance to pick some experiences you want to describe that have helped you become either a professional or community leader

What is the most difficult feedback you have received from another person or the most significant weakness you perceive in yourself? What steps have you taken to address it and how will business school contribute to this process?

Please, do not to try to "spin" strengths as weaknesses - e.g., perfectionism, or taking too much work, etc. Doing this makes the essay boring, fake and a surefire fail.
"Difficult" feedback is bound to be candid and mostly uncomfortable - write about what you need to work on in a clear and confident tone, because we all need to work on some things!

Imagine yourself meeting your learning team members for the first time in Orientation. What is the most important thing your teammates should know about you?

The most important thing about you can be about your past (what you have done or an experience that shaped you deeply), or about your goals, or even about your working style
This essay should stress on not just what it is that your team-mates should know about you, but also why it is important that they understand it. E.g., simply stating, my goal is to run a private equity fund in Asia isn't good enough.

Columbia MBA Essays 2011 - 2012 - Tips and Guidance

2011-09-03T06:52:00.000-07:00

This year, we were lucky to add a Columbia Business School alum to our contributors. Here are his tips on the school's essays:

Considering your post-MBA and long term professional goals, why you are pursuing an MBA at this point in your career? Additionally, why is Columbia Business School a good fit for you? (750 words)

When an essay is more than 600 words (this one is 750), the biggest challenge is keeping the reader engaged and wrapped up in your story - transitions, grammar, and a tight storyline are even more important in longer essays than others
For the why CBS part, be sure to tie in CBS's offerings with your own background - this part should be very specific to CBS culture and community, not just any business school in general.

Describe a life experience that has shaped you. The goal of this essay is to get a sense of who you are, rather than what you have achieved professionally. (Maximum 500 words)

First, a life experience that has shaped you could be a happy experience, a tough challenge, a big change, a move, or a tragic or traumatic situation - anything that had a meaningful impact on you and your personality
Please do not include any professional experiences or details in this question - bring out your personality, your character, and tell your story!

Develop your own “outrageous” business idea. In essay form, compose your “elevator pitch.” (Maximum 250 words)

What is an outrageous idea? Founding the next "social startup" or "renewable energy company" or the ultimate "micro-finance solution" will probably NOT excite your reader. There are many outrageous ideas that are over-done too - "free wireless internet for the world", "education for everyone in the world", etc. - it's okay to use these, but your elevator pitch in these cases has to be especially meaningful.
Remember, the key is that the outrageous idea must be supported (unfortunately in a few sentences) by a real pragmatic sounding business plan that might work

You are running for either Cluster Chair or a club leadership position of your choosing. Compose your campaign speech. (Maximum 250 words)

Choose this option with caution -- the challenge in this question is finding the balance between speaking about your accomplishments and your strengths in a political-campaign-like style, without sounding arrogant - some candidates can do this extremely well, but others end up sounding brash

Select one of the current executives in residence with whom you would like to meet during your time at Columbia. Explain your selection and tell us how you would best utilize your half hour one-on-one session. (Maximum 250 words)

Great way to bolster your case for your career vision, but remember to clearly describe how you will spend your time, rather than simply why you admire this person or general platitudes about the program.

Wharton Essays 2011 - 2012 Tips and Analysis

2011-08-28T18:08:00.000-07:00

One of our founders, and most active reviewers at Essay Critique is a Wharton alum, so we asked her to write up some tips on Wharton's essay questions for this season, and here they are!

What are your professional objectives? (300 Words)

Strike a balance between your "visionary" objectives and some tactical post-MBA next steps in this question - state the idealist long term, but support it with pragmatic commentary about your near term plans
If you're going to describe objectives in a high-buzz area like micro-finance or renewable energy, be cautious - make sure your objectives are articulated such that they tie in well with your background and experiences - the two shouldn't appear disjointed

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?

This is a difficult question - and most people struggle with it - it's not easy to come up with an opportunity, and even less to recreate it in your current situation
A good idea for this question is to come up with 2 or 3 situations, write them up in draft, and this will give you a good idea of which one to move forward with
The question we get from a lot of candidates for this is - do I have to answer "no" to the last part of the question - i.e., would you make the same decision today? No - you don't have to - it's perfectly okay to say that you would make the same decision today
It's important to articulate the thought process behind your decision - this is the meat of the question - what were the elements of your decision? What was most important to you? If you are going to say that you would not make the same decision today, explain why - candidates can use this to highlight their growth and evolution

Discuss a time when you faced a challenging interpersonal experience. How did you navigate the situation and what did you learn from it?

First, what is an interpersonal experience? A challenging inter-personal situation could be an exchange with people in the workplace, with a client, with family, or with other important players in your life that was difficult
It could be a situation that was challenging because of the context that it was set it (regardless of the roles), or because of the people involved - the former is much better than the latter
My LEAST favorite responses to this question are ones in which candidates find faults with others that they worked with - or a situation in which they glowed spun around differently - most frequently these essays fall flat, because they sound immodest and immature

“Innovation is central to our culture at Wharton. It is a mentality that must encompass every aspect of the School – whether faculty research, teaching or alumni outreach.” – Thomas S. Robertson, Dean, The Wharton School. Keeping this component of our culture in mind, discuss a time when you have been innovative in your personal or professional life.

Don't mix up innovation and invention; and please, don't try to force an innovation story into one of invention
Innovation can happen in your day-to-day at the workplace, or at home, or with your friends - any situation that you contributed significantly to make it better, either for yourself, or others

We are reviewing Round 1 Wharton essays now! Email us if you have questions, or give our review services a try - essaycritique@gmail.com

Duke Fuqua 2011 - 2012 Essay Guidance and Tips

2011-08-28T16:24:00.000-07:00

Starting with a bit of Fuqua trivia: Tim Cook, new Apple CEO, is a Fuqua alum! Important Note: Duke doesn't have a word limit but asks that you limit your responses to 2 pages each, 1.5 line spacing, and at least 10 point font.

Describe your vision for your career and your inspiration for pursuing this career path.

Career vision essay - this is a asking for a more long term view on your career - where do you see yourself 10 - 15 years after business school?
Your inspiration for the career path should ideally be tied to experiences of the past - if they aren't, be sure to explain why you have an interest in the area / vision you are describing
People struggle a fair bit with this essay - so don't be surprised if you do - the dilemma often is, how grandiose should a vision be? How real should it be? It should ideally be a balance of the two - the idealistic, supported by a pragmatic view of your experiences and background.

How will your background, values, and non-work activities enhance the experience of other Duke MBA students and add value to Fuqua’s diverse culture?

This is very clearly an essay on personal attributes - don't try to mix up professional experiences or strengths in here
Think long and hard about your personal strengths and how you can contribute to Fuqua - remember, the school is big on global and cultural diversity
Bring out your real personality - a great way to test this - if a fellow student was reading this, would they be interested in being your classmate?

Why Duke? (If you are interested in a specific concentration, joint degree, clubs or activities, please discuss how you would contribute to these in this essay.)

Check out the Duke MBA Association's webpage and the Fuqua Campus Group site to do your research; you should also try and visit the campus and / or speak to current students and alums about the school
Make sure that the activities that you're interested in are clearly tied to your background and experiences - the two shouldn't be disjoint.

If you feel there are extenuating circumstances of which the Admissions Committee should be aware, please explain them here (e.g., unexplained gaps in work, choice of recommenders, inconsistent or questionable academic performance, significant weakness in your application).

Don't use this essay unless you have to. If you have academics that don't reflect your abilities, or don't have a direct supervisor recommending you, or gaps in your professional experiences, take this opportunity to explain, but keep it brief and to-the-point. Many times, these essays come off sounding like lame excuses and you have to be really careful to avoid it if you do use it.

INSEAD Essays 2011 - 2012 Tips and Guidance

2011-08-28T13:52:00.000-07:00

INSEAD, with campuses in Asia and Europe, has a 10-month MBA program, and their first round deadline is coming up soon, on September 28th!

Please give a detailed description of your job, including nature of work, major responsibilities; and, where relevant, employees under your supervision, size of budget, number of clients/products and results achieved. (250 words)

Questions 1 & 2 go together; between the two, they should cover the breadth of your professional experiences, as well as be an articulate point-in-time snapshot of your career as it stands today
Regardless of whether you are an individual contributor, or the manager of a small or large team, be candid about your day-to-day; the AdCom really wants to understand what you do
Re-read your answer to confirm that it would make sense to someone who knows little about your industry or function; start at the top and provide some context if necessary

Please give us a full description of your career since graduating from university. If you were to remain with your present employer, what would be your next step in terms of position? (250 words)

Very similar to question 1, even more important to (a) provide context about your industry, function, role and (b) avoid technical jargon, especially if it comes across forced.

Give a candid description of yourself, stressing the personal characteristics you feel to be your strengths and weaknesses and the main factors which have influenced your personal development, giving examples when necessary. (400 words approx.)

Try to limit to two strengths and two weaknesses
The best essays will have a coherent description of your personality - supported by some examples - where the strengths and weaknesses will jump out to the reader without being called out explicitly.
It's important that all of these attributes come together to describe you! Avoid sounding bipolar or schizo as you describe it

Describe what you believe to be your two most substantial accomplishments to date, explaining why you view them as such. (400 words approx.)

Covered in our HBS Essay Question Review

Describe a situation taken from school, business, civil or military life, where you did not meet your personal objectives, and discuss briefly the effect. (250 words approx.)

Also similar to the HBS question on setbacks - don't try to disguise behind a strength or accomplishment - remember, it's not as important that you failed in the major leagues than that you played in them!

Discuss your career goals. What skills do you expect to gain from studying at INSEAD and how will they contribute to your professional career. (500 words approx.)

Three parts - describe the path that you're on, what skills you need to add to your repertoire, and tie it in to INSEAD's offerings
Especially if your career goals include high-buzz areas like "micro-finance", "renewable energy", or a high-tech entrepreneurial project, a word of caution: please make sure it's clear how your path so far, and future goals are tied together - a LOT of people have similar goals, so it's important to distinguish yourself!

Please choose one of the following two essay topics:

a) Have you ever experienced culture shock? What did it mean to you? (250 words approx.), or

Why do schools ask this culture shock question? They do it to understand what you've adapted to you in your past - so it doesn't have to be moving to a new country - it could be a new job in a very different industry, a new culture, etc.

b) What would you say to a foreigner moving to your home country? (250 words approx.)

Great question - regardless of what country you're from! Strongly recommend that you answer this - your opportunity to make your country sound welcoming, exciting and warmly embracing. Think of how you'd project it to a classmate - and you'll get great results!

Cambridge Judge Essay Questions 2011 - 2012 - Tips and Guidance

2011-08-20T06:04:00.000-07:00

Looking for a year long general management program? Cambridge's Judge Business School would be an excellent choice. Their first round deadline is also early, on September 23rd.

What are the key issues facing organisations in your sector over the next three years? What course of action would you recommend to such organisations? (300 words)

The balance you have to strike in this question is being in-depth enough (which sometimes requires the use of technical jargon), but yet articulating in a way that a layman would appreciate your understanding of your industry
Using the jargon can sometimes be important, especially if you are in certain industries - so don't shy away from this if you must use it, but at the same time, don't stick in big words just to sound intelligent :-)

What did you learn from your most spectacular failure? (200 words)

The choice of the word spectacular is intentional; it is designed to invoke your most embarrassing or high-stakes failure
200 words is tight - describe the failure in a sentence or two, and then quickly get into what you learned from it

What are your short and long term career objectives? What skills/characteristics do you already have that will help you to achieve them? What do you hope to gain from the degree and how do you feel it will help you achieve the career objectives you have? (please do not exceed 500 words)

Somewhat similar to Kellogg's leadership + assessment questions, you can start by describing what you've done so far, and what leadership areas you want to develop at business school
A writing tip for this essay - first, write this essay without the second half (why the degree?). Write your career objectives, and as you read them (or a reviewer reads them), it should be plainly obvious what your needs are. Those needs should then be articulated in a few sentences for why Judge, why the degree, but those sentences should be a natural conclusion to your first half.

Good luck folks! Write us at essaycritique@gmail.com to get your essays reviewed.

Kellogg Essay Questions 2011 - 2012 - Tips and Common Mistakes

2011-08-14T16:41:00.000-07:00

Kellogg's Round 1 (Part 1) Deadline is on September 22nd! Don't forget to send in Part I of your application before then. You can view our Deadlines page to save this and other deadlines directly to your Gmail calendar.

Briefly assess your career progress to date. Elaborate on your future career plans and your motivation for pursuing an MBA. (600 word limit)

Not only describe your career progression so far, but also assess it - what went right, what not quite? This should just naturally lead the reader into thinking - "of course this candidate needs an MBA!"
Candidates who try to answer the "Why Kellogg" question won't have enough words to fit in the real answer for this essay - keep it simple, answer what is asked - why an MBA?

Describe your key leadership experiences and evaluate what leadership areas you hope to develop through your MBA experiences (600 word limit).

What are leadership experiences? Situations that you've been in that you've been tested in, where a lot has been at stake, and you have led the way. They can be personal or professional, but you should cite at least one professional experience

Limit to three experiences at most

What are leadership areas? The most obvious one here is the one that Kellogg touts the most - "team leadership" or "community leadership". But to write a truly compelling essay, think beyond -- what specific leadership areas are you looking to develop, that will tie in to the first part of your essay? Motivating and empowering large groups of people, leadership in the community, product leadership in an industry, executive communication skills, etc.

Assume you are evaluating your application from the perspective of a student member of the Kellogg Admissions Committee. Why would you and your peers select you for admission, and what impact would you make as a member of the Kellogg community? (600 word limit).

This is your "why Kellogg" and "why you" question - go all out and present yourself as the package that brings a mix of professional, personal and community based leadership experiences to the table
Make it fun - describe yourself in a way that others would truly want to learn more about you!

Complete one of the following three questions or statements. (400 word limit)
a) Describe a time you had to inspire a reluctant individual or group.
b) People may be surprised to learn that I…..
c) The riskiest personal or professional decision I ever made was…..

This is a wide-open essay, use it to demonstrate a part of your personality that may not have come through in your application thus far - you want the reader to feel pleasantly surprised about you after this - i,e., "Wow, he / she did x, y AND z?! That's pretty awesome."

Get your Kellogg Essays reviewed by our reviewers! Email us at essaycritique@gmail.com

HBS Essay Questions 2011 - 2012 - Tips and Analysis

2011-06-21T10:35:00.000-07:00

Essay tips for the new HBS essays from our HBS alum...

Tell us about three of your accomplishments. (600 words)

This continues to be the centerpiece essay - best advice I got for this essay was to first write it as though it were three separate accomplishment essays (in as many words as you need) and then edit it down to approximately 200 words each - it becomes much less daunting this way
A lot of applicants will have a central theme woven into the three accomplishments - this is great if there is a legitimate theme that applies to the three accomplishments, but it's better to have no theme than to force one into your essay
This one is obvious, but try to showcase accomplishments that highlight different aspects of your experiences - the template most suggest and use is one professional, personal and community - but these could easily be two professional accomplishments, if in fact, they are different enough from each other
If you have to get one essay reviewed by someone else (another alum, or us!), get this one. It's your best chance at knocking the socks off the AdCom reader and you don't want to miss it.

Tell us three setbacks you have faced. (600 words)

This is so much better than the "what have you learned from a mistake?" question! The most strong applicants have invariably been through a number of high-stakes setbacks in their lives, so this is a great question to ask of everyone
Setbacks don't have to be mistakes or failures - a setback could be not getting selected for an opportunity that you wanted, or not being recognized for something as you expected - it is, in most cases, a deviation from your expectations of an outcome
Describe how you dealt with the setback - show your mental strength and how you recovered from it.
This can often be the most painful essay to read and edit - why? Because 80% of candidates try to mask achievements or strengths as setbacks - PLEASE DON'T DO THIS. Remember: it's not as important that you lost in the major leagues as much as that you played in them!

Why do you want an MBA? (400 words)

Keep the answer as simple as the question
Briefly cover where you are now, and why it makes sense for you to get an MBA for where you are going (goals)
The "Why HBS" piece is less important than the "why MBA" - don't litter the essay with name drops and internet research on classes at HBS - use these prudently only where it aligns with your goals

Answer a question you wish we'd asked. (400 words)

My favorite question, because applicants usually have something they want to discuss through their application that they usually try to stick in through the other questions :-)
The open nature of this does make it difficult - there are two routes to consider:

Use a question that other business schools ask - What means the most to you and why? What will you bring to the HBS Community? What are you most passionate about and why? You get the idea.
Be creative and come up with your own question - use this...

When you know you have an experience that you want to discuss that you haven't covered in another question
When you have some explaining to do - something that looks weird on your resume / application

Avoid being overly specific on this question - "e.g., why did you decide to run three marathons in 2010?" or "why did you go to africa to help the poor" - I'm exaggerating, but you know what I mean.

MBA Class of 2014, are you ready?!

2011-06-19T12:27:00.000-07:00

Hi folks!

Our administrator and reviewers are all meeting this week to get our act together for our third year together as a team! We're excited to kick off the 2011 season and look forward to working with many of you this year.

Any questions? Email us at essaycritique@gmail.com.

Thanks,
Tim

P.S.: We are now on Facebook!

Phew! Almost there...

2011-01-04T19:15:00.000-08:00

Over the past few weeks, we've been busily reviewing Wharton, Ross, Tepper, Sloan, Booth, Darden, Ross, and UCLA Essays. PHEW!

Now, time to focus on the rest. Hang in there, we're almost through Round 2. If you're working on HBS essays, don't forget to peruse our initial pointers. We're going to keep reviewing until all the deadlines are up, and we'll be posting a "Mistakes to Avoid" post shortly as well.

Stay tuned...

Wharton Essays - Mistakes To Avoid

2010-12-28T08:05:00.000-08:00

So, it's panic week - the last week to add those finishing touches to your essays before you package them and send them off. We've been busily reviewing essays for all of the top schools, and wanted to share a few quick pointers before the Round 2 deadline. This one's for Wharton, but we'll try and post a few more this week, so stay tuned.

Before we get into these, a quick plug, we are actively reviewing essays during this holiday week, if you are interested in working with us, please let us know as soon as possible, so we can get your essays scheduled.

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)

This is a tough question to answer; a lot of essays we read fail to answer the question correctly. They describe a tough decision they made, or a situation in which they chose one among several opportunities, but the question is not asking for either of these.
It's specifically asking for a time you turned down an opportunity - don't feel pressured to think of this as an "options analysis" process - the opportunity could have been turned down even if no alternatives existed!
A lot of essays also tend to become achievement essays dressed up as opportunity essays. If you don't have a good response or situation to describe, don't use this question. Don't "force fit" a general leadership experience into this response.

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)

If there's only one essay you get reviewed of your application by a consultant / third party, get this one looked at (our services start at $50)! It's important because it's very hard for people to discuss failures, and we've read many applications where this essay comes off completely awkward, partly discussing a situation, partly discussing your reaction, and then very quickly move on to self-glorification since the mistake was made
If you think your failure essay sounds a little awkward, it probably sounds a LOT more awkward to the reader
Don't forget to answer the last part of the question - the key is to explain how this experience changed what you thought of as failure - compare before and after to explain the change articulately.

Remember to get your essays reviewed, whether its by us or others. We can't stress enough how important it is to get an independent, unbiased view from someone who doesn't know you at all, because remember, AdCom doesn't!

Good luck with the final push this week :)

Answering your Questions!

2010-12-22T11:26:00.000-08:00

Are we reviewing essays over the holidays?

Yes, absolutely! We will continue to review over the holidays and right up to the Round 2 deadlines in Jan - March.

Can I get my essays back within 24 or 48 hours?

Depends on our workload. We will absolutely make it happen if we can, but you may have to shell out a few extra bucks for this.

Wharton New Interview 2010 Experience / Update

2010-11-27T20:23:00.000-08:00

An update from our Wharton Alum on previously posted interview tips:

"Hi folks, from speaking with a number of our clients over the past few days that have interviewed at Wharton, it is obvious there has been a huge shift in interviewing style this year. So far, we had not come out with this info because we wanted to hear it from our clients directly, rather than publishing it based on other sources. We spoke to 14 interviewees about their Wharton interview experience in November 2010, and here's what we found.

What's changed?
Questions have changed focus from Why Wharton / why MBA, etc. to six behavioral questions. Tell me about a time when:

You have been working toward the completion of an important task, when it has been necessary to consider the opinions and feelings of others
You have worked as part of a team working towards an important goal, when you have addressed conflict between two or more team members
You have worked with others to complete an important task, when there was no formally appointed group leader
You have ensured an important task has been completed, when you felt others were less focused than you on completing the important task
You have had to persuade others to your way of thinking, when at first they did not buy into your idea.
Your ideas have been challenged by others, requiring you to defend your opinions.

What stays the same?
A lot. Interviewers still look for the same things that they did before. Solid experiences, good communication skills, a humility and warmth and friendly body language. Through these questions, you should try to demonstrate both your professional experiences and your personal attributes. Be enthusiastic, describe your experiences with expression and draw the interviewer's interest into your story.

So why would Wharton use the same questions repeatedly with all students?
Mostly to establish consistency. When you ask the same questions of people back to back, you get a clear way of distinguishing between personalities, characters and ideas.

What about the scripted questions?
While it might seem like the Wharton interview just got super easy because you know the three questions they will ask, don't be under that illusion. Know your resume, why Wharton, why MBA, why now COLD. These could come up at any time in the conversation and could make/break the reviewer's impression of you regardless of how you answered the questions above.

How should I prepare for the new 2010 Wharton interview format?

Think about some situations that have been crucial in developing your career or have been personal milestones for you (3 - 5 experiences)
List the people that were involved in these situations and the role that you played, as though you were writing a script
Write down a summary of each situation, the actions you took and why it was such a critical experience for you - what did you take away from it?
Use these experiences to then weave your answers to the questions above.
Don't restrict yourself just to these three questions, think about other behavioral questions that may be asked and how you could use these situations to respond to them
Try to be a (real) story-teller, not a newscaster. Tell a story that you would want to hear from someone you just met
Tell the story to someone you don't know at all. Shameless Plug: it could be one of us :-)
Practice, Practice, Practice - Get in front of the mirror, record yourself, observe your own body language and shrug off the gestures or mannerisms or phrases that you don't like from your vocabulary and body language

Wharton Interview Tips 2010

2010-11-15T08:29:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

Congratulations to those who've been invited to interview at Wharton and good luck! Here are a few tips from our Wharton alum (who is now busily conducting mock interviews over webcam for those interested!):

"First, let me clarify - at Wharton, unlike other schools, the interview won't keep you out of the school. However, it is obviously one of the many things that counts towards the strength of your application and can come down on either the "Yes" or "No" side of your decision heavily. So it's key to be prepared.

The style is almost always conversational - regardless of who you interview with. Your answers to the 'script questions' should be authentic, well thought out and prepared - Why Wharton, Why MBA, Why Now, ST / LT Goals, Walk through your resume, etc. Prepare these in front of a mirror / webcam - you have no idea useful this can be! Even better, do a mock interview with us or with someone else.

For the behavioral / leadership / teamwork questions, have a few thoughts in your mind that you can pull out and use if the opportunity presents itself. Know yourself, know the school, know your story. Be friendly, humble and project your accomplishments without coming off as arrogant. Body language is important!

One thing that people often forget to do when they explain why they want to go to Wharton is explain the MBA bit, spew out a bunch of things that they like about the school, but forget to explain how the school's offerings tie in with their short term and long term goals. Make this linkage very clear in your interview.

Finally, remember, the school is called "The Wharton School". NOT "Wharton School of Business", NOT "Wharton Business School" and NOT "Wharton GSB".

To do a mock interview with a Wharton alum, send us your preferred time slots (EST) in an email at essaycritique@gmail.com.

HBS Interview Experience 2010

2010-10-16T10:57:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

It seems like the HBS interview invites are rolling and so we here's a quick refresher of our interview guidance. Once our clients start interviewing, we'll anonymize post whatever they want to share on this blog as well, so bookmark us and keep checking back!

Guidance from our HBS Alum:

"The HBS interview is not the Wharton interview - don't go in expecting a casual conversation that you can drive. Go in expecting an interview that will be driven mostly by the interviewer. Expect them to be taking notes and assessing you during the interview. Expect a few tough questions - also, expect that you will get almost no encouragement from the interviewer while you are speaking. Of course, it could turn out that your experience is much more casual than this, but we would encourage you to go in expecting this.

The interviewer will know you, your profile, your essays and your resume cold before you even step in to the room. They will look to see if they hear the same person that they read about - so be sure to stay authentic and true to the voice that you reflected in your application.

There could be one or maybe more deep dives into your resume - be prepared with at least a few snippets or phrases that you want to cover when a question like this comes up for any of the experiences you have on your resume. Same with questions about your undergraduate education. Expect a few behavioral questions too.

HBS interviewers are either AdCom or a few (very) select alumni so they are experts are doing this (vs. interviewing with students at some other schools). Walk in confident, but not arrogant, and describe your experiences with humility. Show your personal side and give the interviewer something to remember you by when they are done at the end of the day.

Don't forget to Practice, Practice, Practice - webcam, mirror, mock interview with family / friends (and us!). Good luck!"

To do a mock interview with a HBS alum, send us your preferred time slots (EST) in an email at essaycritique@gmail.com

Five MBA Essay Mistakes to Avoid

2010-10-08T18:36:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

Now that we've reviewed a bunch of Round 1 essays, we revisited our "5 Mistakes" blog from last year and updated it slightly, but also found a lot of it is still pretty relevant! As you're thinking about your Round 2 Essays, here are some quick traps to watch out for...

1. Answering a Different Question - As simple as this sounds, we have found that a number of essays sent to us actually answer a different question than what is being asked. Many times, this is because candidates first identify parts of their personality and professional experiences that they want to showcase, and then figure out how to "force fit" these experiences into the essay questions. The best way to avoid this mistake? Do it the right way - think of the question, and then write the answer, not the other way around. After you're done, go back and check - have you answered the question exactly as it's asked?

2. Skimming over the Details - "That day, I learned how collaboration and teamwork are critical to leadership...". Whenever you have one of these "I realized / learned" revelations, check to make sure that before or after you have supporting details that explain why or how you realized what you did. The best essays are detailed enough that they naturally lead the reader to the conclusion that you were trying to hit.

3. Distracting Creative Imagery - "Beads of sweat dotted my brow as I lifted the rusty hammer to hit the moss covered..".. Great for a fiction novel, not so great for a business school application. We have seen a number of essays which are fun to read because they are written so well - unfortunately, they're just not written for an application. Especially all you very gifted writers out there, try and keep a check and keep the language simple.

4. Language, Grammar - If English isn't your first language, invest a lot of time in polishing the language and grammar in your essays. While a lot of people think it is OK to write in loose language if you are an international applicant, remember that you are competing with other international applicants who may not have this problem. As long as it feels like you have taken the effort to polish the language, you'll be in good shape.

5. Super-glorifying your accomplishments - Essays are all about you and your achievements. We get that, and of course you should brag about your achievements. At the same time, if you were a first year analyst in a MBS group in an investment bank, don't say you helped your organization battle the credit crisis (if you didn't). State your accomplishments as is, and they will sound great. In an attempt to magnify accomplishments, we have seen a lot of essays that lose their authenticity and credibility.

Hope this helps! If you have something else you'd like to see covered here, send us an email at essaycritique@gmail.com. We look forward to working with you!

Michigan Ross MBA - Fall 2011 Essay Tips

2010-10-04T12:01:00.000-07:00

Ross's deadline is coming up on October 11th, so here are a few tips on how to tackle the Fall 2011 essay questions. Two of our four reviewers were accepted at Ross, so they offer their words of advice here...

1. Introduce yourself in 100 words or less (100 words)
New question, and this one is actually easier than you think. We love it, because it's 100 words and it gives you the perfect opportunity to give AdCom your best elevator pitch about you, your life, your personality, your professional background, just about anything.

Our two cents here - keep it light, this is an introduction, there's enough room in the other questions to talk about the serious stuff, so for here, just project yourself as someone that classmates would actually like to have a beer with after class. Don't go overboard in doing so -- it's really alright to sound like a normal, fun person, with a few interests.

2. Describe your career goals. How will the Ross MBA help you to achieve your goals? (500 word maximum)
Before you start writing this essay, create a map for yourself. Link your professional experiences of the past to how you got to where you are now and why you think an MBA is the best thing for you at this point in your career. These experiences should lead the reader to the natural conclusion that an MBA would be the idea thing for your career right now.

Then, think through your short term and long term goals (don't forget either one) - and do it at a level of specificity that makes the reader believe that you have invested time in this self reflection. A lot of people tell us - "I don't know what I want to do yet!" Well, if there's one thing that you could do of the many that you want to do, what would it be? Then lay out why Ross. For this piece it is important that you go a step beyond what jumps out at you from their website - go through specific programs and parts of their curriculum and link them to your goals. Discuss which programs or people that you have met or spoken to that caused you to consider Ross as a top school.

The most important thing about this question - your entire essay should appear to have a single theme - your past experiences, why MBA now, goals and Why Ross pieces should all appear tightly integrated with each other.

3. Describe a time in your career when you were frustrated or disappointed. What did you learn from that experience? (500 word maximum)
Once you have the situation picked out, first describe why this was frustrating or disappointing. What may seem obvious to you may not be to the reader - explain what the situation meant for you in the role that you were in.

Whether you eventually conquered (or "won" in some way) makes no difference here. Don't try to force fit a "I overcame it by.." - you don't have to. It's OK if you don't have a win story here. What's important is that you discuss very openly and clearly what you took away from the experience. How did your personality change after this incident(s) occurred? How did your attitude towards other people or an organization change? What would you do differently if you were faced with a similar situation in the future?

4a. What are you most passionate about and why? (300 word maximum)

What a great opportunity to pick a topic of your choice and discuss why it's important to you! The only thing here is, be sure to highlight how, in the past and in the present you actually 'apply' this passion in your life. Use this essay - we highly recommend it!

4b. We expect that Ross MBAs will not only be effective leaders, but also effective teachers. How will you contribute to the learning experience of your peers at Ross? (300 word maximum)

If you feel like you have nothing substantial to say in Q. 4a (it's okay), this is a good alternative. Use your professional background or community experience to describe how you will share with your peers at Ross. You can discuss student clubs, initiatives that you will take, classroom projects, etc. If you have professional networks that the class can benefit from, this is a good place to mention it!

Good luck, folks - try and get your essays read by an independent, unbiased set of eyes! Even if you don't use our services, be sure to ask someone that doesn't know you for their candid opinion on your essays - this is the best "preview" of AdCom's feedback.

HBS Essays - Final Pointers for Round 1

2010-09-27T03:15:00.000-07:00

As our reviewers are in the home stretch and busily reviewing HBS Round 1 essays for the deadline, a few reminders / pointers from our HBS alum based on common errors they've seen in the essays they've reviewed so far:

1. What have you learned from a mistake? Remember, the question asks about a mistake, not a failure, not how you fixed a problem in the company, and not what you learned from a challenging professional experience. Too many essays we've seen for this question completely miss the point. Don't feel compelled to demonstrate a heroic endeavor here - just state the mistake you made, and what you learned from it.

2. Renewable energy and Microfinance -- if you are going to express an interest in either of these things, make sure you explain why and what you've done in these areas. Readers like us (and admissions officers) can get put off reading about these buzzworthy topics essay after essay if there isn't real substance in them.

3. Introduce yourself essay - try to lighten up. It's okay to brag (really, it is), but at the same time, you want to introduce yourself and your real personality. If you care about family, say that. If you care most about mountain biking, say that. Don't feel pressured to describe yourself as the flag bearer of literacy in the world if you aren't one.

4. Don't litter your essays with names of HBS grads remotely related to you or friends of friends that you have talked to once. Use names only if it makes sense to do so and if it meaningfully contributes to what you are saying in your essay.

5. Finally, get your essays read and reviewed. The entire package, not individually. Get them read by family, friends, but most importantly, by an independent reader that doesn't know you at all. Remember, the admissions officers only know you from what they read in your essays. This may sound as a shameless plug for our services, but it's not. You can get your essays reviewed by us or anyone else out there, but get them read by an unbiased reader that doesn't know you personally.

Hope this helps! Good luck this week to all Round 1 applicants.

Note: We will be reviewing HBS essays until just before the deadline and are offering 24 hour turnarounds at a premium rate for those interested.

HBS Essays Fall 2011

2010-08-16T10:12:00.000-07:00

Thanks for all your emails, questions and for your business. A number of you wrote to us and asked for our HBS alum / reviewer to publish tips on the HBS essay questions, so here they are!

What are your three most substantial accomplishments and why do you view them as such? (600-word limit)

We view this classic HBS essay as a microcosm of your entire application - great opportunity to showcase your professional, personal and community activities in one tight essay and get the reader started on a good note
We find a lot of candidates have a hard time picking from their many accomplishments - which one should we discuss here? If you're not sure, write a 200 - 250 essay on each of your accomplishments and then pick the three you like best.
Don't forget the second part of the question! Why do you view the accomplishment as so critical in your life? How did it impact you and what you did since?

What have you learned from a mistake? (400-word limit)

For highly accomplished candidates, this is THE hardest question to answer. Know this and focus your attention on it early.
50% of essay responses to this question (of the ones we see, at least) are flawed because they dance around the "mistake" and candidates refuse to take accountability for what they did. No matter how perfect you are, everyone makes mistakes! Accept yours, explain it and discuss what you learned from it.
Avoid focusing this essay on how you fixed the mistake. Again, a very common error is to spend the first few sentences explaining what the mistake was and the rest of the essay describing the glorious ways in which you fixed it. Rather, focus on what you learned.

What would you like the MBA Admissions Board to know about your undergraduate academic experience? (400-word limit)

Use this question to either explain away low academic performance, discuss a strong curricular project or significant extra curricular experience

What is your career vision and why is this choice meaningful to you?

We recommend you use this question almost 100% of the time – it’s a great place to discuss professional goals, aspirations and how they relate to your experiences
This is also a good place to fit the “Why HBS” story – without really telling it explicitly – i.e., anyone reading the essay should naturally lead to the conclusion that HBS is what you need next
Try to avoid “copying” your standard short / long term goals essay here – this explicitly asks for “Career Vision”, mostly implying a longer term vision

Tell us about a time in your professional experience when you were frustrated or disappointed.

The question asks for when you were frustrated or disappointed – much easier to answer than the classic “failure” or “mistake” question
While writing about why you were frustrated or disappointed, be careful not to sound as though you are blaming everyone around you for the incident – this can come off sounding very obnoxious
Describe how you fixed the situation or made yourself feel better, but don’t feel compelled to project yourself as the smartest guy around.

When you join the HBS Class of 2013, how will you introduce yourself to your new classmates?

Great question – perfect opportunity and everyone should use this essay unless you really have a good reason to not
Bring in your true personality here – especially the fun stuff, family stuff, the hobbies, the “out there” accomplishments
Make yourself sound like someone that others would like to hang with – think of this as an interview over an essay.

Wharton Essays 2011

2010-08-06T15:10:00.000-07:00

Ready to apply to Round 1? Alright, here's some essay guidance from our Wharton alum who is one of our reviewers!

Required Question: What are your professional objectives? (300 words)

Keep it simple! Very limited space here, and this is probably the most important question of the lot.
One way to answer this question could be to describe your background very briefly, bridge to how Wharton fits in and then move on to describe what your objectives are
Avoid: Grandiose openings - "I believe I can change the world". I don't doubt that you can, but you would be surprised how many people use this as their opening line.

Optional: If you were able to create a Wharton course on any topic, what would it be? (700 words)

Great question, and not the easiest one to answer. But this question affords you a LOT of space (100 words more than the others) to translate your passion. Use it if you can.
If you decide to use this question, explain clearly how this works with your background and your objectives.
Be creative! This is your chance. But also, be tactical. Describe what the course would cover and how it would be delivered.

Optional: 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)

Use this question only if you have actually ever been in this situation. We've seen a number of candidates try to "fit" an experience into this answer, and it doesn't work!
Remember to clearly explain why you chose the path that you did - why it seemed to be the "best" of options available to you at the time
You can leverage this question to demonstrate your evolution and growth! Especially if you chose to say that you would not make the same decision today. Explain why.

Optional: 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)

Based on experience, we find that most "high performing" candidates have a great degree of difficulty answering this question. Take your time with it because it won't be easy.
The second half of this question is critical - definition of failure. Your articulation of the experience should lead the reader to naturally believing why this defined "failure" for you in the context that you were in.
A lot of candidates try to bring out what they did "right" after the failure - this is okay, but you can't use 90% of this essay to talk about what you did well. This is a failure essay!

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

This question presents a great opportunity to present your personal side if you haven't done so in the other essays; or even your personal side in a professional environment
Most candidates avoid this question because they feel like there's not enough "meat" in the eventual answer they come up with - but you can articulate the challenge and why it was challenging and how it helped you in a strong and detailed manner

It's time for Round 1 and We're Back!

2010-07-24T21:22:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

First of all, we're so excited that so many of our clients from last year got admitted to the best Business schools in the country (we covered each and every one of the top 15!!). The thank you notes and the many successes in our first year of operations have led us to come back again for another one!

Round 1 is not too far away, and hopefully a lot of you are thinking of your application and essay strategy already. For the eager beavers amongst you, our reviewers are available starting tomorrow, July 24th for your essay reviews.

We look forward to another successful year! If you have questions, check out our "How it Works" section, or send us an email at essaycritique@gmail.com.

Thanks,
Tim Power

For those who didn't make it this year...

2010-02-28T16:30:00.000-08:00

Folks,

A number of you worked very, very hard towards your MBA application, applied to your dream schools and for whatever reason, didn't get in. Here are some thoughts from one of our alums who was dinged everywhere with his first application but got in as a reapplicant...

"First of all, I know how much it hurts. This is what you've wanted your whole life, or at least, the majority of your adult life, and now that it didn't quite work out, you have no idea what to do. Easier said than done, but look ahead. Here are the options you have:

1. Reapply in 2010

Apply in 2010 - Round 3 to a few schools that you like
Reapply - Many, many reapplicants are admitted - I was, much to my absolute surprise
Gives you time to strengthen your candidacy and plan a solid reapplicant strategy
Effort as a reapplicant is generally lesser than the first time you apply
Demonstrates that you really want to go to B-school
In the grand scheme of things, one year really isn't a long time
You know your fate by December 2010 or March 2011 (Round1 or Round2) - not that far away!
Suggestion for 2nd year Reapplicants: If you really want to go to B-school and have applied to H/S/W two years in a row, think about applying to the other "big" schools - Booth, Kellogg, Fuqua, Ross - all fantastic programs.

2. Rethink it later this year

Re-evaluate work and your personal life in June / July this year and decide where you stand
Is this something you really want? Maybe not? Maybe the 2 years and the $ are not worth it for your situation after all?
If it is something you want, where should you really apply? Where do you have a good shot at getting in? Give it some thought and plan a solid reapplicant strategy

3. Forget about it

Look around you at the successful people around you - you'll realize that very few of them have MBA degrees
No one needs an MBA degree to succeed -- and this is not the end of the world
Consider the part time and executive programs - wouldn't it be nice to keep earning as you study?
A few years later, you might look back and think this was the best decision you ever made

When I was dinged, nothing anyone said was any consolation for me. I reapplied and got in, but never really forgot how much it hurt when I didn't. Hang in there, and figure out which of the three above you wanna do.. it's really not as bad as you think."

Wondering what to do next? Consider our alum consulting service - write to us at essaycritique@gmail.com

MBA Consulting FAQ

2010-02-28T14:20:00.000-08:00

1. What is the MBA Consulting Service?
Based on our experience, MBA applicants are all different in their needs. Many have asked us if we will help them pick the right schools based on their application, review their resume or just general questions about how to represent a project at work. Whether you have a quick question or need application definition and structuring help, you can now buy time with an MBA alum for this purpose.

2. How do you decide how much time my request will take?
When you send us your request (e.g. help me pick the schools I should apply to), we mutually agree on how much time that will require from the alum. Our hourly rate is then applied to the number of minutes that the task requires.

3. What if I have a quick question that will take 10 minutes? Will the alum answer it?
Sure, as long as it is a reasonable question that we think will take only a few minutes to respond to, we'll take these types of queries too.

4. I would like complete application assistance - right from picking schools, writing essays, resume review, etc. Can you help?
Yes, we can - send us an email at essaycritique@gmail.com and we'll be happy to discuss your requirements.

MBA Mock Interview FAQ

2010-02-28T13:40:00.000-08:00

Why Do A Mock Interview?

The key to successful interviewing is to be self aware and practice, practice, practice. We've done real interviews for our B-Schools in the past and know what to look for. Our feedback is detailed and dispassionate and designed to help you project yourself as a candidate that the interviewer will root for.

1. How quickly can an interview be scheduled?
An interview with one of the alums can be scheduled as early as within 24 hours. If we are heavily booked, we'll work with you to find an urgent slot.

2. When are interviews conducted?
Most mock interviews are conducted either on weekdays, after 5 pm Eastern Time or on weekends at several times during the day. If you would like to schedule a time besides this, we can work with you to find something.

3. How are mock interviews conducted?
Mock interviews are conducted over the phone, or over webcam using Gmail's video / voice functionality - the choice is your and based on your preference and accessibility. Detailed instructions are sent out once the interview is scheduled.

4. Do you conduct mock interviews for applicants from outside the US?
Yes, we have conducted mock interviews for potential candidates from all over the world

5. How long does an interview last? How and when is feedback provided?
Interviews last for 30 minutes, after which the interviewer provides feedback and answers questions for about 15 minutes. If you want written feedback, you can opt to buy this for an additional $30.

6. Are interviews conducted for a specific school?
Most interviews are conducted for a specific school but we also conduct "generic interviews" if you are interviewing at multiple schools and don't want to do a separate interview for each one.

7. Can I request which alum conducts my mock interview?
Yes. If you are interviewing at Wharton, for instance, we will get our Wharton alum to do the interview or another alum who was successful interviewing at Wharton.

More questions? Email us at essaycritique@gmail.com

More Interview Tips from Recent Interview Experiences

2010-02-21T20:26:00.000-08:00

Folks,

Based on what we are hearing from our clients who are interviewing at HBS, Stanford, Wharton, Ross, Duke, Booth, Kellogg, LBS, etc., some new interview tips for you.

Before you go, a few reminders to be prepared...

- To speak to each experience on your resume in detail, if asked to, and don't be caught by surprise when asked to deep dive on a extra curricular hidden away at the bottom of your resume
- To introspect and explain what your REAL weaknesses are when asked - 7 of 10 people say they "over commit" and are "perfectionists"
- For a probing / not so casual interview, especially if you are interviewing with Ad Com at any school
- To discuss why you chose the academic track that you did or the undergraduate university that you did
- To discuss why you switched careers or companies if you did
- To explain your short term and long term goals in the context of your experiences
- To explain a major accomplishment in any specific role
- To discuss behavioral situations that applied in various professional and community experiences - e.g., tell me about a time when you faced conflict in company xyz

Hope this helps!

HBS Interview Experience and Tips

2010-02-19T09:01:00.000-08:00

Over the last few weeks, a number of you wrote to us asking if the HBS alum could post a blog on the HBS interview experience so here it is...

"The HBS interview is not the Wharton interview - don't go in expecting a casual conversation that you can drive. Go in expecting an interview that will be driven mostly by the interviewer. Expect them to be taking notes and assessing you during the interview. Expect a few tough questions - also, expect that you will get almost no encouragement from the interviewer while you are speaking. Of course, it could turn out that your experience is much more casual than this, but we would encourage you to go in expecting this.

The interviewer will know you, your profile, your essays and your resume before you even step in to the room. They will look to see if they hear the same person that they read about - so be sure to stay authentic and true to the voice that you reflected in your application.

There could be one or maybe more deep dives into your resume - be prepared with at least a few snippets or phrases that you want to cover when a question like this comes up for any of the experiences you have on your resume. Same with questions about your undergraduate education. Expect a few behavioral questions too.

HBS interviewers are either AdCom or a few select alumni so they are experts are doing this (vs. interviewing with students at some other schools). Walk in confident, but not arrogant, and describe your experiences with humility. Show your personal side and give the interviewer something to remember you by when they are done at the end of the day.

Don't forget to Practice, Practice, Practice - webcam, mirror, mock interview with family / friends (and us!). Good luck!"

To do a mock interview with a HBS alum, send us your preferred time slots (EST) in an email at essaycritique@gmail.com

Wharton Interview Tips

2010-01-26T06:54:00.001-08:00

A few tips and guidance from our reviewers, two of whom interviewed successfully at Wharton:

"First, let me clarify - at Wharton, unlike other schools, the interview won't keep you out of the school. However, it is obviously one of the many things that counts towards the strength of your application and can come down on either the "Yes" or "No" side of your decision heavily. So it's key to be prepared.

The style is almost always conversational - regardless of who you interview with. Your answers to the 'script questions' should be authentic, well thought out and prepared - Why Wharton, Why MBA, Why Now, ST / LT Goals, Walk through your resume, etc. Prepare these in front of a mirror / webcam - you have no idea useful this can be! Even better, do a mock interview with us or with someone else.

For the behavioral / leadership / teamwork questions, have a few thoughts in your mind that you can pull out and use if the opportunity presents itself. Know yourself, know the school, know your story. Be friendly, humble and project your accomplishments without coming off as arrogant. Body language is important!"

To do a mock interview with a Wharton alum, send us your preferred time slots (EST) in an email at essaycritique@gmail.com. To get our blog discount, mention WHDISC in your email.

Ross Interview Guidance

2010-01-19T07:32:00.001-08:00

As the interview invites start to roll for Ross Round 2, here are some useful tips from one of our reviewers who successfully interviewed at Ross:

"The great thing about interviewing at Ross is that there are a few questions you absolutely know you will be asked. Be fully prepared to answer:

- Walk me through your resume / background
- Why MBA? Why Now?
- Why Ross (being prepared for this is critical)
- What will you bring to Ross?

Besides these questions, you will be asked a couple of behavioral questions - describe a team experience, challenge you have faced, mistake you made, failure, confrontational situation, disagreement with a colleague, etc.

Quite frankly, the answer to the "core" questions above are very important and you should spend the majority of your time practicing and re-practicing those answers so that you know clearly what your story is and how you are going to communicate it.

There is a fine line between communicating your story and sounding arrogant so be careful not to cross it. Also, you should have a clear idea of what you will be involved in when you get to Ross and how. "

Between the hours of 7 - 10 pm EST, our reviewers are now conducting thirty minute mock interviews. Mention ROSSDISC when you contact us and get a discount for reading this blog!

Mock Interviews by H / S / W Alums

2010-01-16T15:46:00.000-08:00

Starting Monday, January 18th, our four reviewers will conduct mock interviews between the hours of 5 - 11 pm Eastern Time on weekdays and for a few hours on the weekends.

The thirty minute interviews will be conducted via phone or webcam and reviewers will provide a detailed analysis of your responses and your body language / non-verbal communication right after the interview. If these timings don't work for you (or if you don't want a live interview), we are also offering an analysis of a recorded interview.

Interviews will tailored to the school that you are interviewing at and feedback will be provided based on the school's requirements.

Why do a mock interview?
You've gotten this far, so don't stumble now. Practicing is the key to successful interviewing - and what better way to do this than with people who've been in your shoes not too long ago? The feedback you get will be detailed and will include suggestions for improving your verbal and non-verbal communication.

Interested? Send us your details and preferred time slots at essaycritique@gmail.com

HBS Essay - Career Vision

2010-01-12T05:58:00.001-08:00

A number of you have written with questions about HBS and it's "Career Vision / Why is it meaningful to you" essay. We realize this is a hard question so here are some guidelines you can follow -

"To describe your career vision, think long term - it is important to articulate to HBS AdCom where you see yourself over the long term. In many essays that we read, this career vision seems unrelated to your past experiences - and while it is alright to want to make a career change, it is equally important to highlight why this career change is your career vision e.g., if you are in Technology and describe your career vision as a leader in the Microfinance sector, it is critical to highlight how this became your goal.

To describe why this vision is meaningful to you, you can concisely describe past personal or professional experiences that make this vision relevant. Especially if your vision is a "popular" MBA vision (e.g., entrepreneurship), try to highlight why this is different for you by using this "meaningfulness" criteria.

We also see a number of applicants try to force fit the "Why HBS" angle into this answer. It is alright to include this component if it makes sense in the context of your essay and story, but not required - do not force fit it if it means compromising other parts of the essay"

Pet Peeve Series: Will vs. Would

2009-12-30T13:49:00.001-08:00

How many times have you used "would" in your essay instead of "will" and vice versa? If you don't know, you're not alone. This is one of the most frequent language errors on the essays we critique, so we wanted to set the record straight.

There is, in fact, a significant difference between the two - here is a self explanatory summary of the difference (courtesy of a public web source):

1. Would and will are both auxiliary modal verbs (yes, we know you don't care about this one)

2. Will is used to talk about definite future actions - quick decisions, promises, offers and a likely prediction

3. Would is used to talk about: invitations, requests, asking permission, talking about preferences and making arrangements.

If that isn't clear enough, here are some essay style examples to illustrate:

Incorrect: "At Wharton, I would participate in the GCP.. " - Will you? Then say you WILL.

Incorrect: "I will like to lead the Consulting club.." - You are stating a preference - you WOULD like to.

Need more clarity? Write to us, we'll be happy to help!

5 Common Essay Mistakes

2009-12-28T12:46:00.000-08:00

As we go through the many essays we review, themes emerge and we see a few common mistakes repeated several times. We thought it might be useful for R2 applicants to use this list to review their essays:

1. Answering a Different Question - As simple as this sounds, we have found that a number of essays submitted to us actually answer a different question than what is being asked. The most plausible reason for this is because a lot of applicants actually identify the parts of their personality and professional experiences that they want to demonstrate first, and then figure out how to "force fit" these experiences into the essay questions. The best way to avoid this mistake? Do it the right way - think of the question, and then write the answer, not the other way around.

2. Skimming over the Details - "That day, I learned how collaboration and teamwork are critical to leadership...". Any time you have one of these "I realized / learned / found out" statements, double check to make sure that before or after you have supporting details that explain why or how you realized what you did. The supporting information should naturally lead the reader to the conclusion that you are then stating.

3. Distracting Creative Imagery - "Beads of sweat dotted my brow as I lifted the rusty hammer to hit the moss covered..".. Great for a fiction novel, not so great for a business school application. We have seen a number of essays which are fun to read because they are written so well - unfortunately, they're just not written for an application. Especially all you very gifted writers out there, try and keep a check and keep the language simple.

4. Language, Grammar - If English isn't your first language, invest a lot of time in polishing the language and grammar in your essays. While a lot of people think it is OK to write in loose language if you are an international applicant, remember that you are competing with other international applicants who may not have this problem. As long as it feels like you have taken the effort to polish the language, you'll be in good shape.

5. Overtly glorifying your accomplishments - Essays are all about you and your achievements. We get that. At the same time, if you were a first year analyst in a MBS group in an investment bank, don't say you helped your organization battle the credit crisis (if you didn't). State your accomplishments as is, and they will sound great. In an attempt to magnify accomplishments, we have seen a lot of essays that lose their authenticity and credibility.

Hope this helps! If you have something else you'd like to see covered here, send us an email.

Top 10 - What Not To Do

2009-12-23T00:45:00.000-08:00

You've seen a large number of posts from us and many others on what you should do with your essays. Knowing what not to do is probably as important, if not more, than what to do...

So, DON'T:

1. Exceed the word count

2. Use "I realized" ad nauseum - we actually have a tool that counts what we call absolutely overused essay phrases and this is top of the list..

3. Gloss over the details - the AdCom is more interested in understanding the specifics of what you did than the broad, high level generalizations that you felt during the situation you are describing

4. Say "I was enchanted" or enraptured or captured or any such magical sounding verb - c'mon, were you really?!

5. Suggest that you were in the epicenter of the financial crisis and helped solve it - unless you really did.

6. Say you volunteered or are a 'community service' type of guy if you are not. If you are, say where, when, how and how much.

7. Use every essay to talk about your career. You need at least one "personal" essay, if not two (depending on the school that you are applying to)

8. Blame everyone but yourself in your 'failure' essay. Even though you might not think you have, revisit it - we can't state how many people do this because its embarrassing.

9. Ignore the question. As plainly obvious as this might sound, after you have written your essay, re-read your answer once to only check for this - have you answered each component of the question that is asked and done it justice?

10. State the obvious. Let your discussion of situations and experiences naturally lead the reader to your conclusions - e.g., after describing a particularly challenging time in your life, don't say "this experience was extremely challenging" - they get it.

General Essay Guidance

2009-12-19T12:29:00.000-08:00

A few general instructions that apply to all Business School essays...

1. Follow the instructions - Stay within the word count (if you are 5 words over, you can edit 5 words away no matter what), follow the font and line spacing instructions and any specific submission instructions such as putting your name on the top of each page, etc. Look for these instructions because sometimes they're not easy to find.

2. Be yourself - Re-read your essays and make sure you hear your own voice. Don't try to package yourself into someone who you think will be accepted. The AdComs are experts at detecting these "packaged" essays and will not let them pass, even if you have outstanding academic and professional qualifications.

3. Get your essays reviewed! You might think this is biased coming from me, but seriously, get your essays read by somebody besides the people who know you. Your family and friends hear your voice and know a lot about you besides what's in the essay, so they view it very differently than the AdCom would. Get your essays reviewed by a third party (try us or try someone else) - it will be worth it, especially given the time you have already put into them. Ideally, this independent party should be B-school students or alums themselves.

4. Use the optional essay only if you need to - For schools that give you an optional essay to describe anything that may not already be covered, use it only if you must - otherwise, let it go.

Wharton Round 2 Essay Guidance

2009-12-19T12:23:00.000-08:00

1. Goals / Why Wharton: Wharton changed the prompt of this essay this year to include their own goal statement to prompt applicants to think creatively about their strategic goals and how it will impact their worlds.

When writing this essay, try to talk through your professional and personal experiences and how your goals came about from these experiences and why you are committed to these goals. Go on then to talk about why an MBA now, and why Wharton. Make a clear linkage between your short term and long term goals and how Wharton's specific components are going to help you achieve the goals.

DON'T: Try to force fit yourself into someone that wants to make a difference in the global community and wants to change the world if your prior experience does not suggest any efforts to do this. They don't want grandiose, they want simple, committed people who know what their goals are.

2. Adapting to people different than yourself: Think creatively here - you don't have to talk about diversity from a geographic, regional or race perspective. Diversity can be from age, professional experiences or even general living environments.

Try not to make up a story about your travels / understanding of various cultures, unless you really have substantive experiences to share. This one is hard, so invest time into it.

3. Failure: This is a critical question and will reveal a lot about you. Be man (or woman) enough to discuss HOW you failed (not just what happened as a result of the failure).

Use as many words to talk about what you did wrong (and re-read it to make sure you are not diverting the blame to others) and what you learned about yourself and what impact it had on you. Again, keep it real - this is the essay that can truly expose your natural personality, for better or worse.

Michigan Ross - Fall 2010 Essay Tips

2009-12-19T11:00:00.000-08:00

A few tips from our reviews on Michigan Ross Essays:

1. Briefly describe your short-term and long-term career goals. Why is an MBA the best choice at this point in your career? What and/or who influenced your decision to apply to Ross?

Before you start writing this essay, create a map for yourself. Link your professional and personal experiences of the past to how you got to where you are now and why you think an MBA is the best thing for you at this point in your career. These experiences should lead the reader to the natural conclusion that an MBA would be the idea thing for your career right now.

Then, think through your short term and long term goals (don't forget either one) - and do it at a level of specificity that makes the reader believe that you have invested time in this self reflection. A lot of people tell us - "I don't know what I want to do yet!" Well, if there's one thing that you could do of the many that you want to do, what would it be?

Then lay out why Ross. For this piece it is important that you go a step beyond what jumps out at you from their website - go through specific programs and parts of their curriculum and link them to your goals. Discuss which programs or people that you have met or spoken to that caused you to consider Ross as a top school.

Your entire essay should appear to have a single theme - your past experiences, why MBA now, goals and Why Ross pieces should all appear tightly integrated with each other.

2. Describe your most significant professional accomplishment. Elaborate on the leadership skills you displayed, the actions you took and the impact you had on your organization.

First, let's remind ourselves - this question asks for THE most significant professional accomplishment. It's best to stick to one experience and describe it in detail. Lay out what the situation was and how it became an opportunity for you to demonstrate your leadership skills.

Describe what you did at a detailed level - e.g., don't say "I identified new ways for the group to collaborate" without calling out what these methods were. Your audience is very interested in learning how you achieved what you did, and not just what the impact of your actions were.

As far as impact goes, remember to include both short term and long term (if any) benefits. Describe the business, people, process and technology benefits that your actions brought about within the organization.

3. If you were not pursuing the career goals you described in Question 1, what profession would you pursue instead? (for example, teacher, musical, athlete, architect, etc.) How will this alternate interest contribute to your effectiveness in solving multi-disciplinary problems?

This is your opportunity to expose your personal side and endear yourself to your readers - don't let it go by without making an impression. Think back to when you were younger - what did you see yourself being before you knew about the consulting or investment banking professions?

Think through your personal experiences - has someone - a teacher, for instance, touched you in a way that inspired you to be who you are today? Is that something that you'd want to do for others?

Finally, explain how this interest will contribute to your success as a leader who will be creative and multi-faceted to solve the many challenges that will come your way.

4. Describe your experience during a challenging time in your life. Explain how you grew personally, either despite this challenge or because of it.

Again, another opportunity to expose your personal side to AdCom. We like to see personal experiences here, rather than professional, because the first two really do give you a lot of opportunity to discuss your professional experiences. However, if you think your professional experience was a really trying time through which you learned a lot, by all means, use it.

Once you have the situation picked out, describe why this was challenging. What may seem obvious to you may not be to the reader - explain what the challenges meant for you on a day to day basis and why you consider this one of the most difficult periods of your life.

Whether you eventually conquered (or "won" in some way) makes no difference here. Don't try to force fit a "I overcame it by.." - you don't have to. It's OK if you don't have a win story here. What's important is that you discuss very openly and clearly what you took away from the experience. How did your personality change after this incident(s) occurred? How did your attitude towards other people or an organization change? What would you do differently if you were faced with a similar situation in the future?

You don't have to answer each of these questions, but think of them as a checklist that you go through in your mind as you write your answer down.

Good luck, folks - look forward to reviewing some more of your essays.

MBA Essay Review FAQ

2009-12-05T15:32:00.000-08:00

Why Should You Get Your Essays Reviewed?
First, because your essays are the only "differentiator" in your application. Second, because we give you the AdCom's perspective on your essays - unlike your family and friends, we view your essays through an impersonal lens, just like the AdCom does.

1. What does your review include?
A typical "single-essay" review has three major components - structural, content and language. Our reviewers' commentary will include suggestions for changing the structure of a sentence or paragraph or the entire essay, substance of the essay (does it answer the question and does it work?) and English language style and grammar corrections. They also frequently suggest word changes or phrase changes where appropriate. Reviewers also look for alignment with the school's requirements - word count, font size, spacing, etc. when they review your essay. For each essay, you can expect overall comments from the reviewer as well as detailed tracked changes in the document.

For a "set of essays", besides everything described above, the reviewer also provides overall comments on whether the essays fit together and how impactful your overall storyboard will be for your audience. As an example, they might ask you to stress more on personal vs. business experiences or encourage you to discuss a facet of your life in a little more detail. We do not write essays or provide "templates" for essays. We are only helping you project yourself and articulate your unique story in a way that is compelling for the audience - i.e., the Admissions Committee.

2. Is it one review or can we go back and forth with the reviewer?
Depending on the "level of completion" of the essay (i.e., how ready it is to submit), the reviewer may offer you a repeat review either free of charge (if it is very close) or at a nominal fee.

3. What makes you different from admissions consultants?
First, we are NOT admissions consultants. We don't tell you which schools to apply to, or where you will fit best, or whether you should apply to business school at all. Second, our four reviewers are from three schools - Wharton, HBS and Stanford. All four are either students or alums. Third, our rates are not ridiculous. We don't think anyone should pay an arm and a leg to get help with their application and our rates are very reasonable and cover the cost of our reviewers' time.

4. Why are B-school students from these schools doing this? Don't they have high paying jobs?
Yes, they do. For all but one of our reviewers, this is a part time job. Why do they do this? A few reasons - (1) to earn extra cash (2) to give some of this extra cash, rather than their salary, to their favorite charitable organizations (3) to help prospective students in their applications. Our reviewers' work experience includes Finance, Management Consulting, Not for Profit and Operations & Technology.

5. Are essays reviewed by the alums of the same school? i.e., will a Wharton alum review my Wharton essay?
We have a scheduler (who also writes this blog!) who schedules time on the calendar of the reviewers to review essays. I try very hard to assign the essays to the school alum. As you can imagine, especially as we near a deadline, this becomes a little challenging, but I can say we have a pretty good track record of being able to do this.

6. What if my school's deadline is earlier than 72 hours? Will you accommodate an urgent request?
Ask us. We'll try our best to accomodate your request. In the peak of busy season, there may be an additional fee associated with these requests.

7. Why do you review essays? Why are essays important?
Every year, thousands of applicants with incredible professional and academic qualifications and high GMAT scores get rejected from the best business schools. We believe the ONLY differentiators in an application is the essays. It can make or break your application and be the deciding factor into getting into a school of your choice. This is especially true if you come from a "classic" business school applicant demographic.

8. I don't see any testimonials here. Do you have satisfied customers?
Yes. Testimonials are pointless - anyone can make them up. We have several extremely satisfied customers and would be happy to put you in touch with some who have volunteered to recommend our services.

9. What is your success rate? How many of the essays you review actually "make it"?
We don't track success rates. For the same reason that we don't put testimonials on our website. We can say that our customers have been happy enough to come back to us for a second and third set of essays for various schools because of their satisfaction with the first set of school essays.

10. How do you maintain such low rates?
We don't do this for a living (which doesn't mean we aren't very good at it). We charge what we think is a reasonable charge for the reviewers time and doesn't break the wallet for applicants. Also, we don't maintain a fancy website and don't have a physical office to pay for.

11. Will my essays ever be shared in a public forum?
No. We enter into an explicit confidentiality agreement with you when your order is confirmed that your essays (in whole or part) will never be shared with anyone except the reviewer for the purpose of reviewing only.
12. Can I see a sample of your work?
Sure. Send us a request at essaycritique@gmail.com and we'll send you a mock up of our work. We don't share actual samples of work because of the confidentiality clause in Q. 11.

13. How do I send my payment?
Via Paypal - it is secure, fast and easy.

14. Can I try your services before I send you a set of essays?
Yes. Via the $50 single essay package. We do strongly believe, however, that the $150 package is our best value for money.

15. Can I speak to my reviewer live after I get comments?
You can request this and we'll try our best to accommodate the request. Often, people don't need this because the reviewer's comments are VERY detailed in the document.

16. What format should I submit my essays in? Do I email them to you?
Any format compatible with Word - RTF, doc, docx, Open Office, Google docs are all acceptable. If you only have PDF, we'll work with that too. Yes, email them to us at essaycritique@gmail.com

17. How much before a school deadline should I submit the essays?
Technically, we ask for 72 hours. However, because we can get very busy right before deadlines, we highly recommend giving us a week before the deadline.

18. I asked my mom and friends to review my essays? Is it still helpful for me if you look at them?
Yes - family and friends view you through a different lens. They hear your essay as though you are telling them, not one of ten thousand applicants that they don't know. We give you the independent, third party review that is critical because that's how you will be viewed by AdCom.

19. How do I know you're good and will be helpful?
You won't know until you try us - so please give us a shot. We look forward to working with you and helping you along the journey.

We look forward to working with you!