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MBA ESSAY ANALYSIS 2018-2019

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. Introduction

II The Analyses
Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)
Columbia (CBS)
Cornell (Johnson)
Dartmouth (Tuck)
Duke (Fuqua)
Harvard (HBS)
INSEAD
London Business School (LBS)
MIT (Sloan)
Northwestern (Kellogg)
NYU (Stern)
UC Berkeley (Haas)
UCLA (Anderson)
UNC (Kenan-Flagler)
University of Chicago (Booth)
University of Michigan (Ross)
UT Austin (McCombs)
UVA (Darden)
UPenn (Wharton)
Yale (SOM)

The Optional Essay

The Reapplicant Essay
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INTRODUCTION

We might be biased, but this is our favorite part of the B-School application process at
Admissionado: Essay Analyses.

This is your chance to take your past achievements, along with your business hopes
and dreams, and... articulate them. This is your chance to knock the admissions
committee off balance, and force them to take notice. Of what, exactly? Of your
prospects of being a future success, pure and simple. The better able you are at making
your success feel inevitable, the better your chances of admission.

In this guide, we will take you through each of the suggested prompts from top MBA
programs and, like surgeons, cut them open and look deep inside. We'll decrypt the
wording and offer insights and strategies on how best to approach each option.

As always, if you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us. We'd love to help.

info@[Link] 866-409-4753
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CARNEGIE MELLON (TEPPER)

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CARNEGIE MELLON (TEPPER)

At Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School, we love to
tell our story. Below is your chance to tell yours. Please
select only ONE of the options below to complete the essay
requirement (maximum 300–350 words).

Not only is it "the" essay requirement, it's a lean 300-350-word ditty. Which means,
they're looking at mostly other stuff, folks. Resume, GMAT, LORs, etc. But that doesn't
mean they're ignoring this one either. Part of the strategy here is gonna be picking the
prompt where you can deliver a knockout blow. If you're a fan of Admissionado's, and
who isn't, you may have heard us talk about the "Greatest Hits" approach to answering
application essays, or preparing for interviews, etc. The idea is, load your chamber with
only the stories that reveal your strongest traits, assets, achievements, etc. Then,
working backwards from there, find the essay prompt that provides the most elegant
opportunity for you to use that story. Don't do it in reverse order, and pick a nice-
sounding prompt that leads you ultimately to tell your 4th best story, when you only
have ONE SHOT as you do here. See the difference? Whatever you do, figure out a way
to get to tell your BEST story. Period.

We'll break each one down now to help you frame whatever your A-story ends up
being, for maximum impact.

Option #1: Carnegie Mellon University is an institution that

never stops looking and moving ahead, pioneering the next
way forward with technology, business and research to
answer questions big and small. Personally or
professionally, in what way have you been a pioneer?

It's a big word, gang. Pioneer. Not to be taken lightly. To be a pioneer, you need to have
been the first at something we now take for granted. Something useful, important, etc.
Think about that. If you were the very first person EVER... to jump up and down and
throw an egg against the wall and have it not break while shouting "Go Red Sox!" ... um,
congratulations? You may very well be the very first person to have ever blazed that
trail, but sorry sweetheart, there isn't a single person behind you, following you in your
footsteps. This may make you ........ "special"? But it doesn't make you a pioneer.

Similarly, you may have created an unbelievably incredible device that allows you
search the web 100x faster than anyone else, and download and upload things 100x
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faster than anyone else. Congrats, that may make you "better at making that machine
that already exists... work quickly..." but it doesn't make you a pioneer.

So, it needs to be both those things. You need to have been the first to do it, and enough
people need to have been excited about it that they care that you did it. Now, how
narrow is that definition here? Maybe not quite so tight. If you were the first person to
have done something WITHIN YOUR COMPANY, even if that thing had been done
elsewhere... that may indeed make you a "pioneer... at your company, in a very
particular context." "We'll allow it." Don't get too hung up on that definition, but keep it in
mind all the same. It's useful.

Okay, so, look at your greatest hits lineup. Looking specifically at your top two or so
"things you'd ever wanna talk about in your b-school application." Is there an aspect of
your process, or achievement, that made you a pioneer in some way? If the answer is a
clear and emphatic no, then skip-a-dee-do-da to the next prompt. If there ARE elements
of pioneering, halt! Let's dig deeper.

• First, we will need to establish the thing that needed doing, and why.
• Next, we need to explain either (1) how others had tried to tackle it and failed, and
why they failed, or (2) that no one else had ever CONSIDERED tactic X.
• Then, you need to explain HOW you arrived your decision to pursue tactic X, and
why, and then... how you went about executing on it. Tell us what made it
uniquely challenging. Hopefully this is the part where there's no "book" you can
consult because such is the nature of pioneers... they're the first ones doing it, by
definition. So, help us understand the peculiarities of the most challenging
problems, and how you went about untangling them.
• Finally, and this is a strange way to end an essay, but it works nicely here... tell
us what was at stake had you NOT pursued this thing. Presumably you had
something to lose, and you forged ahead anyway. Walk us through the
significance of it all, and why the risky attempt was worth it to you, win or lose.

This is the version where you have ONE pioneering story to talk about. If, somehow,
you have MORE than one, that's a whole other thing. If your resume is LOUSY with one
pioneering story after another, allow THAT to take center stage. Your task there will be
to establish that being a pioneer is something (1) you seek, (2) are good at, (3) is a
defining characteristic, etc. But you'll need to prove it. So you'll want at LEAST two
examples. Three is usually a solid number. If you have just two, it MAY be best to go
deep on the better one of the two. If you have more than two, then you may wanna
"make a thing of it" and assert yourself as "Johnny Pioneer." Your structure there might
go something like:

• Example 1 – Diving right in, there was this time X needed doing and no one (1)
noticed that this was a problem, or (2) they noticed but didn't/couldn't do
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anything about it. Not me. I decided to act, and so here's how I figured out how to
solve the thing: X, Y and Z.
• Example 2 – Then, in a completely different setting, with completely different
circumstances, it happened again. In this instance... it was because of "some
other cause" that nothing was happening. But, again, I was most focused on
getting to the desired outcome, and was not scared off by the fact that it hadn't
been done before. So I just figured out how to do it, and did it.
• Example 3 – And again, here's a third example. Slight difference once more in
the circumstances and nature of the thing that needed doing and why nothing
had been done prior, but the one thing that binds ALL these stories together is
the idea that I could imagine the result and work backwards to forge a way
ahead. And did. Here's how that one worked.
• Button it all up with the common element being that you're a guy who isn't
afraid of "not having a rulebook to consult." But this is the part where you'll need
to get a little more specific and personal about what it is that compels you,
drives you, makes you tick. If you do this correctly, this paragraph should not
resemble a single other person's who attempts to answer this prompt.

Option #2: Amidst the ambiguous and unchartered nature of

change, Carnegie Mellon University students and alumni
rise above to envision and create. Discuss how you have
anticipated change in your professional life. In what ways
did you effectively collaborate to create your desired
outcome?

The keywords to home in on: "Ambiguous and unchartered nature of change."

"Anticipate." And then a strange one... "collaborate." We'll save "collaborate" to the end,
damnit Tepper! Let's focus on the other stuff instead, the main stuff.

The most important words to focus on here are the ones that are IMPLIED. "Discuss
how you have anticipated change" ... "that no one else anticipated" or "that others may
have anticipated but chose not to act on " ... and walk us through all the cool stuff that
happened after that. That's the real question. It's all about getting a sense of what you
might have keyed into that others didn't. Or ways in which you RATED the potential of
a particular change HIGHER than others, and were therefore prepared to respond when
it became a reality. This is about (1) paying attention. It's about (2) having a backup plan
mentality. (3) It's also about dealing with "non believers" whom you'll have to somehow
"get on your side." This is likely where the "collaboration" element kicks in.

In order for your story to really work here, though, you need to have anticipated
something that either (1) others didn't, or (2) chose to not take seriously. In either case,
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at some point when you made your concerns known, there must have been opposition,
which gives you two challenges now. Let's go through them.

Challenge #1 – Dealing with the "curveball." Something unanticipated was on its way,
and threatened to ruffle the plan you had in place. It would require adaptation,
changing the plan, possibly sunk costs, all sorts of stuff. But also...

Challenge #2 – There had to have been people who didn't believe you when you said
this storm was comin. Or who acknowledged that while the storm would indeed come,
it wouldn't throw the original plan off track. And you believed it would. And... in order to
meet the objective, you would need their buy-in at some point.

In order for this story to work best, you need to have gotten folks onto your side at a
moment that was INCONVENIENT for them to make that change. In other words, if you
anticipated a hurricane, but no one else believed you, and the hurricane did end up
coming... it doesn't really count if DURING THE STORM all the non-believers all of a
sudden line up to volunteer to hand out bottled water to folks who lost power. Of course
they'd do that. The real trick is in getting them to move to that position BEFORE the
storm hits, because you were able to pull that off tactically somehow. That's where
your chops as a businessman and as a communicator can be showcased. So remember
that the "change in attitude" of the person you've convinced needs to have occurred at a
moment that was not expected, and resulted from your persuasive talents.

So there's two pieces here, and you have 300-350 words. Here's how you can structure
this:

• Part 1 – Explain "the thing" and what "everyone saw and thought and expected."
Now quickly introduce the "unanticipated" thing YOU saw that others didn't, or
didn't care much about. In order for this story to hum, these need to be crystal
clear. Explain why it would be difficult to move these folks OFF their position,
what you had to risk if you were WRONG, etc. [75 words]

• Part 2 – Next, explain the tactics you employed to get people to collaborate with
you on your once-unpopular position. How did you move people from "disbelief"
to "belief"? Did you sputter along the way and get better at it over time? Walk us
through those decisions, and the reasoning, and what you're learning all the
while. [100–125 words]

• Part 3 – Now walk us through how you dealt with the actual unanticipated
thing, and what all was required in the form of tweaks and adjustments to the
original plan and why it was much harder than it would have been otherwise,
and how you were able to usher in success. [100–125 words]

• Part 4 – Briefly (don't dwell here), discuss some kind of shift in attitude that you
have toward PLANNING and FORECASTING and MODELING now that you've
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been through that version where the unexpected wreaked havoc on "the
original plan." Moving forward, how will that affect the way you "plan" for ...
anything? [50 words]

Option #3: At Carnegie Mellon University, our difference is

what we imagine for the world and how we answer its
challenges. What impact have you had on the world around
you?

Impact questions are tricky. You don't wanna overstate it, cuz if you're all jazzed about
Impact X, it's possible that someone else has made an even more substantial impact,
and not even noticed it. So, you need to toe the line between (1) humility, and (2)
awareness that you've made some kind of impact, which is almost inherently
contradictory to that. It's possible though.

First off, let's get inside "impact" itself. The best way to tackle this is to run two
scenarios in your mind:

Scenario 1 – The version where you were NOT AROUND to do whatever it is you did.
What happens in that version? Play out the results. Extend the timeline. Imagine "the
world" if you hadn't been around. Quantify it however you need.

Scenario 2 – Now, play out the version that should be more familiar, the one that
actually happened, where you DID the thing you did, which led to a DIFFERENT
outcome. Quantify THAT version as well.

Now you have two tasks. First up, we need to describe the DELTAS between those
scenarios: it's the stuff that resulted ON ACCOUNT OF YOUR INTERFERENCE. Task 1,
just... describe it. What it was. Don't comment on it yet, we just need to understand what
the "impact" was, at all, period.

Cool, now that we have a sense of the what, we need to get into Task #2, which is the
"who cares" piece. Why is this meaningful, desirable, better, etc.? Anyone can have
"impact" which leads to a different outcome. I'll show ya.

I'm gonna dump a tray of ice cubes somewhere. I could do it in the kitchen sink. Or I can
dump it off the balcony into the dirt patch next to my building. Are those two scenarios
different? Yep. In one scenario, a cup of so of frozen water is dumped into the plumbing
system, kinda like regular water is expected to be. In the other scenario, a bit of frozen
water finds its way outdoors, possibly to melt into the dirt. This ticks the "Task 1"
challenge above of "what's the difference." But... it most certainly fails "Task 2" which is...
does anyone care? Will there be a huge demand in the future for that guy to dump ice
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cubes outside versus in the sink? Probably not. The delta needs to matter to folks other
than you. This is key, and is one that most folks MISS.

One of the best ways to "prove" that this is a desirable thing is through its LONGEVITY,
lasting power, permanence. If the thing you introduced, or changed, continues to be in
effect, and continues to be creating the "impact" it did when you began, that's a fairly
decent indication that the change was a welcome one.

So, if you can satisfy all those conditions, you're in a great starting place. Now, let's
structure this bizzo.

• Part 1 – Establish the status quo. This is the way things were going BEFORE you
introduced "the change." What was happening, what was the result, and why
was this sub-optimal? What was either the PROBLEM with this, or the MISSED
OPPORTUNITY? Explain it. [75 words]

• Part 2 – Now, since we don't have much room to explore a ton else, let's skip to
THE THING you did that changed the game somehow, and led to a disruption to
that status quo. Explain it, and walk us through all the DELTAS between "what
was" and "what it changed to." [100 words]

• Part 3 – Next, prove to us that this was something people –– other than you ––
cared about, welcomed, appreciated, etc. There needs to be proof, and it can
come in a million different shapes and sized so you're on your own in finding
the supporting evidence for your particular story. Remember, one of the ways to
do this is to indicate the ways in which this change lasted BEYOND your initial
involvement. If that change was a one-off thing, that's not really impact. There
needs to have been a ripple effect that continues to this day, either because the
mechanism itself changed, or because the single impact of that one-off thing
continues to have an effect, which is also possible. Either way, prove that
anyone should care about this. [125 words]

• Part 4 – A cool way to button this up is to indicate somehow that your incentive
for participating in this impact was not entirely self-serving. Some selfishness
is unavoidable, so don't get too hung up on the purity test, but if there's a
version where your efforts were compelled by some kind of internal motor,
reveal it here. It will have the counterintuitive effect of convincing the adcom
that you're a guy/gal with an unwavering sense of follow-through, and for a
future player in the business world, that's a meaningful attribute. [50 words]

Optional/Re-Applicant
{As always, please go to our dedicated section on Optional and Re-Applicant essays}
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Quick word here, given that you only have 300-350 words total in the form of required
writing. As a twist to our normal recommendations on the Optional Essay, here, we
may recommend finding some ANGLE of your profile that hasn't been exposed... that
you think needs to be exposed. Now, you'll need a compelling REASON to air this, it
needs to not be a similar attribute to anything you've written about your main essay.
That'll just come across as weak. Best for this to be something unusual about your
profile that would move the needle somehow and make the adcom go "hunh, now that's
interesting," something they almost certainly WON'T get from perusing your resume,
LORs, or any other application materials. This is not an "anything goes" scenario, but
there is probably an angle that you can write about here that would help to fill out (and
"complexify") your profile. Think of it this way: they're gonna review all your stuff
WITHOUT this optional essay, and sketch a portrait of you. The thing you write about
here should AFFECT that sketch somehow. If it doesn't, skip it. If it does, find the most
surprising or unusual version and give it a shot.

This is of course if you have NO red flags to address as you would normally in an
optional section on a typical business school app.
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COLUMBIA (CBS)
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COLUMBIA (CBS)
Applicants must complete one short answer question and three essays.

Short Answer Question:

What is your immediate post-MBA professional goal? (50

characters maximum)

Examples of possible responses:

• “Work in business development for a media company.”

• “Join a strategy consulting firm.”
• “Launch a data-management start-up.”

That’s right, folks. 50 characters. This question used to be 200 characters. Then it was
100. A few years ago it was 75.

CBS is not fooling around – they want you to get to the point. And fast. 50 characters
isn’t dinner, a stroll around the park, a lovely nightcap against a backdrop of smooth
jazz, into “who knows.” It’s more… the 1-hour motel model. Lay it on em.

Perhaps the most liberating way to approach this is to see this NOT as an opportunity
to impress, but rather to inform. All they want is a RUDDER. To help frame the rest of
your essays. That’s all. It’s the equivalent of “state your name and occupation” – a
measure taken just so everyone has their bearings.

Ergo, don’t overthink it. The prize here is clarity, not intrigue. Don’t feel the pressure to
wow. And don’t waste precious air-time writing stuff like “My immediate post-MBA
professional goal is to…” because that would have been your entire response. 1-hour
motel, folks. Gittrdone. Resume-like brevity, but… good-resume-like CLARITY.

Once you lock your strategic application positioning in general, and develop a clear,
precise brand for what makes you the strongest possible applicant… just say it as
clearly and leanly as you can. From longer character allowances to now to 50, they’re
sending a message, which is that anything that gets in the way of our understanding of
what your immediate goal is, is simply unwelcome.

Got it? Noice. Onward...

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CBS Essay 1
Through your resume and recommendations, we have a
clear sense of your professional path to date. What are your
career goals over the next 3-5 years and what, in your
imagination, would be your long-term dream job? (500
words)

Same question as last year, only we're back to the 500 word maximum.

This is mostly a standard goals essay. But interestingly, they tweaked the question
from last year. Last year, they wanted you to split time between explaining your goals
and how you envisioned CBS helping you achieve those goals. This year they’ve
zapped that second piece out and replaced it with… doubling down on the goals
themselves. Neat. Let’s drill into that a bit, shall we?

First of all, they’ve made a point to steer you away from rehashing your résumé here.
“Because we can read, and have your résumé and recommendations in front of us… We
have a clear sense of your professional path to date. In other words, we get what you’ve
done up to this point (so please don’t waste our time by repeating that stuff here,
because you’ll be revealing just how much you don’t get that simple concept)”… is kinda
what the folks at Columbia Business School are really saying there. Now, there IS a
reason to slip in some of your achievements, but only to the extent that doing so
further CLARIFIES your goals and/or CONVINCES the reader that you have a shot at
succeeding AT achieving those goals (we’ll come back to that).

[They’ve also gone back to the tried-and-true 500-word limit, rather than leave it open
to 100-750, which we’re guessing ended up being 750+ every single time.]

Okay, so how to crush Essay #1 for CBS? Well, this may require some re-wiring of your
brain, so strap in.

You want to the reader to be utterly impressed, okay, we’ll grant you that. But HOW you
go about impressing him/her is where it gets tricky. Your instinct might be to impress
through pitching the coolest-SOUNDING job/plan. In other words, you may want to
tantalize these guys/gals with a killer tech idea; or something revolutionary; or
something so creative and unique, it stops them in their tracks. Nope. Don’t try to
impress through the plan. Instead, impress through the INEVITABILITY OF that plan. If
your background (and therefore your skill set, prior achievements, general career arc,
etc.) maps perfectly to the plan you’ve laid out for the next 3-5 years, you’re going to be
thought of as “bankable.”
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Think about it… business schools don’t just allow for your career goals to shift, they
fully expect them to. That’s often the whole point of business school: to prime “future
successes” to be as mighty as possible. What they want are SURE THINGS.

This should be a game-changer as you approach your essays. You’re no longer selling
“the buyer” on the quality of the plan itself, but rather, on your ability to pull that plan
off, because your background and your skill set, and your interests, and your future
aspirations, and your dedication to success are all in perfect alignment.

To put a fine point on it, the reader of the perfect CBS Essay #1 won’t say, “Wow, what an
impressive 3-5 year plan. I hope this kid succeeds!” The perfect essay elicits THIS
response: “Wow, this kid is gonna pull that plan off. Or any other plan s/he commits to.
Let’s go get them before someone else does.” See the difference?

Now as far as the long-term dream job is concerned, don’t just talk about what that job
is. Attack it from the angle of what changes (in the world, in others, etc.) as a result of
your succeeding IN that dream job. Let’s say your dream job is to be the future CEO of a
brand new game-changing telecom company. Don’t just tell us what that company
does, and what you imagine your role to be as CEO of that disrupting change agent.
Pitch us the DISRUPTION. Sell us on “the thing you dream will happen WHEN YOU’RE
SUCCEEDING.” If we buy into THAT, then we’re gonna want to help you get to that long-
term dream job…

As far as balance/structure goes, this will get you out of trouble for a decent first draft
(as always, remember that no two applicant essays need look alike–this is just a
general suggestion if you’re stumbling out of the cages):

• Sell us quickly on either a TEASER version of your long-term vision, or the

OPPORTUNITY you’re hoping to pop, or a PROBLEM that needs fixing. (50-75
words)
• Now, quickly catch us up to speed on what you’re up to now, and how you’re
hoping to push things forward in the next 3-5 years. (Important to forget
business school, for a second – pretend an MBA didn’t exist for the purposes of
this particular paragraph; just give us the 3-5 year plan.) But, don’t just give us
the step-by-step plan. Convince us that your skill set will allow you to transition
from wherever you are right now to step 1 of that plan, and then to step 2, and
then step 3, etc. This is the crux of it. Remember, it’s not the plan. It’s the
inevitability of your SUCCEEDING at it, that counts. (2 paragraphs, 150 words
apiece)
• Finally, expand the canvas to include your long term dream job, selling us on
“the result of your succeeding AT your dream job.” Sell us on your passion for
this thing. Sell on your confidence for why you’ll succeed. (100 words or so)
• Somewhere along the way, wherever it makes sense, it won’t hurt to layer in the
area or areas where you need some fortification (from, say, a top-notch business
school), in order to really achieve your goals, fully. (2 sentences, max)
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More important than nailing the structure on a first draft, is getting the foundation
correct. So focus on making a convincing argument that:

1. You have assessed your strengths and weaknesses with considerable thought
and insight, and
2. You have thought through your goals very carefully and have a clear sense of
risk, what’s realistic/not realistic, have a back-up plan if things don’t work out
exactly as you’d like, etc.

As long as you nail those two things, the rest (the rewriting process where it all starts
to tighten up and get sexy) will fall into place easily.

CBS MBA Essay 2

How will you take advantage of being “at the very center of
business”? Click photo. (250 words)

A return to a previous year's question. Love it when that happens.

This question is really asking "Do you fully understand the opportunity at hand?" Kinda
like: "Here's a magic lamp, you have three wishes, they can be anything... go." The guy
who TRULY "understands the opportunity" would say "My first wish is to be granted
UNLIMITED WISHES." The response DEMONSTRATES it.

When you're answering this question, you need to show us that you "get" why having a
business school in the heart of New York City is meaningful. But here's the twist... not
just meaningful for Joe Applicant. Meaningful for YOU. How will YOU take advantage of
it?

Actionable, practical, real-life, believable, tangible arguments folks. Not… “stuff

everyone knows about New York already but doesn’t demonstrate a connection to you
personally.” Don’t tell us that New York is the financial capital of the world. Show us—
instead—how that might affect your plans. Walk us through a hypothetical. Has NYC
already impacted you and can you show that while you're in business school, you'll
build on it further? Don’t just tell us what the opportunities are—don’t LIST stuff. We
know the list. Columbia knows the list. No one cares about the list.

In 250 words, there isn’t much room to faff. Walk us through one or two very tangible
examples of what may happen while YOU are at business school... in the epicenter of
business, and what's gonna happen as a result of that. Play it out, make us picture it. A
leads to B leads to C.
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Skin it another way: challenge yourself and imagine that several top cities (London,
San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, etc.) have comparably-ranked business schools. And
suppose you end up getting accepted to ALL of them. Why does the combination of (1)
YOU + (2) New York City lead to a more exciting OUTCOME? Whatever it is, prove it to
us, here, in 250 words.

Play out this hypothetical: Congratulations, you’ve been accepted to Stanford, Wharton,
and Harvard. But you’re gonna turn all three down because they all lack one thing: New
York City. Convince us that you’re the kind of guy who might actually turn down
H/S/W for this reason—it has to be specific as hell in order to pass the smell test.

Think back to chemistry. Reactivity. Explosions. Good stuff.

When you mix (1) YOU with (2) Some other business school that ISN'T in New York City...
there's a reaction. A great one. You may achieve an excellent version of your goals.

But it isn't EXPLOSIVE...

Instead, when you mix (1) YOU with (2) NEW YORK CITY....... S&$T EXPLODES. And that
"outcome" is better, cooler, more impressive, more meaningful, weighs more. Why?
How? Explain that delta HERE.

What can we learn about you based on this chemical equation New York City + You à
XXXX?
The absolute worst thing you can do is list attributed about the business opportunities
that abound in New York City. Similarly, we don’t want a retread of you and your goals
either (in isolation). We wanna know about the COLLISION of you and your goals ... and
NYC. Our safety goggles are on. Let’s the dangerous mixing commence.

CBS MBA Essay 3

Please provide an example of a team failure of which you
have been a part. If given a second chance, what would you
do differently? (250 words)

Not much room, so we need to get to the good stuff efficiently. Let's identify that FIRST,
and then work backwards.

"What would you do differently." This is where you need to focus. Did you catch the KEY
implication there? Whatever the "team failure" had been, the suggestion here is that
YOU, no matter how well you think you did with YOUR part, still had tons of agency to
affect the overall outcome. No such thing as you as an individual did an A+ on your
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piece, while the team failed as a whole. CBS would argue that each person, therefore,
failed in some way.

Love this mentality. Don't blame circumstance, or others, for a group failure. Even if
you THINK you did "your piece" 100% correctly, actually, you missed something that
could have "saved the team." Go back in time, as they suggest, and figure out what you
missed. The key to this exercise is to demonstrate your ability to step outside of
yourself (and your ego) and to optimize for a successful outcome. Are you able to ask
"what if I'd done this, what if I hadn't done that, what if instead of doing this, I'd done this
instead"? Are you able to risk exposing a prior decision as potentially... ill-informed?
Unwise? Amateur? If so, pat yourself on the back. You're proving to be a RESULTS guy.
If you're trying to impress CBS, that's how to do it. Show your analytical skills HERE by
dissecting the problem, exposing all possible flaws, missed signals, bad decisions,
wrong instincts, etc. and replay it all here with suggestions for ALTERNATE
approaches, and speculate on different outcomes, explaining WHY.

In order to do that, you'll need a good 150-200 words, which means that your SETUP
needs to be matter of fact. Consider this layout to skewer this question:

Section 1 – Explain the failure quickly, without much drama, just get us to a place
where we understand what was supposed to happen, and what didn't. We just need to
"get it." (50 words)

Section 2 – Here's what I think "I did ... wrong/sub-optimally" or "I could have done, but
didn't." Hash it out. The important part isn't the subject matter, it's the "how are you
dissecting it"? Think "case study" puzzles in consulting firm interviews. They don't give
a rat's ass about your answer, they just wanna see you "think out loud." They wanna
hear the way your GEARS work. This is what THIS section is about. Churn those gears,
on paper. Show us how you're breaking the problem down, explaining where your
actions (or inactions) were the causes that led to undesirable effects. Explain why
THESE alternate approaches would have changed things. (150-200 words)

Now, Section 2 (Paragraphs 2 and 3) can go a few different ways depending on your
particular story. Here's one example:

Paragraph 2: Here's all the stuff I missed that I realize looking back with an
analytical eye. (100 words)

Paragraph 3: And here's what MIGHT have happened (and why) had I replayed
it, knowing what I know now. (100 words)

Optional Essay
[Please see the section on Optional/Re-Applicant essays at the very end...]
 19

CORNELL (JOHNSON)
 20

CORNELL (JOHNSON)
Goals Statement
Use this short answer question to succinctly share your short and long term goals. If
invited to interview, you will have the opportunity to elaborate further and should be
prepared to connect your prior experience with your future aspirations.

"Connect your prior experience with your future aspirations." It's as though this was
written by a former Admissionado client. (Was it, Cornell? We salute you either way,
and couldn't have said it better ourselves!)

A statement of your goals will begin a conversation that will last throughout
admissions process and guide your steps during the MBA program and experience.
To the best of your understanding today, please share your short and long term goals
by completing the following sentences and answering the enclosed short answer
question (250 words maximum):

Immediately post-MBA, my goal is to work as a(n) ____[Role]____ at

___[Company]___within___[Industry]___.
Targeted Job Role:
Target Job Company:
Industry:

In 5 – 10 years post-MBA, my goal is to work as a(n) ____[Role]____ at

___[Company]___within___[Industry]___.
Targeted Job Role:
Target Job Company:
Industry:

How has your experience prepared and encouraged you to

pursue these goals?

Now it's getting a little creepy. It's one thing to be our fan, Cornell, but now you're
making us BLUSH. Again, we kid. What the minds at Cornell have done this year for the
Johnson School of Business essays is to almost force-feed PRECISION in your answers,
and steer you away from veering off into the "woops how'd I get here" abyss. So this
first "just fill in exactly what we tell you to fill in" section is the equivalent of the lawyer
in a courtroom drama interrupting a loquacious witness with "please just answer with
a simple 'yes or no.'" Translation: cuz that's all we need to know at this time.
 21

Fill out the top section, exactly as they ask. Don't elaborate, nuts and bolts folks. For the
250-word follow-up, they're FOCUSING you again. So, follow their lead, and commit
your response to proving the following TWO things:

[1] That your background (key career experiences to-date) has made you CREDIBLE in
whatever it is you're pursuing, that is, your prior experiences provide a logical basis to
assume success in achieving your future goals. To recap, Part 1 here is all about "where
in your background can we see that you've learned/earned/developed/mastered the
skills necessary?"

[2] Prove to us that your prior experiences have also COMPELLED you toward these
goals. It's one thing to have mastery in something that convinces us you can
THEORETICALLY succeed at some future stuff. But, do you even WANT to? Cuz if you
don't, none of it matters. It's like the dancing frog from the WB. Is that too old a
reference? Must be. Damnit. The point is, the second KEY component to all this is proof
that your engine is revved, and that there is some momentum toward some of this
stuff, with or without Cornell, with or without an MBA, with or without... really...
anything that should somehow attempt to stand in your way. Convince us you want it.
Show us when you went from either NOT being passionate about this thing to SUPER
passionate. Or the time you almost lost heart, but episode X breathed NEW LIFE into
your commitment. Or the things that simply INSPIRED you and fortified your resolve in
an additive kinda way along your journey. It's always helpful to consider all of this in
terms of "where is my passion today, where was it X years ago, and assuming my
passion is STRONGER today than before, when and how did that happen?" Try to pin the
evolution to some key moments, even if it's been gradual.

Two paragraphs here, you can even split em cleanly into:

• Paragraph 1 = Here's why I'm credible with respect to my goals, proof that I CAN
succeed at em.
• Paragraph 2 = Here's why I WANT to.

One last tip. Try to frame the "want" in terms of something more root-level than mere
success at the specific idea you talk about in your ST and LT goals. The assumption is
you might change your idea, so it's useful to see what makes you tick on a level that
encompasses these specific goals, but also speaks to a broader aspiration. One way to
test that, imagine yourself navigating through the Johnson MBA program and ...
changing industries altogether, and pursuing an entirely different track. Reread your
"how have your experiences motivated you to achieve your goals" response... it should
still mostly hold up. (Neat, right?)

[Cornell, we're warning you, if that shows up in next year's essays...]

 22

Impact Essay

This essay is designed to explore the intersection of engagement and community

culture. Whether during the program or following graduation, our students and
alumni share a desire to positively impact the organizations and communities they
serve. To help you explore your potential for impact, we encourage you to engage
with our students, alumni, faculty, and professional staff. You may choose to connect
with them via email or phone or in person during one of our on campus or off campus
events. As you seek their input and insight, please be respectful of their time and
prepare a few discussion points or questions in advance.

At Cornell, we value students who create impact. Please

indicate the opportunities for impact that you’ve identified
through engagement with our community and describe how
what you learned has influenced your decision to apply to
Johnson. (500 words maximum)

Johnson is looking to kick a little bit of ass. Maybe they're niggled by being ranked
lower than they believe they deserve. Maybe it's simply a mission to RISE UP for its
own sake. Regardless, it's clear that the way they wanna do that is by screening for
your SPIRIT DRAGON score with respect to Johnson specifically. The thinking being...
the more you're utterly DEVOTED to Johnson, and only Johnson, the more likely you'll
dig your heels in, and energize the guy next to you, and the gal across the way, and
through cohort cohesion, and passion, the likelihood for future success, and stronger
"word of mouth" for top talent to "also that for themselves" ... goes up.

Your mission here, like it or not, is to demonstrate (not argue)... demonstrate that you've
come to the CONCLUSION that the best version of your future self passes through the
Johnson MBA, and you've come to that conclusion over the course of some serious
research which includes some level of contact with folks who are at Johnson presently,
or alums in some capacity.

One way to be sure of someone's commitment is to apply Admissionado's famous "An

Inconvenient Test." Here's some background in case this is the first time you've heard
us reference this. It has to do with people behaving in unexpected and therefore
compelling ways. Imagine asking a waiter which dish he recommends, the lobster
(priced at $50) versus the pasta (priced at $25). If the waiter says, "Oh my god, you
absolutely MUST get the lobster, it's... amazing," one of TWO things is possible:

• Either he's being genuine, and it is in fact the superior dish

• Or, he stands to make more money for the restaurant, and possibly a bigger tip
for himself, and in fact, the lobster may be considerably WORSE than the pasta
 23

But what if he says "Stay away from the lobster, it's fine, but this pasta dish is the way
better choice." Think about what that says. He just recommended the LESS expensive
dish, which potentially earns him less money, and it also reveals a genuine knock
against his own restaurant's lobster dish. This is a recommendation made IN SPITE of
those other factors, a recommendation that was "inconvenient." Net result? You're more
likely to BELIEVE this guy.

Another example. Imagine a multimillionaire philanthropist who gives big money to

charity because he's such a wonderful person and a big believer in a particular cause.
Awesome, thank god for that guy, the money goes a long way, everyone wins. Quick
question, do you believe that this guy is GENUINELY interested in the cause of this
charity? Perhaps. But also perhaps not. Maybe it's a vanity thing. Maybe this rights
some wrongs he committed in business. Or, maybe he's genuine. The problem is, it's
hard to know.

Let's keep going though. Something happens, and the rich guy's income/money source
is GUTTED, significantly. What normally happens here? The funds to the charity
organization slow a bit, because he simply can't make those donations any more. This
is "expected." Whatever no big deal. Was he genuine? Or faking? Maybe he was genuine,
but now he can no longer make those sizable donations, everyone would understand.

But... what if the donations DIDN'T stop? And we found out that the rich guy actually
sold his yacht, and downsized his house, and sold his cards, in order to keep those
donations going? Now things are tilting HEAVILY in favor of "this guy is FOR REAL."
Why? Because that behavior is unexpected, inconvenient. That kind of "surprising
decision, response" by itself REVEALS something (or at least strongly suggests) true
motivation.

A Democrat endorsing a Republican tenet. A Pepsi spokesperson recommending Coke

to a dear friend. Inconvenient behavior is where it's at, folks. Aight so let's bring it back
around to the Johnson essay question.

Your response here MAY benefit from revealing either SKEPTICISM at the outset, or
simply LACK OF AWARENESS of the program. Either is a decent starting point. The key
is to show how that person was MOVED OFF OF THAT POSITION (call it Position 1) to
being surprised, more compelled, holy-shit-this-is-the-place-I-MUST-attend, etc. All the
way to the "Final Position" (right now, as you're applying) which is considerably
DIFFERENT from how you were at Position 1. See how that works? It isn't just a list of
conversations you had that impressed you or taught you about XYZ that map to your
goals somehow (weakly). It's about research and conversations that MOVED you from
being only slightly attracted to Johnson to being MORE attracted to it. We need to
understand the forces behind that movement, and the movement itself.
 24

Suppose you were actually SKEPTICAL about the program for whatever reason, and
now you are 180 degrees turned around. We believe THAT guy's supposed commitment
to Johnson over the guy that claims that he has always believed Johnson was the
greatest business school on Earth, even better than Harvard and Stanford! Gimme a
break. That other guy though, boy, talk about "inconvenient" to admit to being skeptical
about a school you're applying to... to their face. But, if you do it artfully, man, that can
end up VERY convincing.

A less drastic version is the one that starts out fairly eager, fairly curious, and ends up
FULLY CONVINCED. If that sounds like you, what were the precise moments where
those SHIFTS occurred, and can you explain why? Try to explain the MOVEMENT of
"strength of conviction." We're not even gonna suggest a structure here because if
you're able to pull this off at a root level, you have won the game. Structure will reveal
itself, piece o cake.

Back of Your Resume Essay

This essay is an opportunity to present yourself as an individual. We encourage you

to think about your proudest accomplishments, interests and passions, and personal
highlights that will help us to get to know you as a person and potential community
member. We value creativity and authenticity and encourage you to approach this
essay with your unique style. Alternative submission formats may include a slide
presentation, links to pre-existing media (personal website, digital portfolio,
YouTube, etc.), as well as visually enhanced written submissions. Maximum file size
is 5 MB. If you choose to submit a written essay, please limit your submission to 500
words or fewer. Multimedia submissions should be under 5 minutes.

The front page of your resume has given us a sense of your

professional experience and accomplishments as well as
your academic summary and extracurricular involvement. If
the back page reflects “the rest of your story,” please help us
get to know you better by sharing the experiences that will
give us insight into your character, values, and interests.

Johnson USED to have a pretty famous "table of contents" essay question. No more. RIP,
that question. You did a great job.

So, let's see what this Cornell Johnson essay question is really asking. First of all, let's
get one thing straight: this "back page of the resume" will never (and should never)
COMPENSATE for a weak front page. You may be the coolest cat in town, but if your
"front page" is a "B-" then none of it matters. The front page must kick considerable ass.
 25

Here's the thing though... for every ONE seat available at Cornell, there are SEVERAL
folks out there with killer "front pages." And so, one way to think about it, is that maybe
those killer front pages all cancel each other out. {Or at least, use that as a CONCEIT for
a second.} Your task is to introduce a few NEW layers here will PROPEL you ahead of
the guys and gals next to you, who have the same level of "front page."

What kinds of things will do it?

Well for starters, it can't be boring. If it seems like you didn't fully embrace the open-
endedness of this, and instead, went for yet another "front page" bullet that you could
flesh out, it is likely to work AGAINST you. In fact, one of our favorite "tricks" is to
imagine a few other candidates who have MATCHING resumes. This shouldn't be that
hard to pick because there's a very good chance it's ACTUALLY TRUE, ha! Picture
someone with the exact same GMAT, same GPA, same work experiences (and even if
not the same work experiences, the same SKILLS SETS from two different paths), same
achievements, same level... everything. Absolutely everything. Clones. If there's a task
that needs doing, any ONE of you could do it. At least, imagine it that way. Imagine
there are FIVE OF YOU. And the admissions dean has some kind of BUSINESS challenge
they need to solve: whether it's a leader they need, a problem solver, a visionary, a
whatever. Now imagine that ALL FIVE OF YOU could theoretically do it, and do it well.

Great, so the admissions deans could have his problem solved by any of you five... but
would he WANT to have YOU be the one? What is it about you that make you more
APPEALING than the next guy? Why are you more interesting? Why are you cooler?
Why are you preferable in any way? This is a challenge, to make us SMILE after
learning something about you. Or be WOWED after learning something about your
past, your experiences, your influences, your interests, your whatever. Or surprised.
Anything that elicits a reaction of: hunh, I kinda WANT this guy on campus based on
this story.

Another way to think about it: imagine five guys with the exact same resume, skills, all
that stuff, same as before. Now tell us something about you (that we weren't able to
glean from the front page) that all of a sudden makes YOUR version a bit more
interesting. So, let's say you achieved a score of "10" and another guy achieved a score
of "10." But let's say he grew up a rich kid with access to everything imaginable, and let's
say YOU grew up poor, lost your arm in a horrible farming accident, found a way to
support your family after your parents died unexpectedly at a premature age, and still
managed to get that "same" "10." Not so "same" all of a sudden. If your story here
ALTERS the very nature of your "front page," that's another way to propel you ahead of
the competition.

These approaches may lead to two different kinds of stories, and either can work. There
are of course other ways to skin it, but at the very least, these two should get you
thinking in the right direction. It's open-ended enough that the proper execution of a
version that's not mentioned here can absolutely work. The trick of it all is that it has to
 26

make sense that you're telling it to us, whatever it is. It has to move the needle
somehow. Whatever we learn about you MUST elevate your candidacy ON ACCOUNT
OF THIS STORY. If not, it's probably not a good enough idea. Keep hacking away until
you find something that your application would be weak... WITHOUT.

Back of Your Resume Essay

The Roy H. Park Leadership Fellows Program is a two-year full tuition fellowship
award for Two-Year MBA candidates in Ithaca who have demonstrated outstanding
leadership potential and who are committed to making an impact within their
communities. Each year it is awarded to up to 25 incoming students, with the
expectation that they will participate in additional leadership and personal
development activities outside of our regular curriculum, serve in leadership roles
within the school, and complete a public service project by the time they graduate.
The Park Fellowship is only available to U.S. citizens applying for the Two-Year MBA
program.

What is your greatest example of leadership and what

personal qualities helped you succeed in that role? Please
limit your submission to 500 words or fewer.

Honestly, this seems like it might require something special? But at the end of the day,
for those who qualify (U.S. citizens, etc.) this is all about being as convincing as you can
that you not only (1) have OODLES of leadership experience emanating from every pore
in your background, and (2) OODLES of leadership plans in life AND at an MBA program
including but not limited to the MBA program itself (i.e., stuff OUTSIDE the program,
engagement with the community, etc.), but also (3) have a particular affinity for
Cornell... because of this opportunity. Now, the trick is, all of that needs to be the vapor
that comes off of an essay that deals with "none of that directly." Instead, your task is to
convey that THROUGH your recounting of a the "greatest" leadership example in your
past, and what PERSONAL qualities of yours led to your success. But –– while you're
doing that –– you will also be HINTING AT the fact that your reason for telling this story
isn't to impress on the merits of that leadership tale or achievement. But rather, what it
IMPLIES about how dedicated you are to leveraging those skills, and your impulses,
toward OTHER, FUTURE... STUFF. It has to be clear what the value of this story will be to
future applications OF that leadership DNA. Don't go too deep into it, perhaps just
devote a few sentences toward the end to give the reader a sense that you're not just
proud of this achievement for what it was, but for what it implies. Give us that sense.
What does this hint at about your future? Where does it go from here? Thinking about
it in this way SHOULD help you frame your story in ways that highlight "scalable"
leadership traits.
 27

Optional Essay
[Please see the section on Optional/Re-Applicant essays at the very end...]
 28

DARTMOUTH (TUCK)
 29

DARTMOUTH (TUCK)

Application Short-Answer Questions
This is all about "word length" and what it means for what your answers simply NEED
to be. Unfussy, straightforward, wildly to the point.

[1] Share your short-term goals. (50 words)

It is still possible, even in 50 words, to convey LOGIC to your ST goals. You don't have
much room, so it won't be easy. But it is possible to get across that your ST goals are
part of something. A stepping stone toward something. In service of something. The
logical next step in order to... something. It can't just be an island unto itself. Try to
answer this in a way that someone reading it and ONLY it might catch a hint of what
your LT goals are, without even reading em.

[2] Share your long-term goals. (50 words)

Easier than ST. Try to avoid just giving us the label of what the goal is, and think
instead about what the impact OF that goal will be... to something (an industry), or to
someone (customers, people of a nation, whatever). Think about what will happen if
and when you succeed AT your long term goals, and try to describe THAT here.

[3] How did you arrive at these goals? (75 words)

Wow, 75 words. Breathe easy, that's virtually a NOVEL! Nope, sarcasm! Aight, the key
here is to capture when there was an "ignition" moment when you didn't just KNOW
what your target might be, but when you felt like the trigger had been pulled and now
you (as bullet) had begun your irreversible journey TOWARD that target. See the
difference? The first version is general: "So I've always like this and that, and then I
succeeded here and here, realized I was good at it and then I decided to commit to these
goals." General, unspecific, uncompelling. Compare that to: "I knew I'd always had an
affinity for ABC, but when XYZ happened, it put me on a collision course with X that has
gotten me out of bed every day. for reasons A B and C." REVERSALS of goals are
sometimes even the MOST compelling versions. "Hey so I used to be heading THIS way,
but then this thing happened, it ignited something in me, and it SPUN me around 180˚
and now I'm heading THIS NEW WAY. I know this is gonna bring out the better version
of me because of A B and C."

Inflection points, pivot points, direction changers, that kind of stuff.

 30

[4] How will Tuck help you achieve these goals? (75 words)

Standard stuff, but try to tie it back to something very specific about Tuck that either
no other school can deliver as well, or that ONLY Tuck can bring out in you, or some
combination of the two. You have VERY little room, so you'll need to present your case
in a way that reveals TONS of thought and research about what Tuck has that could
possibly make its way into a 75-word response here that's convincing. This is much
harder to do than it sounds, folks. They're trying to suss out the folks who are DRAWN
to Tuck as their first choice from those who have "thrown Tuck in" to their larger
basket of target schools that include mostly M7s. Suppose you were to be handed
admits from all M7s... why might you elect to say no to all of em and attend Tuck
instead? The answer will have everything to do with something VERY SPECIFIC you
want/need, and something VERY SPECIFIC about Tuck that makes for a particularly
synergistic fit.

Essay Questions

[1] Tuck students are aware of how their individuality adds

to the fabric of Tuck. Tell us who you are and what you will
contribute. (500 words)

There's more to this question than meets the eye. If you read this
([Link]
admissions) sucker, you'll notice Luke Anthony Peña (Tuck's executive director of
admissions and financial aid) focus on that word "aware." For another school, in another
essay, it might just be as simple as "Tell us who you are and what you will contribute
(to our school)." For Tuck's Essay 1, however, it's a little more than that.

When done correctly, this essay response should tell us not just who you are, and what
you will contribute to Tuck, but that you insanely self-aware, and have a keen sense for
what it is about you that specifically makes for a good match with Tuck. Sounds easy,
it isn't. Part of the success of this will hinge on your awareness of what Tuck's all about.
Now, we could try to "lay some of that out here." Except, it wouldn't actually help you.
The research truly needs to come from you. Not because we're lazy. Rather, the way
you research "the fabric" and the ways in which you naturally forge connections with
the school based on that research will all be part of this exploration... that leads to a
very personal, precise (and introspective) answer to this question.

Step 1 – Understand what the fabric of Tuck is. What makes their fabric different
from Yale's? Harvard's? Stanford's? Etc.
 31

Step 2 – Now, look inward, and do a full audit of thy self. What aspects of YOU,
and your preferences, and philosophies, and approaches to business problems,
and your leadership style, and choices you have made------all of that, combine
to make you a particularly good fit for Tuck given what you've gleaned about
the Tuck fabric from your extensive research?

Notice how we haven't put pen to paper yet. Correct. That comes next. That stuff above?
That's the leg work. Do that part thoroughly, and the essay will write itself:

Part 1 – Explain "who you are" through some kind of EXAMPLE. Do not talk in
generalities, or in summary form, as you might in a resume. Rather, EARN the
sense of "who you are" through a story that demonstrates it in action. There
usually is a moment where your essence is define by a tough choice, or a tough
decision, or a particular way in which you approached something that is
somehow not something someone would have predicted, that makes us go
"hunh, that says a lot about who you are..." Can you hear it? It is almost always
the result of a choice that is somehow SURPRISING, UNUSUAL, TOUGH,
INCONVENIENT, etc. Find a great example in your past, and lay it on us.

Part 2 – Now, explain the Tuck fabric through YOUR PERSONAL PRISM. Do NOT
tell us things about Tuck we already know, stuff anyone could find out through
a few website reads, etc. Explain things about the Tuck fabric as YOU
understand them through your engagement with alums, other research you've
done, whatever it is you've done to develop this sense. Be brief, and deliberate,
because it should set up the NEXT section beautifully...

Part 3 – ... which is a connection between Part 1 and Part 2. Pick a few examples
of how you're going to APPLY who you are, what you're all about TO this fabric
of Tuck's. If you were to apply the same STUFF to another school, the result
should be DIFFERENT SOMEHOW. Think about that long and hard. How might it
be different on a different campus with a different "fabric"? If you're able to
imagine what that is, THAT will be the ANCHOR of this section. The version of
your interacting with Tuck should somehow bring out a better version of you.
Try to articulate what that is. Again, not easy. But it should seem like you have
a lot to give, but that the coolest version of it will at Tuck specifically, because of
that sizzling connection.


[2] Tuck students are nice, and invest generously in one
another’s success. Share an example of how you helped
someone else succeed. (500 words)

Once again, there's more to this question than meets the eye. Take a quick peek at this,
([Link]
 32

admissions) and you'll notice Luke Anthony Peña (Tuck's executive director of
admissions and financial aid) talk about "nice."

This is an interesting one. If you try too hard to prove that you're "nice," in other words
if it looks efforted... you're – as they might say on This Old House – screwed. The nice-
ness has to be baked into your DNA. It has to be there, underscoring your actions,
whether you want it to or not. And that's the key. Let's say that again for emphasis.
True "nice-ness" is the kind that motivates "nice" behavior even when it's inconvenient,
hard, undeserving, etc. It's an unconscious thing. It's something you do because "it's the
proper thing to do, just cuz."

The example you pick here will say a lot, so CHOICE of story is 90% of it. You need to dig
deep to find a moment when you helped someone else succeed... and doing so provided
absolutely NO reward or advantage to you personally. In fact, the coolest versions are
the ones where you helped someone succeed to your own DISADVANTAGE, such was
your commitment to helping the other guy out. When have you RISKED something in
order to help someone succeed? When have you been pressured NOT TO HELP
SOMEONE, but did so in spite of that pressure? If it's easy to imagine someone else
doing the thing you did... chances are good that it's not a good enough story. Don't tell
us about the time you helped a lame child "successfully get out of the way of an
oncoming train." Congrats, you did "as any feeling person would do." Tell us instead
about the time you helped a teammate pull something off that could have resulted in a
promotion for THAT PERSON, and threatened YOUR OWN POSITION, but did it anyway
because doing so (in some bigger picture calculus, the human kind), FELT like the right
thing to do... "consequences be damned." "Judgment of others be damned."

The correct essay here should have us mutter to ourselves, "Hm, were *I* in the same
shoes, I'm not sure I would have had the guts/instinct/will to help that person out,
given all the circumstances." That should be a solid litmus test. And if you can get
someone to have THAT reaction, congrats, you're on your way to draft with real
potential.

Optional Essay
[Please see the section on Optional/Re-Applicant essays at the very end...]
 33

DUKE (FUQUA)
 34

DUKE (FUQUA)
Required Short-Answer Essay Questions

Instructions: Answer all 3 of the following questions. For each question, respond in
500 characters only (the equivalent of about 100 words).

• What are your short-term goals, post-MBA?

• What are your long-term goals?
• Life is full of uncertainties, and plans and circumstances can change. As a
result, navigating a career requires you to be adaptable. Should the short-
term goals that you provided above not materialize what alternative
directions have you considered?

This is unchanged from last year, except that they’re bumping you up to EconPlus and
are giving you just a few more words/characters to stretch your legs and make your
points. All this means is that your answers shouldn’t be unnaturally clunky because
you were forced to be so brief. You still need to be concise, but now you have a little
extra space to be nice and clear.

What are your short-term goals, post-MBA?

Don’t “clear your throat” and tee up an elaborate fluff setup. “My short-term goals after I
receive my MBA are probably best stated by the following words, chosen carefully, and
after much deliberation” … you get the idea. Cut out all that fat and go straight to what
you’re gonna do. A good way to mentally FRAME this is to think of the ST goals as a
means to an end (the LT goals). “In order to achieve LT goal X, first I will A, then B, then
C. {Insert one sentence about why this makes sense.}” That GENERAL approach will get
you a good ways toward your ultimate response.

What are your long-term goals?

As always, don’t just focus on the job title or position—by itself, it’s meaningless. Give us
the context. Give us the intended RESULT of that position, the EFFECT it has on an
industry, on a population, on society, on technology, on something even small, but in an
impactful way. You don’t want to achieve the title of “CEO” … you wanna achieve XX and
YY and ZZ THROUGH the position of CEO of ABC. See the difference?
 35

Life is full of uncertainties, and plans and circumstances can

change. As a result, navigating a career requires you to be
adaptable. Should the short-term goals that you provided
above not materialize what alternative directions have you
considered?

A great gift. An opportunity to show how NIMBLE you are. ST goals don’t work out? No
problem. Here’s another way I’m gonna get to where I need to go. Imagine for a second
you’re a male, if you’re not. And that you have a pregnant wife, going into labor. She’s in
the passenger seat of your car, and she’s screaming, and you are racing toward the
nearest hospital. You have the route planned out way ahead of time, and the trip is
going beautifully. Except, when you make a turn, you notice that there’s a three-car
accident on the street you NEED. Cops block it off, street is off limits. What next. Do you
turn to your wife and say “Oh well, honey, we tried. Good luck with that birth, if you
need ideas for names I know a guy”? Not if you want to see the sun rise again.

In that situation, and really put yourself inside this mindset, you wouldn’t hesitate for a
SECOND without figuring out an ALTERNATE WAY TO GET TO WHERE YOU NEEDED
TO GO. There’s always another way. In fact, you wouldn’t even idle in the car, would
you? You’d already KNOW that alternate route. That’s what doers do. That’s what guys
who succeed do. They figure it out.

So here you go. Here’s your three-car accident—the ST goals don’t materialize. Keep the
car in “Drive,” folks. Where do you go next? What are your alternate routes? The key
here isn’t to nail the exact correct alternate route so much as demonstrate that you
know “what needs to happen, in order for your goals to materialize.” You can convey
that here by showing how alternate paths will also work (maybe they’re less efficient,
more costly, etc. but they will get you there).

Long-form Essays

25 Random Things About Yourself

Instructions: Present your response in list form, numbered 1 to 25. Some points may
be only a few words, while others may be longer. Your complete list should not
exceed two pages.
 36

Fuqua believes different types of people, points of view, and experiences bring out
the best in everyone. And above all, we place a premium on succeeding while making
a positive impact on businesses, organizations, and the world. These ways of
thinking set the Duke MBA experience apart, and this concept extends beyond the
student body to include faculty, staff, and administration. When a new person joins
the Admissions team, we ask that person to share with everyone in the office a list of
"25 Random Things About Yourself." As an Admissions team, we already know the
new hire's professional and academic background, so learning these "25 Random
Things" helps us get to know someone's personality, background, special talents, and
more.

In this spirit, the admissions committee also wants to get to know you–beyond the
professional and academic achievements listed in your resume and transcript. You
can share with us important life experiences, your likes/dislikes, hobbies,
achievements, fun facts, or anything that helps us understand what makes you who
you are. Share with us your list of "25 Random Things" about YOU.

Random, folks. The absolute worst way to play this is to “clearly not have fun with it.” If
you take this too seriously, and look at it like an opportunity to impress them with
more achievements, you’re going to bore them to tears, and potentially turn them off.
To avoid having fun with it will almost GUARANTEE that they conclude that “this is the
type of person who is incapable of having fun.” That person is going to be a net
negative on campus. We’re looking for “wins.” People who ADD to the community.
Those people have personalities. Charm. Wit. Playfulness. Spirit. If this isn’t in you…
you’d better get it fast.

Random doesn’t mean “by itself.” It has to tell us something about you. Example:

“A hummingbird flaps its wings about 70 times in a second.”

Great. But… this tells us what about you? The random thing must give us a key to your
coolness, your quirkiness, your… self. Somehow.

“When I was nine years old, in charge of “snacks” for a class camp out, I brought
croissants. That was the day I realized I was not only born on the wrong continent, but
in the wrong century.”

See the difference? This is revealing. Endearing. Self-deprecating. Tells us something

about the author. 25 things like that. Also, don’t be afraid to get creative. Make up your
own conceits to GET you to a place of 25 random things:
 37

“If I had to pick five celebrities to start a brand new civilization, they would be: Person
(witty reason), Person 2 (witty reason), etc etc.” Don’t steal that, cuz it’ll look suspicious
when several people submit the same thing! But you see the IDEA here, that you can
literally invent ANY NUMBER of cool premises to help you reveal something about
yourself and your attitudes.

The Fuqua Community and You

Instructions: Your response should be no more than two pages in length.

Fuqua prides itself on cultivating a culture of engagement. Our students enjoy a wide
range of student-led organizations that provide opportunities for leadership
development and personal fulfillment, as well as an outlet for contributing to society.
Our student-led government, clubs, centers, and events are an integral part of the
student culture and are vital to providing you with a range of experiential learning
and individual development experiences.

Based on your understanding of the Fuqua culture, how do you see yourself
engaging in and contributing to our community, outside of the classroom?

Your ultimate goal here? To elicit a reader response that goes something like:

1. “Yep, this kid clearly bleeds Duke.”

2. “Yep, this kid is gonna light a fire here.”
3. “Yep.” {Translation: I believe the commitment behind his/her words here.}

The key to this question is… are you convincing? This is the part, folks, where what you
say matters less than how you say it. It is very possible to say all the right things. To
indicate that you are going to start Club X, and to engage in Duke Thing Y, and to
contribute Awesome Thing Z thing to the Duke community. But how? By doing
research, by organizing your arguments so that they are logically sound, seem well
considered, etc.

But… if the Adcom thinks that you would probably pick, say, Darden or Ross or Yale
SOM over Duke, none of those arguments will weigh much. What you need to achieve
is the exact opposite. Let’s take those statements above and ADD another crucial one:

• “If we admit this kid, there is an unbelievably good chance he’s gonna accept,
regardless of where else he gets in.”
 38

If you establish THIS as your burden, it will (it should, anyway) focus your approach to
this response in an excellent way. Imagine, for example, that your reader does NOT
believe that you are sincere in your stated desire to attend Duke. How would you use
this essay prompt to convince him/her otherwise? Address the elements in this
question, but in reality, prove to the reader that no matter how many acceptance letters
you receive, Duke is the place you are going to engage with the most.

Now. How exactly do you do that? Well for starters it helps if that’s actually the case,
ha! But let’s suppose your are business-school-agnostic at this stage, and simply want
to attend whichever TOP MBA program accepts you. Allow yourself to APPEAR to be
that first guy, the one who would rather attend Duke than Harvard. In order to achieve
that, you need to demonstrate two things:

1) Demonstrate deep knowledge for what makes Fuqua… Fuqua.

In other words, if the Duke experience is supposedly different from the Yale experience,
or the Ross experience, how so? (And then map those differences to things you need –
THROUGH your explanation for how you will engage in the Duke community.)

2) Make an emotional argument for why Duke revs you up.

Show how Duke fulfills something inside you that another school doesn’t. Or, why
Duke’s version is somehow more appealing to you. This is art, not science. Do you have
a girlfriend? Boyfriend? Husband? Wife? Child? Can you explain to someone why you
like this person? Try it. Do it on paper. Maybe it starts with “quantifiable” traits. But
hopefully, at some point, you reach a moment where you find yourself… unable to
quantify the way a loved one makes you feel. Try – like hell – to explain IN WORDS
what that thing is. What your emotion is, and how this person elicits that emotion. You
won’t be able to, or you may discover a way to. It’s all gold. All of it. Take a look and see
what that looks like, and then see if you can adapt it to the Duke community somehow.

When you put all of that stuff together, you should end up with some interesting stuff
in your first draft. Here’s one version of an outline that may help kick things off:

1. Establish what you’re looking for in a B-school. Establish the experience you’re
hoping for, and how this corresponds to optimizing your personal potential to
succeed (and perhaps to help others succeed).
2. Now explain why certain opportunities at Duke afford you the ability to not just
experience these things, but quite possibly the best version of them. If you can
indicate contrasts to other schools, do it. If it’s just highlighting something
unique to Duke, do it. As always, relate each example back to something you
specifically need, and be very specific about the ways in which you are going to
engage.
 39

3. Lastly, see if you can somehow explain where this sense came from. Give us a
taste of the research, the “due diligence” that led to your conclusions. This is also
the section where you may wanna “fumble” around those inexplicable reasons
that are emotional at their core. Let us see the genuine-ness of your words here.

Organization-wise, it doesn’t necessarily need to follow that order. And to be sure, what
we’re calling “Section 3” here is truly something that should be interwoven through the
essay. But separating it out this way may at least give you a target for your V1.

Optional Essay
[Please see the section on Optional/Re-Applicant essays at the very end...]
 40

HARVARD (HBS)

SURPRISING moments within all of us, where we became men and women. Usually it
 41

HARVARD (HBS)
As we review your application, what more would you like us
to know as we consider your candidacy for the Harvard
Business School MBA program? (There is no word limit for
this question. We think you know what guidance we’re going
to give here. Don’t overthink, overcraft and overwrite. Just
answer the question in clear language that those of us who
don’t know your world can understand.)

“No word limit.” Yeah, there is actually. Maybe it’s not a hard number, but there is such a
thing as a reasonable amount of space that it should take for someone to communicate
something that moves the admissions needle. You can use past word limits as a
reference. Generally, HBS essays have ranged from 400-750 words. Honestly, for a
totally prompt-less prompt like this one, our recommendation is to land somewhere
between 600-800 words. 1000 words is also fine, if you really need it. Over that… only if
you absolutely-absolutely-absolutely need it. (These will be the exceptions, not the
norms.)

Write much less than 500 or 600 words, and perhaps you’re wasting an opportunity.
Write much more than 1000 words, and you’re likely expending words that other folks
don’t need to expend – without actually saying more (which makes YOU look bad).
Now then, we have our made-up target of roughly 600–800 words (set 800 as your
target max). What exactly do we talk about? Let’s zoom out a touch and consider your
overall application. On a scale of zero to “President of the Galaxy” … how would you
score yourself on leadership? If, on the basis of your resume, LORs, and all other
aspects of your application alone, your leadership experience is plain as day, and
mighty, then your need to make a point of it here in the essay may be less aggressive
than the next person we’re going to talk about.

Imagine a candidate who IS a born leader, but may not have the kind of resume where
such traits just LEAP off the page as readily as the first person. In this case, you’d want
to lean heavily on anything and everything that helps to MAKE that quality plain to
HBS. Zip forward to the end point for BOTH example candidates. The goal is for the
adcom to conclude that EACH of those two candidates is “high” on HBS-style leadership.
“Check!”
 42

Let’s go back to Candidate 1. Pretend they’re a Military person with leadership

screaming from every resume bullet. Maybe this person spends a touch more time
revealing something sparkly about his/her personality, or future aspirations, that
when COUPLED WITH the leadership that speaks for itself, makes the adcom all hot
and bothered.

Candidate 2, however, perhaps an IT professional, doesn’t necessarily appear to have

quite as much in the way of leadership experience on paper. Candidate 2 may want to
focus less on future aspirations and more on “oh, and by the way, after you read this,
you can stand me next to Candidate 1 and see that, in fact, we have a bunch more in
common in the way of leadership than might have been evident on my resume. Aren’t
you glad I told you that story here?” See the difference? Similar end point, but the paths
might be a touch different.

HBS = leadership.

If you can prove that you have future CEO, boss, leader, big and badass mover-shaker
flowing through your blood, you will be considered strongly. Think about it for a
second, though, because this is gonna circle back to the word limit issue. If someone
tells you they’re a lawyer, do you believe them? Probably. Why not? If someone tells
you they’re a school teacher, do you believe them? Yeah, why not. If, on the other hand,
someone tells you they’re funny… do you believe them? Probably not, they need to
make you laugh. In other words, you need proof. Leadership (like funniness) is a quality,
not a profession. You can’t just say it and expect others to buy in. At the same time, it’s
one of those things where… the more you say, the less likely it may seem to be true.
(Hence, 400-500 words = enough.) So, if you’re gonna demonstrate your leadership
chops through an anecdote, remember to focus on the types of actions that we can
picture. The actions that reveal your particular leadership style, and talent.

So that’s just some general background. How do you begin to answer this HBS prompt?
Work backwards. The adcom should conclude after reading your essay, in context with
all other aspects of your application that they have, that if introduced to the HBS
community, you would help others to succeed, and you would benefit from others and
succeed in kind. This is gonna sound frustrating, but, there’s a vapor that comes off of
the future “HBS admit” essay that is characterized by one word: confidence. You’re not
gonna get admitted to Harvard Business School to LEARN how to become a “manager.”
You’re admitted because you’re ALREADY a manager, and HBS is gonna help you grow
it.

So, posture that way. As you write drafts, and this may melt some brains out there,
posture as though you need Harvard to prove why they are YOUR best choice, not the
 43

other way around. Posture like you expect admits from Stanford and Wharton and
Booth and Sloan and wherever else, and that you’re not so stuck on brand names,
you’re looking for a place that’s gonna be best for you to develop the talent you know
you have. How does that posturing subtly affect your tone? Or your approach?

You guys and gals are businessmen and businesswomen right? When negotiating, do
you ever prematurely show your hand and reveal just how badly you need the deal? Or
is it stronger to posture the other way? “Here’s my final offer, I’m happy to walk away
because… I already have many others.” You can be sure that that exact same deal
weighs more than the one coming from the guy who seems desperate. So, embrace
your inner badass. And be a little cocky. Be a little presumptuous. Be a little smug. (We
can always dial it back to the perfect balance… but, no born leaders come to this
particular game vulnerable, meek, shy, etc.) Puff your chest. And begin drafting your
essay with the mentality that you already have Stanford’s “yes” in hand, and now
you’re gonna kick an application over to Harvard for fun, but… YOU are the one in high
demand, not the other way around.
 44

INSEAD

SURPRISING moments within all of us, where we became men and women. Usually it
 45

INSEAD
INSEAD MBA Job Essays

Job Essay 1: Briefly summarise your current (or most recent)

job, including the nature of work, major responsibilities, and
where relevant, employees under your supervision, size of
budget, clients/products and results achieved.

Okay folks, no real need to be creative here, or dramatic, or “interesting.” Why say that?
Because if you attempt it, it may come across as an insecurity. You’re the guy who
doesn’t understand when straightforward is actually a show of strength.

Be brief, straightforward, and get into the details…fast. One way of looking at this is
simply to flesh out (somewhat) your latest entry on your resume. Just, turn it into a
readable paragraph so that anyone reading it can understand exactly where you work,
exactly what it is you do, and exactly what your accomplishments mean (i.e., you’ve
given us enough context to be able to make sense of them). And that’s all, folks. Aim for
250 words.

Job Essay 2: What would be your next step in terms of

position if you were to remain in the same company?

Assume for a minute that you are going to STAY at your current place of work for the
next twenty years (just pretend). Presumably, you’ll rise in the ranks in SOME capacity.
Even if you’re the CEO of a start-up, your position will evolve somehow as your
company grows. Imagine that spectrum between today and 20 years from now sub-
divided into five major bumps. What’s the very next one? Explain the bump in terms of
what is it you do/oversee today and how it will CHANGE once you’re promoted or rise in
the ranks some other way.

All we’re trying to do is understand where you are in life. That’s it. No need to explain
that you truly want to do something else; we’re just getting our bearings. Aim for 250
words.
 46

Job Essay 3: Please give a full description of your career

since graduating from university. Describe your career path
with the rationale behind your choices.

This is where it starts to get real. Whereas the first few can be extremely devoid of
“carefully chosen words,” here, you need to express ideas clearly, and compellingly.
…and this is gonna take some thought.

Start by explaining the context behind your very first post-graduate decision, by way of
some overarching goal — as clear or as nebulous as it may have been. Given that you
one-day wanted to X, you decided to pursue Y as your first official move after
university. Explain your developments, skills gained, ways in which you advanced your
career interests (or gained clarity on what it was you truly wanted to do), and let that
guide your description of whatever major thing happened next. Presumably, you were
promoted, or you chose another job, or you chose another industry, or a life
circumstance spun things in a new direction, etc. Whatever it is, keep in mind that this
is all part of a single narrative that connects each juncture along a single spectrum
that takes us from the first job after university to wherever you are today, with your
decision-making as your rudder at each key moment. We should be able to read this
essay and then repeat back not just what the steps were of your career, but why you
made your choices at each step. Aim for 300-400 words.

Job Essay 4: Discuss your short and long term career

aspirations with or without an MBA from INSEAD.

Seems they changed it from “with or without” to … “with.” You know what? It doesn’t
matter. Follow our recipe here, you will end up in not just the same place, but a better
one (than if you’d ignored that previous version).

So, pretend – for a second – that it says “with or without an MBA from INSEAD.” In other
words, think of it as “I know what my long term aspiration is, and whether or not I go
through an MBA program, I’m going to pursue and achieve it, come hell or high water.”
With that mindset, lay out everything you need to do/achieve along the way,
explaining the rationale behind each step and why it (1) is necessary and (2) improves
your ability to achieve the next step along the way. Those two are generally the same
thing. You’ll find that there are a handful of KEY nodes along your future journey.

Now, if you’d like, go through this exercise as though you will NOT be going through an
MBA program. What does THAT path look like? How long is it? What moves will you
need to make in order (eventually) to make it to your ultimate goal? Remember,
 47

success AT that goal is assumed for this exercise. Okay, now that that’s done, do that
entire thing over, except this time, insert an MBA from INSEAD into the mix. How does
that CHANGE your plan? Does it make it faster? Does it make the achievements along
the way BETTER? Does it even somehow affect the “amplitude” of the ultimate
outcome? Once you understand the DELTA that passing through an INSEAD MBA has
had on your game plan, NOW attack this 300 word prompt, fresh with insights on how
to articulate your aspirations.

Focus on the things you’re hoping to achieve at each critical stage (there should be
around three key moments along your journey – some will require more, some less).
Each stage should feel absolutely necessary in order for the next one to be a possibility.
There must be logic connecting the dots. THIS is where you can show off your business
brain. How measured is your plan? How researched are you? Is it too fragile? Does it
seem likely to happen? What if things don’t go your way; does your approach seem to
suggest that you have a Plan B? On the surface, you’re just explaining us the pieces of
the pathway, but underneath, if you’re doing it right, you’re selling us on this plan as
though it were a BUSINESS plan. Make us believe that your “idea” and “plan” are
bulletproof, and that you are the guy who’s gonna make it happen.

Be sure to back up your reasoning with a sense for how the MBA from INSEAD is likely
to catalyze this entire chain reaction.

Optional Job Essay: If you are currently not working or if you

plan to leave your current employer more than 2 months
before the programme starts, please explain your activities
and occupations between leaving your job and the start of
the programme.

Only answer if this one if it applies to you. If you’re explaining the “not working” aspect,
be extremely straightforward. The more it seems like you’re justifying something, the
“guiltier” you’ll come across. Imagine you’re re-assuring the person who just hired you
why there’s this strange gap that we just noticed. Before we get cold feet, make that
feeling go away quickly, with extreme confidence, clarity, and brevity.

If you’re answering the other option, CREATING a gap (whether by choice or not) that
gives you the ability to spend your time somehow before the program begins, you’ll
want to approach it similarly, but this time, you may need to add a touch of
justification, lest it arouse suspicion. Say, for example, that gap is six months, and there
doesn’t seem to be any real reason for it. Here, you may have decided to travel the
 48

world, or learn a new language, or… you get the idea. Just about anything CAN be an
amazing reason, we just need to be sold on it, is all. Brevity here is your best best best
friend. A long optional essay can be a death sentence. Stay crisp, aim for 150-250 words.

INSEAD MBA Motivation Essays

Essay 1 –– Give a candid description of yourself (who are you

as a person), 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 (approximately 500 words).

This has been an INSEAD staple for a few years now. The only real change here is in
word count. Now, the one thing they haven’t done here, which they should have, is to
distinguish between a passive description and an active one. A passive description just
tells you about something, and it ends there. “The ink stain is permanent.” “This coffee
is very hot.” Thanks, but we don’t want passive. We want that other thing — the
description that teaches us something. Makes us develop an ATTITUDE about the
subject.

“The ink stain is permanent, and it’s a good thing—I don’t ever want to forget the day
the woman I fell in love with haplessly broke the cartridge over my white shirt. Crazy
as it may sound, this blemish is a living monument of her innocence.”
Oh, so… the ink stain being permanent here was a GOOD thing! Hah! Without that
context, we had no idea. Context, folks. Your job here is to describe yourself… with
context. Give us a reason to learn something about you. Adjectives by themselves are
meaningless.

How can you figure out WHICH characteristics give you your color? Have contributed
to your personal development? Make you… you? (And not just “you” but… interesting,
compelling, worth meeting, etc.)? That’s the hard part, isn’t it. Here are some tips to help:

1. Has there been a moment in your life where you experienced a fundamental
SHIFT in thinking? And we’re not talking about switching from Coke to Pepsi,
but rather, an EPIC shift in worldview?
2. Was there ever a moment where you acted in a way that was truly SURPRISING
to others? And even to yourself? Where you went against the grain?
 49

3. Was there ever a moment that challenged you to your core? Requiring
considerable strength or courage to overcome?

Defining moments that taught you something about what you were made of… really
made of. Strengths and weaknesses are fair game here. Acknowledging weakness can
be a sign of GREAT strength, and can be extraordinarily appealing. The guy who can
introspect like that probably cares about improving. That’s the guy I want on my team,
not the guy who is comfortable with finding himself to be flawless, beyond reproach,
etc. Don’t shy away from this, if you have a neat weakness to talk about. Humility
(especially in Europe) can go a long way.

Outlines for this essay can take many shapes and forms. But consider hitting these
pieces in whatever you end up with:

• Provide examples of the traits. In fact, walk us through an action that

DEMONSTRATES the trait over merely telling us about it.
• But then, make sure you give a reason we should care—this is the “context” we
alluded to above. So what, the ink stain is permanent. Give us the VALUE.

Essay 2 –– Describe the achievement of which you are most

proud and explain why. In addition, describe a situation
where you failed. How did these experiences impact your
relationships with others? Comment on what you
learned(approximately 400 words).

400 words for both essays tell you something, because there are a lot of components to
this one. Let’s break it down:

1. Explain your top-most achievement (what it was, why should we impressed)

2. Then, explain why this ranks highest among all your achievements
3. Next explain a key failure (what it was, exactly)
4. Then, explain the ways in which these experiences impacted your relationship
with other people (this is a twist – very few schools ask about this specifically)
5. What were YOUR lessons?

Those all need to be dealt with, and you have 400 words. So, be straightforward, folks.
It’s actually a great exercise in high-yield communication. Let’s focus on #4 though.
How does a success or failure leave some kind of imprint on the way in which you
relate to others? This is where you need to paint by clear examples. Imagine DELTAs
 50

between each scenario. There was a before and after associated with your success
story. Somehow, that success affected the way you related to people – thus, the delta
between before and after. What was it? Similarly, before you failed, you related to
people in some way. Then after that failure, things changed with respect to your
relationships with others. What changed? Examining those DELTAs will be the first
KEY step toward crushing this question, and demonstrating how thoughtful and
strategic you can be.

Essay 3 –– Describe all types of extra-professional activities

in which you have been or are still involved for a significant
amount of time (clubs, sports, music, arts, politics, etc). How
are you enriched by these activities? (approximately 300
words).

Part I of this essay will be all about the stuff, and a very clear indication of how
involved you are. Leadership roles, special awards and distinctions, etc. Anything that
gives us a clue about how excited you are about any particular activity, is good. Part II
is about the way in which any given activity has made you… cooler. “Enriched” you.
Again, we return to the concept of deltas. Picture what you’d be like without the
activity, or all of them. How different would you be? What qualities, therefore, do those
activities nurture in you? This doesn’t have to be separated into Part I – Activities, Part
2 – Enrichment. They can be integrated as you’re going through each activity.

Don’t leave your passion out here. Straightforward, yes, but… if your extracurricular
activities seem to be part of a checklist routine, you’re not gonna excite anyone. The
idea here is to come across like a sparkplug. Someone dynamic with interests and
hobbies and talents and THIRSTS for things. The awareness that is revealed through
articulating just how each activity has improved you in some way is icing on top.

INSEAD MBA Video Interview

Shortly after completing your INSEAD MBA online application, you will receive an e-
mail notification from Kira Talent with a unique link to complete 4 video interviews.
Your link will be also available on your dashboard within the application system.
The video should be seen as a unique opportunity for you to share your passions,
your motivations and who you truly are. The Admissions Committee is interested in
obtaining an authentic view of you as a person, to see how you think on your feet
and how you convey your ideas.
 51

The video interviews do not replace the face-to-face interviews with Alumni.
Your application will be considered as complete and ready to be reviewed only once
we have received your answers to the video interviews. Please complete your video
interviews at your earliest convenience and no later than 48 hours after the
deadline to which you are applying. We strongly recommend however that you
complete this step before the final date to allow yourself some time to prepare for
this exercise.
The MBA admissions overview link includes detailed advice from INSEAD
admissions covering timing, practice, and technical requirements. Advice direct from
INSEAD adcomm:

1. Get ready by practicing. You can practice as much as you want. Practicing will
enable you to convey authentic and genuine answers. Practice questions are
not shared with the Admissions Committee;
2. Test your camera, your microphone, then forget the technology and look at
the camera as if you were talking to the Admissions Committee;
3. Although we ask you to wear business or business casual attire, the
Admissions Committee will not judge your look or your background;
4. You may want to prepare a notebook next to you to write down your key
ideas; you will have 45 seconds to prepare each answer; you will then have 60
seconds to share each answer with the Admissions Committee.

For something like this, where you're going in a bit blind... the goal is to be "Stump-
Proof." What does that mean. It means, you need to show up on D-Day, and be prepared
to be asked ANY four questions, and not get stumped, get all cotton-mouthed, and
sweaty, and flub your way through those 60 second clips. Easy enough right?!

Hardly. Being "stump-proof" is hard. Some folks are born with it. For the rest of us, it
takes some work. And luckily, there is work we CAN do to chip away at this challenge.

Step 1. Practice... COLD. Get familiar with this by getting your recording device setup (it
can QuickTime, whatever video recording option you have, keep it simple), and then
find a list of "interview questions" from somewhere, and keep it handy. Then, get
dressed as you will be, get your room prepped the way it will be on the day you're
gonna record, don't cheat this, take it seriously. And then pick a RANDOM question off
that list, give yourself 45 second to prepare an answer, and then record a response in 60
seconds. Guess what, 9 out of 10, it's gonna suck. Great. Do it again. Pick another
question, ideate for 45 seconds. Not 46... 45. Then record for 60 seconds. Guess what?
This one's gonna suck just as bad. Great. Do it again. A third time. Guess what? This one
may also suck. No problem. You've just taken a CRITICAL first step. At what? Breaking
the seal. Popping the cork. Lighting the fuse. Congrats, and move onto Step 2.
 52

Step 2. Now... sit back and relax and process it for a second. Take a look at your videos,
make some basic observations, but don't get too hardcore just yet. Just focus on big
stuff. Do you look confident? Do you seem likeable? Those may be the two biggest
things to consider first. And then... how good is your answer? Just... observe for now. The
fun stuff comes next. Did I say fun? I meant most definitely UNFUN stuff.

Step 3. Now comes the part where you dig in a bit. And consider what these cats can
possibly ask you. They've given you some clues. First, the meat itself: "share your
passions, your motivations and who you truly are." But second, "how [well] you think on
your feet and how [well] you convey your ideas." So, passions, motivations, what you're
all about. Here are some tips. Think about telling a STORY from your past (can be any
story) that captures PERFECTLY... who you are, in a nutshell. Now, we used the word
"perfect" to imply just one response, but actually, there are many ways to slice this. One
story can reveal something about what MOTIVATES you. Another story can reveal
something about what's unique about your PERSONALITY. Another story can reveal
something about what you LOVE more than anything on Earth, and what that says
about you. Lots of stories. Find a bunch, that all say different things, and practice 60
second versions of them. DO NOT write down scripts, you can absolutely OVER-
REHEARSE and decimate these. Just riff, tell stories, be entertaining. The point is not to
IMPRESS, and it's not to be STRAIGHTFORWARD... it's to COMPEL. Either through
persuasion, or by being entertaining. There are no points for being dull. None.

Do this a bunch of time. Try to come up with twists on questions. "What citrus best
captures who you are?" "Would you rather X... or Y"? "If you had one X to take to a desert
island, what would it be and why?" ... you get the idea, there are millions of these out
there, spend a little bit of time, get into that headspace, and get acquainted with this
mode of thinking. And get good at delivering a 60 second response. But, and here's the
key, your bullets should mostly be LOADED such that the question doesn't actually
matter. The goal is to be comfortable enough with your go-to ANSWERS that the
questions itself can quickly be spun to get you to the response you're already poised to
give. The folks who seem like NATURALS at this? That's what they're doing. They're
just so good, it seems like it's a trait. It isn't. It's a matter of comfort. And it's a learnable
skill.

Step 4. Practice with new questions, new types of questions, and get as comfortable as
you can, to the point where the prospect of being thrown a question and having 45
seconds to prepare an answer doesn't phase you one bit. Don't show your practice
videos to a bunch of people, too much feedback can short circuit your system and
cripple you. Maybe pick one trusted guy and get some insights, but don't go beyond
that.

Optional Essay
[Please see the section on Optional/Re-Applicant essays at the very end...]
 53

LONDON BUSINESS SCHOOL (LBS)

SURPRISING moments within all of us, where we became men and women. Usually it
 54

LONDON BUSINESS SCHOOL (LBS)

What are your post-MBA goals and how will your prior
experience and the London Business School programmed
contribute towards these? (500 words).

This is more or less the exact same question as last year. And if you were to look at the
2014 version of this question (“What will your future look like after completing your
MBA?”) and compare it to these slightly tweaked versions (“What are your post-MBA
plans and how will your prior experience and the London Business School programme
contribute?”), it’s not hard to catch the vapors coming off of the LBS adcom:

“Let’s just ask the question we wanna ask a bit more directly…”

What does this mean for you as the applicant? Give them what they want: a clear,
precise, well-argued case for what you hope to succeed in, and why you will be
successful (based on your past experiences combined with an LBS MBA). That’s all,
folks. If you accomplish those two things, everything extra (“a novel idea,” “a big goal
with big upside,” “a socially-responsible and inspiring vision,” etc.) will be just that…
“extra.”

Most people will miss the KEY to this essay, by packing too much stuff in. Slow down,
take it one simple step at a time, and get the key stuff NAILED down first (you’ll be 98%
done at that point).

Now, here’s the danger of going too far with Part I of the question (the GOAL part)
without considering how Part II supports it. If you pitch an incredible idea/vision for the
future, but have limited ability to back it up with evidence in your past experiences that
convinces us that you have the necessary chops to execute on that idea… the idea may
sound tasty, but it won’t be worth the risk for an elite MBA program. Remember, elite
MBA programs rely on PLACEMENT statistics. Things like “how many students from
the graduating class end up… employed” end up making XXX dollars in their first X
years out of school, etc. Why? This affects their rankings, and rankings affect the
caliber of student drawn to their program, which in turn affects the school’s ability to
churn out success stories that juice those stats that then improve rankings and the
future caliber of… you see how the cycle works.

So, MBA programs prefer SURE THINGS to high-volatility applicants. Given all that, the
best chance you have of proving future success is to point to evidence in your PAST of
success in a similar arena. Now, typically this means success in ROLE and INDUSTRY X
and then pitching future success that is essentially an EXTENSION of those two things.
 55

If you’re a marketing maven, then you may have a hard time painting a picture of
yourself as a logistics whiz. “Why should we believe that you will be successful here?”
they will ask. This is why industry/career switches tend to be red flags, unless you’re
able to convincingly draw a crystal clear connection between your success in the past
and your future goals.

Start there: looking back at your career, what have you done? What have you
achieved? What are you good at? What MAKES you good at the things you’re good at?
Isolate it, sharpen in, be able to describe this to someone in ONE sentence. “I’m the guy
who can mobilize a team of 50 people on ten continents.” “I’m the guy who can take ten
departments’ confused and contradictory initiatives, and seamlessly cohere them into
a winning, universally beneficial, perfectly aligned strategy.” “I’m the guy who…” Find
evidence in your past. Be messy at first, list ten chaotic forms of support. But then
sharpen it, boil it down to three defining MOMENTS. Three episodes, where your actions
PAINT A PICTURE of the value you brought.

Once you have that piece LOCKED, now we can cook up a “plan” that is a mouth-
watering EXTENSION of it. Now we’re willing to go wherever you take us. If you’re Elon
Musk, and you give us your resume, you better believe we will be interested when you
tell us “I have an idea for how to revolutionize public transportation in third world
countries.” If your background is in sales, however, we’re less interested in your Big
Idea.

As you’re building your “post-MBA plans,” focus less on the flash of the idea, and more
on the strategy behind EXECUTING it. Show us how well-thought-out the plan is. Do
this with detail. Do this with evidence that walks us through how each step is
necessary for the next one. Practical, pragmatic, bulletproof. This is the plan that
excites MBA adcoms. You want them to say “this guy is gonna be successful.” Or “this
guy has success written all over him.”

You don’t want them to say “Wow, this is an absolutely brilliant and inspired idea! … I’m
just not entirely sure he’s gonna pull it off.” That reaction is potentially a death
sentence.

Here’s the structure that’ll keep you very safe for your first pass:

1. Hit us with a high-level sense of what kind of ISSUE or PROBLEM you hope to
fix. Or an OPPORTUNITY you’re hoping to take advantage of. Quickly provide
this background (sentence or two, max). Explain why solving this (or
executing on the opportunity) isn’t easy. Explain why this hasn’t been done a
million times successfully already. Then explain (super high-level) what
your idea is. What your big picture plans are.
2. Now take us through the story of how this all came into play. What’s the
backstory? Where did you start, where did you cut your teeth? And most
importantly, show us the evidence as you take us through the KEY NODES of
 56

your past, of your value. Don’t just rehash your resume. Present value-
defining ACTIONS that made it very clear what made/makes you valuable.
3. Now that we’re sold on how credible you are in this arena, give us a more
detailed walk-through of your plans, showing us exactly how you plan on
achieving each step. Details, specificity, show us how much thought went
into it by convincing us that there are no holes.
4. Last but not least, spend just a little bit of time making an argument for why
LBS of all the business schools on Earth provides a few UNIQUE
opportunities to propel you toward success. Don’t explain that it’s a good b-
school, or that you’re interested in LBS. You need to isolate just a few
idiosyncrasies of the LBS offerings/class/setup that somehow IMPROVES
the probability that you will success as compared to, say, HBS, Stanford, or
Wharton. The coolest test to give yourself (embrace this conceit!) is to
imagine getting offer letters from Harvard, Stanford, Wharton and LBS. Make
a case for why you would TURN DOWN the other three and go with LBS. All it
takes is two or three bulletproof reasons and you’re home free.

Optional Essay
[Please see the section on Optional/Re-Applicant essays at the very end...]
 57

MIT (SLOAN)

SURPRISING moments within all of us, where we became men and women. Usually it
 58

MIT (SLOAN)
Cover Letter

MIT Sloan seek students whose personal characteristics demonstrate that they will
make the most of the incredible opportunities at MIT, both academic and non-
academic. We are on a quest to find those whose presence will enhance the
experience of other students. We seek thoughtful leaders with exceptional
intellectual abilities and the drive and determination to put their stamp on the world.
We welcome people who are independent, authentic, and fearlessly creative — true
doers. We want people who can redefine solutions to conventional problems, and
strive to preempt unconventional dilemmas with cutting-edge ideas. We demand
integrity and respect passion.

Taking the above into consideration, please submit a cover

letter seeking a place in the MIT Sloan MBA Program. Your
letter should conform to a standard business
correspondence, include one or more examples that
illustrate why you meet the desired criteria above, and be
addressed to Mr. Rod Garcia, Senior Director of Admissions
(300 words or fewer, excluding address and salutation).

Let’s start by interpreting/translating that opening blurb:

“MIT Sloan seek students whose personal characteristics demonstrate that they will
make the most of the incredible opportunities at MIT, both academic and non-
academic.”

Basically, they’re saying: “Since résumés flatten a person from 3D to 2D, we’re hoping
the essay portion will give us a hint in that direction of what your particular “personal
characteristics” are. We are on a quest to find those whose presence will enhance the
experience of other students, because the net effect of a single person bettering others
will be nonstop betterment in every imaginable direction, the net effect of which is
maximal success for the class and, most practically, of the individuals who comprise
that class.”

So, MIT is going to look for evidence of two things:

 59

1. That you have something in your experiences, achievements, personality,

leadership style, whathaveyou, that would be beneficial to others.
2. That you seem like the kind of person who will “lean forward” to have that
impact on others, and that you’re not just a taker.

Now, onto the next part of that blurb:

“We seek thoughtful leaders with exceptional intellectual abilities and the drive and
determination to put their stamp on the world.”

MIT chose the phrase “exceptional intellectual abilities” on purpose because it goes
beyond classic indicators of “intelligence” on a résumé, or through GMAT/GRE scores.
“Exceptional” intellectual abilities includes dimensions like “thinking of stuff most other
people wouldn’t have” or “questioning long-held truths because something about those
truths bothers you” or “succeeding at an attempted solution where countless others
have failed.” If you have evidence of THAT kind of intellectual capability, take them on
the SCENIC route. They’re saying that the Sloan School of Management welcomes
people who are independent, authentic, and fearlessly creative — true doers. In other
words, they want to get the sense that where there’s a status quo, you’re the person
who has an itch to disrupt it, and has a track record of doing so.

They want to get the sense that in a situation where others might have played it safe
and tried to hit an iron shot into the center of the fairway, you put yourself on the line,
took a risk, and reached for your driver, knowing that you might fail, but having the
belief in yourself and the courage to follow through on your will. They want people who
can redefine solutions to conventional problems, and strive to preempt unconventional
dilemmas with cutting-edge ideas, because when someone is uncomfortable with “the
way things are,” good things tend to happen from a business perspective. Basically
they’re saying “Show us that discomfort with the status quo. We demand integrity and
respect passion,” but then again, who doesn’t.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER – PART 1

There are two themes that jump out in that intro:

1. Intellectual Might – No real surprise here, but it’s a specific brand of intellect.
The one that’s coupled with that second component:
2. Restlessness – Sitting around, doing what you’re told to do, choosing NOT to
“re-open the case because someone else said that it was unsolvable,” having a
great idea, but not having the time to pursue it – these are all the OPPOSITE of
 60

the person who’s restless. The restless person is always lusting for some
opportunity to improve something, change the game, break the mold.

The smart person alone who lacks restlessness isn’t all that interesting. Similarly, a
restless person who isn’t a next-level problem solver is still attractive (and maybe
worth taking a risk on), but MIT is lucky enough to have the kind of demand where
they can screen for the guys and gals who have BOTH.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER – PART 2

Great, so, now we have a couple themes to make sure we’re going to PROVE in our
cover letters: (1) I’m as intellectually next-level as it gets, but also (2) my arch
nemesis is the Status Quo. Cool so… how does one… execute… that… in a cover letter?
Awesome question. Let’s step back for a second. What’s an actual cover letter like in
real life? In first-date terms, it’s the VERY first impression. The first time you LAY EYES
on your date. It’s the way that person LOOKS to you. It’s the body language that sends
either attractive or unattractive signals. In other words, it’s mostly animal instinct. In
fact, let’s run with that. In animal interaction terms, it’s “is this other animal a harmless
friend? Or a predator? What cues do I have from the LOOK of this animal, and the WAY
IT MOVES to provide an answer to that?”

It’s important to consider this deeply. Because the “impression” we’re talking about
happens very quickly and does not tap into the more evolved (and relaxed) part of our
brains that care about nuance. Why is this significant? Because it’s different from an
essay where the reader is generally poised to spot you that first impression, and “hear
what you have to say.”

The cover letter is the moment before all that where you have to EARN that next part.
This has implications for STYLE and HOW you write your cover letter. It’s one of the
few instances on an MBA application where HOW you attack this is almost as
important as WHAT you’re attacking with. You can’t just write your way into seeming
like a forward-leaning, restless person. You have to COME ACROSS that way in your
actual writing. You can’t take your time proving that you’re intellectually next-level
over the course of four or five sentences. It has to be evident right at the beginning in
“the way you look” and “in your body language.”

Writing cover letters is a true art form, and in our experience the meek and
conventional are almost NEVER rewarded. Boldness, assertiveness, risk-taking,
authority, confidence, borderline brazen-ness… these are all desirable qualities in a
kickass cover letter. Just shy of being smug (no one likes smugness). This is the part
where you smirk to yourself, and find your swagger before you put pen to paper.
 61

Now for the actual 300 words themselves, you need to convey a bunch of things:

• I understand what your program is, and what you’re looking for.
• I LIKE your program and I want to be in it BECAUSE (this is the part that most
people miss) your program helps me get to where *I* need to go better than any
other place.
• Now I’m going to give you just a taste that will make YOU ultimately want to
chase ME, and not the other way around. Let me walk you through an example
or two of what it is that I’m all about. You’ll see within these glimpses (1) that I’m
a restless m*********er, (2) My intellect has a headache because it keeps hitting
the ceiling, and (3) that I understand what an MBA can do for me, and that my
energy right now to TAKE FROM and CONTRIBUTE TO an MBA program is a net
win for everyone: me, my classmates, MIT, and eventually… the world, once I’m
out of here.

That may sound like a lot for 300 words, and in some ways it is. But, if you stay
intensely focused on those three bullets, no matter how long your first draft ends up
being, you’re going to have EXCELLENT clay to mold. If you have a natural tendency to
write in a tone that isn’t too stiff and has some personality, then great. Your work will
be easier. If you DON’T have that natural flair for letting personality invigorate your
prose, fret not. Stay focused on those three bullets. Try not to deviate. And you’ll end up
with something that’s (at its worst) extremely targeted. Targeted = confident. There’s
always room to infuse drafts with some personality, but the hard part is getting the
core content NAILED.

Resume

Please submit a résumé that includes your employment

history and academic record in reverse chronological order.
Other information appropriate to a business resume is
welcomed and encouraged (no more than 1 page in length).

We have lots to say about resumes… including all the juicy nuggets contained in this
entire guide ([Link]
guide/) we created specifically to help you write a killer one-pager. But let’s key in on a
few CHOICE words from MIT here.
 62

Reverse chronological order is fairly standard, but the fact that they’re throwing a
spotlight on it is a hint that either or both (1) some folks do it the opposite way and
LEAD with earlier stuff, like college, and then whatever comes next, but maybe more
interestingly (2) that the truly important stuff is the most recent few years of your life.

The dialogue in the reader’s head probably goes something like “Let me get a quick
gauge about where this person is at RIGHT now, what s/he’s up to, and what s/he’s
achieving TODAY. Got it, now, let me get a sense of the career ARC. Where did this
person start out, what was s/he achieving at any given moment, but also, does his
trajectory from one node to the next feel sluggish? Or does this person feel like a
juggernaut? Is s/he just blowing out the competition left and right, or is s/he doing
serviceable-level work? Where does it seem like it’s all headed?

Anyway, use reverse chronological order to offer up that initial high-level glimpse, then
they can dip as far back as they need to get as much as of the story as they care to.

The other neat thing worth mentioning is this: “Other information appropriate to a
business résumé is welcomed and encouraged.” On the one hand they’re talking about
stuff like community service and volunteer activity, but also, they’re asking you to
“unflatten” the 2D portrait of yourself with dimension in the form of skills, hobbies,
interests, quirks; in other words “stuff that may be unique to you and/or interesting as
hell to read about. Some folks go to this section FIRST before scanning the rest, to hunt
for signs of life. Have fun here folks. Include FUN stuff. Include weird stuff. Cool talents,
weird talents, weird anything. You’ll want someone to reel you in because you CAN go
overboard. But take a swing. Straightforward and lifeless just puts that much more
pressure on the REST of your writing to provide all the personality and color. This is an
easy way to INSTANTLY stand out against a person with a similar “résumé.”

Interview Invitation Essay

The mission of the MIT Sloan School of Management is to develop principled,

innovative leaders who improve the world, and to generate ideas that advance
management practice. We believe that a commitment to diversity, inclusion, equity,
and well-being is a key component of both principled leadership and sound
management practice.
 63

In 250 words or less, please describe how you, as a member

of the MIT Sloan community, would work to create a campus
that is welcoming, inclusive and increasingly diverse.

Details for submitting your essay will be included in the interview invitation.
Candidates will be invited by email to interview up until the decision
deadlines. Interviews will be conducted at MIT Sloan and in several key regions
around the globe. Please indicate on your application your preferred location to
interview. Note that interviews are conducted on weekdays and during business
hours.

The key to this question isn’t how thoughtful you are, or how good your answer is.
Weird, uncomfortable, but true. A good response is helpful, but it’s not gonna do the
trick.

For this moment, the key to the castle comes down to something more important:
believability.

Think about politicians for a second. Guy or gal gets up there and says “I wanna lower
unemployment and put everyone back to work!”

Can you name the political candidate who promised that? {Wait for it… wait for it….}

Answer: Every politician who has ever run, ever, period, end of story. 100% of
candidates, lifetime.

Let’s say that lowering unemployment was a vitally important campaign issue to me
somehow. Whom should I vote for, if everyone promises it? The guy/gal with the best-
sounding plan?

... Or the guy/gal I BELIEVE?

Think about that carefully. It’s easy to “say something amazing.” Anyone can. The
believability part is a much trickier proposition. Muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch trickier. So,
let’s get into it.

Typically, believability is earned through a magical combination of three things (it

doesn’t have to be an equal mix, by the way, it can be ANY combination):
 64

1. Track Record. (Have they walked the talk time and time again in their careers?
that can be bulletproof; “Here’s my plan, and by the way, I’ve already DONE
versions of this 10x in my 30-year career. 100% success rate. I did it here, under
the most impossible circumstances. I did it again here, when no one believed I
could. And then again here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. I’d like to
do it again. Think I can?”)
2. Unquantifiable Believability. This is the part no one wants to talk about. [The
stuff Admissionado isn’t afraid of.] “Your Personality.” Yes, folks, people have
vibes. Some folks are just… off-putting, or really friendly, or ridiculously
confident-seeming, or really … suspicious-looking, or so trustworthy-just-look-
at-him!, or… so UNtrustworthy——-just-look-at-him! It can’t be measured, it’s
vapor that comes off of you, the way you look someone in the eyes, how
nervous or not nervous you seem, your body language, how calculated you
sound, or how freely the ideas flow/how natural it all seems. That can’t be
taught folks, “or you got it, or you ain’t.” {Translation: either you have it, or you
don’t.} Imagine someone talking about how they’d love to give money to the
poor, with ONE eyebrow raised, smirking uncontrollably, and rubbing their
hands like a Bond villain. If that guy couldn’t help it because he had a medical
condition which required that he rub his hands that way, and he was born with
one eyebrow permanently raised, yes it would be heartbreaking for that guy,
but it wouldn’t change the fact that you might not believe him because all of
that stuff FEELS unreliable to you. If you’re extremely believable naturally, it
can help. If you’re extremely HARD to believe naturally, you have a steeper
slope to overcome.
3. Something About Your Ideas Seems Unusually Thoughtful, Results-Focused,
and A Bit Different From What Everyone Else is Saying, Oh and Genuine and
Not-Made-Up-Sounding. Not the pithiest of categories, but perhaps the most
significant one for you guys, at this moment. This is the one you have the most
control over. It’s too late for the track record one… whatever you’ve done in the
past to support your claim of being a proven “I’m thoughtful of others” guy… is
what it is. And the raw personality stuff also kinda is what it is. With THIS ONE
though, you can affect the narrative by being thoughtful. Let’s go even deeper
on this third one…

“… please describe how you, as a member of the MIT Sloan community, would work to
create a campus that is welcoming, inclusive and increasingly diverse…”

What are you gonna ACTIVELY do to “create” a campus that’s all of those things? What
CAN someone do? It’s so easy to sound like a Beauty Pageant contestant who “says
something that sounds amazing but is tough to believe that there will be much follow-
through.” Whatever your plan is here, it shouldn’t be TOO grandiose, first of all. The
 65

simpler, the more reasonable, the better. Here’s a GREAT test to apply… does your idea
here seem like something YOU WOULD HAVE DONE HAD THEY NOT ASKED THIS
QUESTION? If it sounds like a made-up thing (even if it’s a great idea) that you ONLY
considered because someone asked… kill it. And try again. Think about stuff you would
have done ORDINARILY, when no one was looking, that HAPPENS to fit within this idea
of something that would promote the welcoming/inclusive/diverse quotient of the MIT
campus.

A good example would have the FEEL of “Well, let me just walk you through my normal
protocol for whenever I start ANYTHING new, regardless of the where or what. First I do
X, because of Y. And then I do A because of B. Here’s what happens as a result, and why
I’ve been so committed to it. An example of that in my past is this, and then that. MIT
would be no different for me. I’ve already kinda mapped this out; see I’m gonna do X Y
and Z because that’s just how I roll. And it’s nice to see that that aligns perfectly with
what y’all are after. Good for us, we fit!”

(Notice how we snuck in some TRACK RECORD in there? As well as the

Thoughtful/Result-Oriented/Not-Made-Up-Sounding? And finally, the WAY you deliver
it, if it doesn’t seem too deliberate can chip away at the BELIEVABILITY component as
well. Booya.)

That’s just one example, by the way, don’t copy it because if everyone comes to the
table with that setup, you’re toast. Find your own way, but the first and most important
thing to consider is “does this sound like something I was gonna do regardless…” If the
answer is yes, your on your way to a strong response.

Video Prompt

Please introduce yourself to your future classmates via a

brief 60 second video statement.

(This video will be used for application purposes only and will not be shared.) Videos
should be a single take (no editing) lasting no more than one minute and consisting
of you speaking directly to the camera. We recommend using an application such as
QuickTime or iMovie to record yourself.
 66

Upload the video file according to the detailed instructions within the application. We
support the following file formats: .avi, .flv, .m1v, .m2v, .m4v, .mkv, .mov, .mpeg, .mpg,
.mp4, .webm, .wmv.

Should you experience difficulties uploading your file, please ensure that you’re
using a modern web browser (Chrome, Firefox, or Safari) on the fastest wired Internet
connection available. An intermittent or slow Internet connection can cause uploads
to timeout.

How on Earth can you prepare for something so open-ended!? Well, lots of ways:
Step 1: Know Your Greatest Hits. What are the absolute best stories you have, lifetime,
ever? Get acquainted with them according to category. Stuff like, what are my one or
two best:

• Leadership Stories?
• Failure Stories?
• Funny Moments at Work Stories?
• Funny Moments Outside of Work Stories?
• Stories That Capture the ESSENCE of who I am?
• Business Ideas that would change the world?
• People I admire?
• Favorite Movies (or books or songs or bands)?
• etc.

Step 2: Get a feel for what 1 minutes is. In fact, get a feel for what 50-55 seconds is.
Answer some of these questions within that timeframe. Write out a response, look at it
on the page. How many sentences is it? Get comfortable with 1 minute.

Step 3: Record yourself ten times, answering ten different questions. How do you
look? Are you looking at the camera? Or are you looking AT YOURSELF ON SCREEN
WHILE RECORDING? Are you fidgeting? Are you moving your hands too much? Are
you stumbling over words? Are you reading from a script?

Step 4: Get comfortable to the point where you no longer need to feel rehearsed, or
nervous. Copy a list of “interview” questions, keep them hidden, and then test yourself
by revealing a question, give yourself 60 seconds to come up with a response, and then
record a response in 60 seconds. Do this enough times, and you’ll start to develop “IQ”
for “this kind of question.”

The worst thing you can do? Seem overly rehearsed. Meaning, don’t rehearse and
deliver exact sentences. It will defeat the purpose of the ENTIRE experiment. The point
 67

is to relax the bad kind of nerves to allow your free-est self to SHINE. For some folks,
this comes utterly naturally, and honestly, they can skip maybe all those steps. Others
might benefit from some dry runs just so that there’s a better chance at real
assertiveness and confidence on “the big day.”

This is not the time for you to convince someone how smart you are, how good a leader
you are, how much of a restless intellectual you are——this is the part where you get
the other to LIKE you and WANNA GET TO KNOW YOU MORE because you come across
irresistible in some way shape or form. This is 100% about personality, and 0% about
resume. If we watch this video and say “wow, what an impressive person!” you shanked
it. If, however, we say “holy crap I would KILL to meet that person” or “Man, I’d like to
invite THAT person to a dinner party,” then congrats, because that’s the correct
reaction.

If you’re not naturally gifted in extemporaneous speaking, then there are things you
can do to develop some of that swagger. Those steps above may be worth considering
as a starting point.

Optional Essay
[Please see the section on Optional/Re-Applicant essays at the very end...]
 68

NORTHWESTERN (KELLOGG)

SURPRISING moments within all of us, where we became men and women. Usually it
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NORTHWESTERN (KELLOGG)
Kellogg MBA Essay 1

Kellogg’s purpose is to educate, equip & inspire brave leaders

who create lasting value. Tell us about a time you have
demonstrated leadership and created lasting value. What
challenges did you face, and what did you learn? (450 words)

Tricky one. Created lasting value? First of all, that’s some serious sh*t. Second, how
would you know if you actually created lasting value? It’s one thing to think that that’s
the case. It’s another thing for it to be true, persistently. First thing’s first, we need to
identify our story before anything else…

Creating lasting value implies bringing something new to the table. You changed a
company’s algorithm for hiring: previously they’d focused on X, you inspired them
instead to focus on Y. Or, you pursued a growth opportunity no one had ever considered
before. It worked, and now it’s a stable and NEW soure of revenue. There are a million
versions. Whatever it is you did … it can’t have been in the job description. It can’t have
been something that was expected of you. It has to be something YOU brought to the
table in a somehow surprising way. Think of your best few examples of that, good
starting point.

Now, let’s talk about how you LED the thing. This particular leadership example
requires proactively doing something that otherwise wouldn’t have happened. What
were the stakes? What stood in your way? Why was it difficult? What were your
personal risks? What propelled your forward in SPITE of those challenges? What were
you hoping to achieve? Take us through your actions, bringing us into your thought
process along the way. Let’s see how your gears work.

Finally, what did you learn along the way? Everything work out as expected? Congrats,
you didn’t learn anything. There must have been twists. An instance when you were
WRONG. An instance when you made a bad call. An instance when a certain challenge
was HARDER than you expected. An aspect of yourself that you had rated too highly, or
not highly enough. Something that bumped along the way. Take us through the
“before” and “after” here. Somewhere inside that delta of where you landed AFTER this
experience should have POSITIVE implications for your NEXT leadership adventure. If
 70

you have an example, even better. If not, throw it into the future regardless, forecasting
how you’ll APPLY some of the lessons learned here.

Organization:

Part I – Setup the Situation. Explain the status quo you were hoping to disrupt. Or the
boss’s directive. Whatever it was that led to your stepping into a leadership role and
ultimately delivering something cool and NEW to the table. Set it up by explaining what
the goal was, what the challenges were, why it was important, and what you stood to
gain or lose. End this section laying out what would be required for “someone” to step in
and lead this thing to success. (100 words)

Part II – Explain the leadership stuff. Take us through the “what you did” piece, step by
step, decision by decision. Confict to conflict. Inner debate, weighing options, eventual
decisions. All of it. Lay it all out. (125 words)

Part III – How did this create lasting value? Now comes the tricky part. Where’s the
evidence that this “was bigger than you,” and actually fundamentally changed things?
First we need to learn of this in some verifiable way other than “you think it created
value.” How did you come to learn of it? Walk us through that, and then explain in plain
terms what that value actually means, in the simplest of terms we can understand.
(100-125 words)

Part IV – Wha’d Ya Learn? This is reflection time. Time to expose some of those bumps.
Bad calls. Incorrect assumptions. Doesn’t have to be “bad” but something that
convincingly outs you as a REFLECTIVE individual. Put yourself on trial here, throw
yourself under the microscope. Make a case for why the version of you at the END of
this experience is better than the guy at its BEGINNING. Try to wrap your mind around
that… Something shifted along the way to IMRPOVE you. What was it? Take your time
to identify what those things might have been, and try to articulate it all as simply and
clearly as you possibly can here. (100-125 words)

Kellogg MBA Essay 2

Pursuing an MBA is a catalyst for personal and professional

growth. How have you grown in the past? How do you intend
to grow at Kellogg? (450 words)

Let’s talk about two things here.

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1. First what is growth?

2. And second, how to relate this to Kellogg?

Growth. Growth is all about change from X to Y. Consider a plant. If a plant is in a

certain environment, subjected to certain external pressures and conditions, it will
experience a fundamental change we call “growth.” It may lengthen. It may produce
flowers. Whatever it is, there’s some kind of DELTA between the before and after. Easy
enough to understand right?

Okay, but let’s dig into it a bit more. What actually caused that growth? Was it the DNA
of the plant? Or was it the conditions it was exposed to? Well, it can’t JUST be the DNA. If
that were true, you could plant evergreen trees in the middle of the Sahara desert and
they’d do just fine right? Wrong. The DNA is a terrible match for the harsh, arid
environment of the desert. So, DNA alone doesn’t ensure growth. Likewise, conditions
are only as effective as the “DNA” of the thing they’re influencing. Reverse it. Apply rain
to coniferous trees and they love it. Apply the same rain to succulents, and it’s lights
out. We’ve just applied the wrong “environment” to the DNA.

Conclusion: it has to be a match of (1) the inherent characteristics of the element, AND
(2) the conditions of its environment. This is a key concept as you consider your own
growth stories. First, you have to talk about growth in terms of a clear before and after.
But also, you must address what the environment was, and how it influenced “your
DNA.” In order to do this well, you need show a clear understanding of what you’re
made of, and how that particular environment helped to shape it.

Now, you need to airlift that formula and apply it to something you detect about
Kellogg. What is it about the Kellogg environment that holds promise for you that you
will grow in a similar way? What is about their culture, or a specific aspect of their
curriculum, or some other Kellogg-specific thing that is going to exert a force on you
that encourages personal growth? The only way you can predict this is if you have a
story in your past that shows how you respond to certain stimuli, that you can then
connect to something at Kellogg that therefore holds the same promise for you.

Structure:

First, walk us through a “growth” story. Paint a clear before and a clear after, and
explain how the ENVIRONMENT acted to help SHAPE that transformation from A to B.
Hover on the environmental aspect, focus on the stuff that helped bring about that
change. What were those external influences? How did they inspire you to grow?
 72

Now, identify specific aspects of Kellogg that resemble those “conditions.” Be careful,
the stuff you pick can’t apply equally well to other schools, or else your point won’t
weigh anything. It has to be Kellogg specific. Now explain the parallel to how these
conditions are the exact conditions that promote personal growth in you. We’ll believe
you because you’ve already PROVEN this in section 1.

Certain applicants will respond to additional questions:

Dual-degree applicants: For applicants to the MMM or JD-

MBA dual degree programs, please explain why that
program is right for you. (250 words)

Not much to analyze here, but here’s a neat little trick. Explain your goals. Then, in
general terms what SOMEONE (anyone) might need in order to achieve those goals.
Then explain what it is you already have, which should get you to about 60-70% of the
way there. Now explain how either the MMM or JD-MBA program specifically allows
YOU to shore up YOUR specific gaps to meet your established goals. It’s two
paragraphs, pretty straightforward:

Paragraph 1 – These are my goals. This is what someone needs in order to succeed at
these goals. This is what I have, and more interestingly, everything I don’t have … and
therefore need.

Paragraph 2 – This specific dual degree is ideal because unlike THIS OTHER path, and
THIS OTHER path, this combines XYZ and solves ABC in this and that amazingly
efficient and effective way. Check out these three specific examples of how this
program specifically shores up gaps in MY SPECIFIC profile and helps me get to my
SPECIFIC goals… perfectly.

Video Essay

The Video Essay is one component of the application and provides you with an
additional opportunity to demonstrate what you will bring to our vibrant Kellogg
community – in an interactive way. You will respond to several short video essay
questions. The questions are designed to bring to life the person we have learned
about on paper.
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After submitting an application and payment, you will be able to access the video
essay through the your application status page. One question will be a “get to know
you” icebreaker type of question. The second question will be an opportunity to
describe your plans for the future and how Kellogg will help you on that journey. The
other questions will be randomly generated questions that will be similar to
interview questions.

There are practice questions that you may complete as many times as you like to get
comfortable with the format and technology. The practice questions and experience
will simulate the actual video essay experience, so this is meant to be a useful tool to
help you feel prepared.

We encourage you to practice so you are comfortable with the format once it is time
to complete the official questions. There is not an opportunity to re-do the answer to
the official video essay questions.

You will have 20 seconds to think about the question and up to one minute to give
your response.

We estimate the video essays will take 20-25 minutes to complete – which includes
time for set-up and answering all the practice questions. You will need an internet
connected computer with a webcam, microphone and an updated version of Adobe
Flash in order to complete the video essay.

[This is from an article that lives on our blog: Live video essays seem to be the next big
thing. They started off a few years ago as optional for some applications, but now
Kellogg, Yale, Rotman, BU, Fisher, Sauder, and others all have video essays. In most
cases, applicants have ONE minute to address a surprise question (they DO give you a
whole 20 seconds to think first!) pulled from a pool.

Basically you’ll have three chances to create your video answer, so don’t sweat.
Figuratively and perhaps literally. You may be saying, “Well, since I don’t know what
the question will be, there’s no use in preparing,” but actually, that couldn’t be further
from the truth. You BEST get comfortable, son! With being in front of the camera,
talking off the cuff, addressing a non-human while seeming human... etc. So here are
SEVEN tips to help you get ready:

1) Practice Practice, Practice: Like anything else, the more you practice, the better you
will become. It’s just like swinging a bat or kicking a ball. Like the GMAT, the TOEFL, or
any other test, crushing this video essay means preparing for it, and the first step is
recognizing of the types of questions that are asked. Go through the questions from
previous years, and prepare one-minute answers to them. Sure, you will get a different
question, but the practice will be invaluable. Ideally you will not only practice the
questions with a timer, but record yourself, watch it, show to others, analyze it, and
make corrections. Get comfortable with the type of questions that have been asked and
 74

your ability to craftily articulate an answer on the spot. The trick is to not seem
rehearsed. Get comfortable answering the same question in five different ways, using
different words, different segues, different energies, but landing in the same place. This
is like any other muscle. The more you practice, the more you NOTCH GROOVES that
will come in handy when you don't have time to think. Your body will know how to help
you out, by sheer memory.

2) Keep your goals in mind: Let’s not forget that no matter what the question is, this is
still a business school essay, and business school revolves around one main thing –
your getting better management roles in the business world. That doesn’t mean you
should answer any question asked by blurting out what your goals are, but it does
mean that you should always keep them in mind no matter what question you’re
asked and incorporate them or speak to them whenever possible. That’s the point of the
entire application, and that always remains the same whether you’re writing a
response or recording yourself speaking.

3) Watch the Time: Probably the biggest challenge the first time you will approach this
live video essay will be getting out a logical answer within 60 seconds. It’s not easy, but
practicing with a timer will help you get there. One nice method to help with BOTH the
timing and the structure is to break up the answer into parts. Regarding timing, it’s
much easier to stretch out a single 20-second idea into 60 seconds than to try take a 3-
minute story and squish it down.

4) Watch the lighting, background and overall look: Schools might tell you that
production doesn’t matter, but come on. Of course it does. As anyone who’s been
involved with a semi-professional shoot knows, when it comes to making a video, it’s
the little things that can make the biggest impact on quality. Try out a few different
lamps and light sources to see which ones seem the most reasonable, without any
MAJOR glares, shiny spots, or dark spots. Try to avoid contrast with super bright
sections on the screen and super dark ones too. The best way to achieve this is to face
the camera AWAY from bright light sources (like a window); in other words, do not put
BRIGHT windows or lights into the camera frame behind you. The camera will adjust to
the light, and your face will go completely dark. Instead, let the light live BEHIND the
computer/camera so that YOU are well lit, but it's not in the frame of the camera.
Beyond that, try to have the LEAST amount of stuff in frame. While an all white wall
behind you is boring as hell, it may be better than a background that for whatever
reason pulls attention AWAY FROM YOU and ONTO IT. The blander the better here.

5) Dress professionally: What does this mean? When in doubt, steer toward the side of
formality and go with business casual attire. Shirt, maybe jacket (but that might be a
little fancy), professional attire folks, come to play.

6) Test the equipment: The worst thing that can happen is that you realize your
camera isn’t working or your mic isn’t picking up sound when you’re sitting down for
the main event. So test your equipment thoroughly DAYS IN ADVANCE. Not "day of."
 75

This is obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people go into freak-out mode
because something goes wrong and then are forced to write to the admissions
committee an apologetic email.

7) Keep eye contact with the CAMERA: Yeah… this is one of the hardest things to get
used to and subsequently, a very good thing to keep in mind while you’re practicing.
Most people will get stuck looking at their own image on the screen while they’re
recording. Eye contact works. In real life and in the virtual world. So focus on the tiny
dot that is the camera.

Oh and ... smile. The last thing they wanna see is an uptight stuffed shirt!
 76

NYU (STERN)

SURPRISING moments within all of us, where we became men and women. Usually it
 77

NYU (STERN)
Professional Aspirations

What are your short and long-term career goals? How will
the MBA help you achieve them? (500 word maximum,
double-spaced, 12-point font)

If there’s such a thing as a garden variety MBA application essay, this is it.
Start with getting our BUY IN. On what, you ask? On the importance of your idea; on the
opportunity itself; on your will to succeed. You’ve got some options here, but for us to
engage, we need to buy in.

Part 1 – Generally, it’s best to establish the opportunity at hand or the thing that needs
to be fixed or improved. There are two sides of the same basic coin. In your opening,
explain the status quo (how things are today). Then sell us on why there’s a cooler
version of this. Either a solution to a problem or a game-changing result that comes
from exploiting a ripe opportunity. Once you’ve done that, give us a big picture taste of
your long-term vision, the peering-into-the-horizon-one-liner version. This sets the
stage, gets us excited, provides a frame, and compels us to lean forward a bit and root
for your success. (75-100 words)

Part 2 – Take us through the battle plan now. This should read like a recipe with
several steps or a military combat strategy. It should be utterly logical and it should
seem achievable. We should develop a sense along the way that each step builds on the
prior one, or at the very least, is progressing toward something. And it should be
evident that you know what you’re talking about and that you’ve researched it. You’ve
got to show that you’ve done enough homework to have a sense of what’s required for
success, before claiming your ability to succeed. That’s the crucial point. Being realistic
and sober here will count far more than issuing lofty-SOUNDING goals. We want
success to feel inevitable based on the “calculations” you’ve laid bare here. (100-125
words)

Part 3 – Move from the short-term into the longer-term aspects of your aspirations.
Try to avoid naming the job or the job title in your dream vision. Instead, focus on what
the RESULTS will be. If and when you succeed at the thing you’re hoping to succeed at,
what changes? Who is affected? What does that “After” picture look like? And why does
that inspire you? This will help you cut to the “what’s powering you” aspect of your
 78

long-term goals. Again, don’t try to impress us with the idea itself. Instead, impress us
by convincing us that it’s meaningful to YOU. Sell us on THAT. (There’s a difference.)
(75-100 words)

Part 4 – Briefly establish what’s required in order for you to start achieving success
toward your short-term goals. Then (also briefly) convince us that you have MOST of
that stuff, but not all of it (because if you had all of it, why waste time with an MBA?).
Clearly, something is missing. There’s a gap somewhere. There are skills that need
sharpening. You’re LACKING something. Make us HUNGRY for you to fill those gaps
because you’ve done such a good job here laying out that you’re oh-so-close for
success but not-quite-there-yet. (50-75 words)

Part 5 – Now that we’ve laid THAT groundwork, walk us through specifically how
aspects of a certain kind of MBA training will meet YOUR needs specifically. Be smart
here. Talk about how not just ANY MBA will be helpful toward your goals (that isn’t true
is it?), but that only an MBA that has A, B, and C specific traits will help your specific X,
Y, and Z needs. Then, for bonus points, cite very specific ways in which NYU meets
those needs in particular. But don’t dwell on them because they haven’t asked for that
here. They want to know – instead – that you “get” what an MBA is, and why it’s
important for YOUR success given YOUR goals. The person who “gets that idea” is the
one who is likely to succeed over the person who can write the best love letter to NYU.

Personal Expression (a.k.a. "Pick Six")

Describe yourself to the Admissions Committee and to your

future classmates using six images and corresponding
captions. Your uploaded PDF should contain all of the
following elements:

• A brief introduction or overview of your “Pick Six” (no more than 3 sentences).
• Six images that help illustrate who you are.
• A one-sentence caption for each of the six images that helps explain why they
were selected and are significant to you.
 79

Note: Your visuals may include photos, infographics, drawings, or any other images
that best describe you. Your document must be uploaded as a single PDF. The essay
cannot be sent in physical form or be linked to a website.

It’s three sentences to tee the whole thing up and then a single sentence for each
picture to help explain and bring them to life. Let’s figure out what they’re looking for
here.

“Describe yourself.” To succeed at this exercise, one should be able to GLANCE at your
six images (without ANY accompanying words) and be able to make some accurate
predictions about who you are as a person. The closer that viewer’s “guess” is to what
you’re actually like in real life, the better the execution. In fact, imagine that’s the
challenge in itself. An adcom member reviews your six pictures and then says, “Okay,
when I meet this person they’re going come across THIS way; they’ll be the kind of
person who in THIS situation or would make THAT choice; it’s the kind of person who
probably has THIS kind of story; if he were among the Game of Thrones cast, he’d be
the ABC character” … Then when you meet, the Adcom member says “Wow, s/he’s
exactly as I imagined.” All that means is that whatever you communicated in those six
picks was unbelievably efficient and effective in conveying something about who you
are, and what you’re all about.

What stuff are we conveying then? It includes hints of your:

• Personality
• Character
• Quirks

Everything else BEYOND that? Is gravy. If you give us other stuff but neglect those
things, then you’ve probably shanked it. This is not your resume. This is not a 6-page
PowerPoint of your “Billion-Dollar Idea.” It’s six images that allow us to CAST you in the
perfect movie role “because we understand who you are so well from the pictures.”

One quick word about drawings and infographics: don’t pack so much stuff INTO a
single image that it defeats the point of the exercise. The whole point is to try to reduce
you to your essence through an ECONOMY of expression. Otherwise, you could write an
essay in really small font, take a picture of that essay, and include it here. See how
that’s missing the point? It would be like watching a movie where it was just a
continuous scroll of the screenplay, rather than a picturization OF the screenplay.
 80

Embrace the medium here folks. Understand the intention behind limiting it to (A)
images, and (B) only six of them, total. It’s about high yield. That’s where the creativity
comes into play.

What series of six images SUM to complete the most complete (and compelling) HINT
about who you are? They don’t all need to interconnect on an individual level. Meaning,
if Picture #1 is a photograph you once took of a SCENE IN NATURE that you really love,
it doesn’t mean that Pictures #2–6 all need to conform to that general rule. The key is
that they need to “sum” to something coherent. Even if the conclusion is that you’re a
completely chaotic and random person, it’s possible for your six pictures to tell THAT
story. Whatever it is, it needs to “work” though. If multiple people walk away with
multiple impressions, chances are, it is weak. There are no points for the “everyone’s
opinion is equally valid” nature of admiring abstract art. If anything, it’s the exact
opposite challenge here. Your task is to make it so that multiple people are forced
toward a very similar conclusion about who and what you are. Now, it’s possible that
some may LIKE what that is, and others may not… the key is that they can at least all
agree on what it IS.

Lots of ways to approach this so we’re just going to give you a taste of a few, but truly,
there are many many many solid ways to go about it:

[1] A narrative. If you want to tell us about an evolution of sorts that shows us
who/what you are TODAY compared to who/what you were “six iterations” ago, that
could be cool. Six shades of YOU, where Slide 1 is You.0, then Slide 2 is You.1, etc. The
idea here is that we learn something about you through the CHANGES over time. And
the images don’t have to be of YOU, per se. It’s possible we can learn something about
you through the evolution of your hobbies, or some other means. Lots of room for
creativity here.

[2] Or, it can be a recipe for how to create “you.” Slide 1 is ingredient #1. (Imagine the
possibilities, they are endless for what could go here.)

[3] You are what you eat. Six slides of foods that somehow represent every aspect of
who you are: Slide 1 – Thai Green Chile Peppers (fresh, hot, unafraid to be scalding when
need be). Slide 2 – XXXXX ?

The possibilities really are endless. It could be a hand-drawn comic strip that stitches
together a simple story that tells us everything we need to know about who you are
through a comical tale. It could be six things you’d spend money to acquire if you won
the lottery. See how it’s endless? The trick is, with ANY of these ideas, it needs to
convey something very clear about who you are, such that we could make some
 81

predictions about you based on those six images (and the accompanying
theme/captions).

There’s not really a “wrong” way to approach this, other than the one which looks like a
glorified resume, or an attempt to impress us somehow. It says more about your self-
confidence, in fact, if there’s a conspicuous LACK of that instinct…

Optional Essay
[Please see the section on Optional/Re-Applicant essays at the very end...]
 82

STANFORD (GSB)

SURPRISING moments within all of us, where we became men and women. Usually it
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STANFORD (GSB)
Length

Your answers for both essay questions combined may not exceed 1,150 words (1,200
words if you are applying to both the MBA and MSx programs). Each of you has your
own story to tell, so please allocate these words between your essays in the way that
is most effective for you.

Essay A: What matters most to you, and why?

For this essay, we would like you to:

• Do some deep self-examination, so you can genuinely illustrate who you are
and how you came to be the person you are.
• Share the insights, experiences, and lessons that shaped your perspectives,
rather than focusing merely on what you’ve done or accomplished.
• Write from the heart, and illustrate how a person, situation, or event has
influenced you.
• Focus on the “why” rather than the “what.”

This may be the hardest of all B-school essays to write, and to write well. Why?
Because it’s so open-ended. They haven’t just given you a hunk of clay and asked you
to mold it. They’ve given you canvas, paint, wood, sheet metal, circuit boards, copper
wire, and a hundred other elements and have asked you to “generate something awe-
inspiring.” While you’re painting a blue sky on your canvas paper, the guy in the station
next to you is creating a computer that can communicate with aliens. Intimidating.

What are others writing about!? What are the guys who are GETTING IN writing about?
Well, let’s start there—if that’s plaguing you, you’re asking the wrong question. It has
absolutely nothing to with WHAT others are writing about, but HOW they’re writing.
Don’t misunderstand us here; this isn’t about writing skill. B-school essays are never
about mastery of prose. The “how” here refers to the manner in which the successful
candidates are able to introspect, and walk around an experience, and assess and
interpret different points of view, and offer new and intriguing points of view, and
reveal deeply personal tales that offer key insights into what they’re MADE of—it’s any
number of those things. It’s not the story itself.
 84

Gonna lift some words from Stanford’s bullet points. Values, experiences, lessons.
Written from the heart. Influence.

We’ve talked about this Stanford essay a bunch before, so this time around, we wanna
focus on these concepts above.

Especially that word influence. What has shaped you? Who are you today, and what
process has brought that forward? If you’re the grand canyon, don’t tell us the specs of
how big you are, and how deep your canyons are. Instead, focus on the way WATER
and WIND eroded and molded you. It’s the shaping, the influencing, the MOLDING we
wanna know about. This is more revealing than “the result.” “The thing.” It’s all in the
shaping.

Consider the following statement. “I just landed a commercial jet containing 300
passengers.” Impressive? Maybe.

Let’s consider two authors of that statement. Author 1—a 58-year-old veteran pilot with
military experience, and 20 years of experience as a professional pilot. Author 1 has
flown hundreds of flights every year for the past 20 years. Let’s consider the same
statement, but introduce a new author, Author 2. Author 2 is 13 years old, scared of
heights, and has a crippling fear of flying. He needs to be sedated every time he flies, in
fact. One day, he wakes up mid-flight, due to his sedation unintentionally wearing off.
He notices all of the passengers beside him unconscious, the captains of the plane
incapacitated, and he turns out to be the only person on board who can communicate
with air traffic control. The kid puts on the headset, now fueled by a will to survive that
trumps all of his phobias, is guided by folks on the ground, and successfully lands the
plane, saving the lives of hundreds on board.

Now ask yourself, which “landing of the commercial jet” feels cooler, more revealing
about THE PERSON WHO PERFORMED THE FEAT? The answer is obvious, and the
example was purposely absurd to demonstrate a point. The stuff Stanford wants to
know about isn’t the “landing of the aircraft.” They wanna know about the phobia. The
decision to walk into the cockpit in spite of the phobia. They wanna know how
someone with these fears, with zero experience, etc. etc., could pull this thing off. They
wanna know about the WATER and WIND folks… that shaped the grand canyon. Not the
canyon itself.

So, let’s bring this back down to Earth. When you’re figuring out what matters most to
you, think about polarities in your development. The strongest stories are the ones that
have the most intense and compelling “arcs” where your starting point is here at point
A and then somehow, things, people, circumstances, experiences, etc. SHAPED you…
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MOLDED YOU (like water and air) to travel to point B where you ended up—essentially—
a different person. We need to understand all that CONTEXT. If you’re talking about an
experience that “changed” you, or that “made you who you are,” it’s only as effective as
our understanding of who you were BEFORE that experience so we can contextualize
the change. If a person affected you significantly, same deal—we need to know who you
were BEFORE that person affected you.

“Before & After” is an incredibly powerful tool for MOST B-school essays, and never
more powerful than here for Stanford’s famous essay.
Grand Canyon, ladies and gentlemen. But not the canyon itself—water and air. Water.
And air.

Essay B: Why Stanford?

Enlighten us on how earning your MBA at Stanford will enable you to realize your
ambitions.

• Explain your decision to pursue graduate education in management.

• Explain the distinctive opportunities you will pursue at Stanford.
• If you are applying to both the MBA and MSx programs, use Essay B to
address your interest in both programs.

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

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

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

Evvvvverywhere.

But so, after you’ve walked us through points 1 and 2 above, let’s dig in a bit to point 3.
How to understand Stanford well enough to approach this? Spend time on the website.
Read about the school elsewhere—articles, anything written by current or former
students. Talk to former students. Talk to current students. Visit the campus. Los of
ways to engage—where there’s a will, there’s a way. Read stuff by current or former
professors. Notice the trends of what kinds of professors came from Stanford. Notice
what kinds of companies were started at Stanford. Get a sense.

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

It’s an argument.

An argument that PROVES connectivity. Proves that there is something about Stanford
that not even a place like Harvard or LBS or Wharton or Top School X can quite satisfy
in the same way. That’s a great conceit to adopt here. You have a free ride to HBS. Why
would you PAY to go to Stanford instead? Convince me, as though I’m your spouse,
why this is not an insane decision. A great essay here can be between 400-500 words,
no need for it to live outside that range.
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UC BERKELEY (HAAS)
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UC BERKELEY (HAAS)
Essay #1 –– Tell us a six-word story that reflects a
memorable experience in your life-to-date. Elaborate on why
it is meaningful to you. (300 words maximum)

Tip: A successful six-word story will pique the reader’s interest in the forthcoming
explanation. Together the story and explanation will share a specific and personal
experience that helps the reader get to know you better, giving insight into your
character, value, or how you would uniquely contribute to the Berkeley-Haas
community. View sample six-word stories and video tips from the admissions
committee.

If you take a peek at the “six-word stories” prompt from the Haas admissions
committee, you’ll notice that it’s pretty loose. The good news? With six words, it’s hard
to do something “wrong.” The bad news? No such thing as bad news. We eat challenges
like this for breakfast. Bring it on, Haas.

Before we get to the six words, let’s consider the angle carefully: “memorable
experience.” This is helpful to keep in mind because they’re not looking for a catchy
slogan and then some words to back it up. So, what are they looking for? Well, it doesn’t
really matter. This is the part where the ol’ Admissionado approach will help get you
out of your own damn way. The temptation is to stew on those six words before
anything else, which is a bad idea.

We have a much better idea – go to your “greatest hits.” What story do you absolutely
HAVE to tell Haas? Which story will reveal something about you (that won’t naturally
be covered elsewhere) that completes a key missing dimension to your app? Peek
ahead to the rest of their questions. Let’s say you’ve got a great leadership story teed up
for one of them. If that’s the case, maybe you want to use THIS space to reveal how silly
and LIKEABLE you are.

(Because your calculation would be that (a) Leadership + (b) Insane Likeability = (c)
Dangerous Potential For Future Success.)

But flip it. Let’s say that when you’ve picked the BEST stories for the rest of the
prompts, you find that you’re MISSING a great leadership story. Or that there’s a
dimension to your leadership repertoire that MUST be told and is missing. Even if you
have a colorful story that COULD be told here, you may want to favor that other
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leadership angle, if that’s the right move. The point is, pick the story, not the catchiest
six-word story that comes to mind. No matter what the story, you can always develop a
KILLER six-word redux.

So, Step 1 here is pure, unadulterated Gestaltian strategy. The question is: what puzzle
piece goes here that completes the rest of your Haas application and gives you the
greatest bang for your buck? Once you’ve sewn that up, you’re ready to craft the thing.

At this point, you can start to have fun with the six-word aspect of it, and ping-pong
between starting with a six-word “story” (the six words themselves, that is) and then
fleshing out an actual 300-word exploration/explanation around it. Or, write the story
first and then mess around with how the six-word aspect might look. Whatever you do,
don’t get stuck, because you have an out: “start with whatever thing isn’t stuck”
(whether it’s the six-word thing, or the story part). No matter how you begin, you can
always refine both, together.

What does 300 words look like? It’s probably two normal-sized paragraphs or three
shorter ones. However you skin it, it’ll need to be efficient.

What are good angles to pursue here? Generally, self-deprecating, humorous stuff is
more likely to work well over heavy, poignant stuff. Why? Limited space. To tell a very
deeply meaningful story with concision… is almost to undermine or disrespect it.
Imagine giving a moving eulogy about a loved one as EFFICIENTLY as you could, in a
three-sentence wrap-up. Woops? It may be the one occasion where economy of words
is NOT preferable to… verbosity. When you emote, efficiency can sometimes feel
unfeeling. Don’t get us wrong, it’s doable. It just needs to work really, really well.

Safer plays?

The “Lesson-Learned” Story

Dear world, I’m going to tell you about a time when I learned a lesson the hard way. Or,
a time when I was humbled in a huge way. Or, a time when I was so sure about my
beliefs and was then proven wrong.

The key theme for something like this is the “turning point” moment when we are able
to see a Before and After picture and your recognition of it. That kind of introspection
can say a lot about a person’s future as a businessman/woman.

The “And-That’s-When-I-Discovered-this-Ridiculous-Quirk-About-Myself” Story

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This one’s more style than substance. It’s all about revealing something about yourself
– and possibly even the way you go about it – that makes the reader smirk when
reading it and want to meet you. It could be admitting to a cool hobby that’s unusual, or
a strange belief you have that’s wildly contrary to more popularly held ones, or
something strange you do that people have pointed out makes you so “you.”

To just say it outright can be weird, but Haas has given you an opportunity to encase it
in a “story” so it may go down smoother. The idea here is to make the other person
smile when you admit this, not much more than that. If you’re trying to even slightly
impress them, you’re going to belly flop. Keep this one light.

The “Light-Bulb-Moment” Story

“And that’s when I discovered the world of X, and my passion for it.” Or “Sitting there,
desperately willing my bladder to cooperate on the ‘It’s a Small World After All’ ride at
Disneyland, my game-changing idea for an app was hatched.”

If you have a really sincere passion for something (perhaps best if non-work-related
since you’ll be delving into that stuff in upcoming essays), and its “origin story” is
traceable to a single experience, this could be a cool place to dip into it.

The work-related version CAN work, however, if the story is unbelievably funny, or
insane. The key here is to channel your emotions when the light bulb actually went off
in your mind. What was going through your head? Watching people’s gears churning
can be a great way to imagine them as future leaders. It’s hard to do, so, when done
well, it can really have an impact. The key is not to get ahead of yourself and write
about the light-bulb moment with all your future knowledge. Write it before-during-
and-after you experienced it.

So, from the perspective of (A) “before you had those game-changing insights” to (B) the
things that were happening in real-time that were causing the light-bulb to go off,
finally to (C) the updated perspective, now that everything had changed in your mind.
Those are three DISTINCTLY DIFFERENT headspaces. The best versions of light-bulb
stories deliver all three.

The “I-Guarantee-You’ve-Never-Met-Anyone-Who-Could-Tell-You-THIS-Story” Story

“Ever marry someone, only to find out later on that they were once married and you
had no idea? Not totally uncommon. It happens. Ever then find out that that previous
spouse was a (benevolent) dictator of a small nation? Less common. Here’s how that
story goes.”
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If you have a story that you’re sure no one else on planet Earth could ever tell, do it
here. The more ridiculous, insane, un-fortuitous, improbable, unbelievable, etc… the
better. The ultimate litmus test must be that you’re sure no one has a similar story. Not
even the same story, but even a similar one. It has to be THAT ridiculous. Why?
Because that’s how it’ll stick. The kind of story you couldn’t even write in Hollywood
because the audience would reject its absurdity! That’s the story to tell here.

The “And-That’s-When-Everything-Changed” Story

Sometimes there are inflection points in life that are so profound that the “life before
that inflection point” can be almost unrecognizable. Chances are, there’s an incredible
story to tell. The key (a pattern you’ll see over and over again in our essay analyses) is
to devote time to the Before, such that the inflection point and whatever
comes After actually means something. There needs to be a stark contrast between
the two. There needs to a lot of change for an “everything changed” story, heh. Don’t get
ahead of yourself. Tell it in real-time as though it were happening now, rather than
writing it through a reflective “looking back on it now” lens. Writing in present tense is a
neat trick to help accomplish that.

Essay #2 –– Briefly describe your immediate post-MBA

career goal, and discuss how it will put you on a path to a
meaningful and rewarding career. (300 words maximum)

If you squint, and look very carefully at Haas’s Essay #2, and do your best
Admissionado impression (i.e., magically get smarter and cooler just like that), you’ll
notice that this is actually a THREE-PIECE question. Let’s examine all the pieces, one by
one.

Piece I.

Once equipped with a Haas MBA, whatcha gonna do? But, already, this requires a lot
more than just “saying what your goal is.” The best answer here will be some sort of
multi-year, multi-stage CAREER PLAN. Every plan will be different and everyone’s
timeline will be different, but generally, a short-term plan can be considered within a
five-year period, roughly. Maybe yours is shorter or longer but “1 year” is too short, and
“10 years” is too long. For argument’s sake, let’s say five.
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Presumably, at the end of the fifth year, your progress, your achievements, your skill
set, will all look different than they will on Day 1 of this journey, correct? Show us what
you’re PLANNING to look like in Year 5… starting from Day 1/Year 1. Step us through it
as you would the stages of a recipe. But, much like a recipe, don’t just tell us to “pour 1
cup of flour into a bowl.” We need to know what we’re making first, so that our mouths
water, we have a sense of destination, purpose, etc. That’s the “End of Year 5”
“meaningful and rewarding career” aspect, and we should put that first. Then show us
how your immediate post-MBA steps build toward achieving that goal.

Piece II.

The “invisible” stuff from that prompt… now, this isn’t a separate SECTION, but it needs
to be evident while you’re attacking “Part I”: Proof that you’re capable of achieving
everything you’re laying out. The plan is only as tasty as your ability to ACHIEVE it,
otherwise, who cares. So, as you’re walking through how Step 1 will earn you XYZ skills,
and ABC experiences that are crucial to the next step in the chain, be sure to sell on
your ability to “get that job in the first place.” It should be evident that you are a well-
researched, credible, thoughtful candidate with a sense of not just the plan, but also
your ability to follow through and execute on ALL of it.

Recap: give us the confidence that you can PULL THIS ALL OFF. All of this should take
up maybe 2/3 of this essay, roughly 200 words. Don’t be short on details, folks. This is
the place where specificity is your best friend.

Piece III.

This final section, probably a nice meaty paragraph, is also kind of misleading, or
rather, can easily be dealt with… sub-optimally. The wrong way to play this is to view
this as an opportunity to make someone ELSE care about your goal as much as you. To
sell THEM on the heart and soul of it as though they are skeptics. Decent instinct, but
NOT the best way to play it… Here’s a better, cooler way:

All they need to know is that this goal is meaningful enough to YOU (and here’s the
key) –– that you are motivated to see it through. It isn’t even so much that you need to
be hella committed to THIS goal (because they assume your goal will change the
second you begin school)… but that your passion is palpable, and that “you’re the kind of
person who –– when properly motivated –– cannot be stopped.” It’s the “juggernaut-
ness” they’re trying to get a sense of here.

Why is this an important distinction? Because you wanna explore more how YOU
BEHAVE when you’re fired up about something RATHER THAN why “this idea is the
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end all be all.” If anything, if you take THAT version too far, and you seem do-or-die on
the idea presented in your application… it’s actually a liability.

Think about what aspects of this short-term plan of yours FILL you up, give you
meaning, all that. But rather than explain that, explain what the RESULT IS: the way
you behave toward the pursuit of success. If you do this correctly, it will scratch BOTH
itches in one shot: (1) you’ll remain authentic toward your idea, which we hope is
actually meaningful to you, but also (2) you’ll be a “low risk, scalable, high yield”
potential applicant, who, when put into the Haas environment, and into contact with
other spark plugs, has limitless potential along some future career (whether it’s an
extension of the one you’re on currently or a new one altogether).

Optional Essay #1
We invite you to help us better understand the context of
your opportunities and achievements.

This is an interesting one, and we’ll have more to say about it once we get to part #6
(the essay question part of the prompt). For reference, here are the first five parts:

1. What is the highest level of education completed by your parent(s) or

guardian(s)?
• Did not complete high school
• High school diploma or equivalency (GED)
• Associate’s degree (junior college) or vocational degree/license
• Bachelor’s degree (BA, BS)
• Master’s degree (MA, MS)
• Doctorate or professional degree (MD, JD, DDS)
2. What is the most recent occupation of your parent(s) or guardian(s)?
• Unemployed
• Homemaker
• Laborer
• Skilled worker
• Professional
3. If you were raised in one of the following household types, please indicate.
• Raised by a single parent
• Raised by an extended family member (grandparent, aunt/uncle,
niece/nephew, cousin)
• Raised in a multi-generational home
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• Raised in foster care

4. What was the primary language spoken in your childhood home?
5. If you have you ever been responsible for providing significant and continuing
financial or supervisory support for someone else, please indicate.
• Child
• Spouse
• Sibling
• Parent
• Extended family member (grandparent, aunt/uncle, niece/nephew,
cousin)
• Other
6. Please elaborate on any of your above responses. Alternatively, you may use
this opportunity to expand on other hardships or unusual life circumstances
that may help us understand the context of your opportunities, achievements,
and impact. (300 words maximum)

Okay, so first of all, for those first five, treat em like “filling out your basic information
when you visit the dentist.” Nothing fancy, just simply answer the question.

For number 6, this is where it gets somewhat interesting. Here’s the thing, you should
either write about stuff, or not, depending on whether your story TRULY ADDS VALUE
TO YOUR APP. We can’t make a blanket statement about what kinds of stories warrant
inclusion compared to others… without knowing the full story. So, it’s a case-by-case
thang. Here’s what we CAN say, in case it’s helpful:

1. Regardless of what your “status” is in life, whether socio-economic, or measured

in some other way, if you have been on a certain trajectory, and then some
personal, life circumstance KNOCKED YOU OFF OF THAT TRAJECTORY, and you
succeeded IN SPITE OF IT, that may be a good indication of a publish-worthy
story here. This shouldn’t be seen as a contest of whose life is most fraught with
challenge. It has more to do with the EXTENT TO WHICH YOUR PROGRESS IN
LIFE AND ALONG YOUR CAREER TRAJECTORY HAS BEEN FRUSTRATED by
obstacles thrown at you, and only you. (In other words, obstacles that affect
other folks, your competition, equally, don’t count here.)
2. Some stories that can and should be elaborated on here aren’t necessarily
“overcame hardship” stories, but rather, super cool explorations of … something
so cool and unique that that experience has given you SOMETHING valuable
(1) for yourself and with respect to your own path, and also (2) that can be shared
with your classmates, to their benefit. Again, what’s “cool” versus “not cool” in
this context? “We’ll know it when we see it.” We wish we had a magic answer,
but this is one of those rare instances where you just need a good eye to know
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what’s awesome and what FEEEEELS awesome, but is actually common, or

worse, “not as compelling as you think it is.”
3. One guiding principle you can use is that IF you choose to write about
something, it should build on your application strengths, and not just be an
“oh, by the way, thought you should know this–––in case that’s of interest”
kinda thing. The take-home MUST make the reader feel MORE confident about
your “stock’s value” than the version that didn’t include it.

Optional Essay #2
This section should only be used to convey relevant
information not addressed elsewhere in your application.
This may include an explanation of employment gaps,
academic aberrations, supplemental coursework, etc. You
are encouraged to use bullet points where appropriate.

The optional essay and our stance on it has changed over the years (for more on that,
read this: [Link]
analysis/). Years ago we’d say to do it always-no-matter-what. Then schools seemed to
make a POINT of not wanting stuff they didn’t specifically ask for. And now, given the
trend toward shorter and more targeted applications, it can go either way.

Generally, if a school gives you a berth, take it. Haas is giving you that berth here, so, if
you have something to say that hasn’t been covered elsewhere, say it. (If you’re
working with a solid admissions consultant, you may want to run it by him/her to get a
seasoned opinion.)

For those whose quantitative abilities may be questionable, either through a not-mind-
blowing GMAT score, or through a career arc where those abilities aren’t necessarily
evident, this is an excellent space to make a great case for yourself.

But even beyond that, the best way to approach this is to consider all the dimensions
which give your candidacy real MIGHT, and differentiation power against the
competition. Then review what stuff you’ve covered in your other essays, and where
there are HOLES, it MAY be something you can address here. It tends to be less helpful
when you double-up on a trait, with presumably a not-as-good-story-as-the-one-
you’ve-already-told-elsewhere. A “second” impact story, for example. It’s more powerful
if you’ve come across as the Indian IT tech guy with mad quant skills, but you also
have this insane depth of experience with volunteer/community work that looks
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completely different from the typical MBA applicant. This could be a place to explore
that. Or if you’re Chinese with an interest in finance, is there some aspect to your
international travels that makes you seem utterly different from your demographic?
This could be a spot to explore that.

Whatever you do, don’t play defense here and say stuff just to say stuff. More like:
imagine a blank canvas and a shot to say EVERYTHING AWESOME you need to say;
imagine it’s FIVE things, and you’ve been able to cover THREE of them in the other
essays. Great, pick one of the two things you haven’t covered (whichever promotes
your multi-dimensionality the MOST), and dig in right here.

Whatever you do, this is NOT the place to meander and be verbose. The optional essay
is all about extreme efficiency, and matter-of-fact-ness.
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UCLA (ANDERSON)

SURPRISING moments within all of us, where we became men and women. Usually it
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UCLA (ANDERSON)
Essay Question: Describe your short-term and long-term
career goals. How can the UCLA Anderson experience add
value to your professional development? (500 words
maximum)

Folks, this UCLA MBA essay prompt is as “bog-standard” as it gets. But (and we hope
this is the case?) assuming you’re applying to several business schools, you may find
slight variations on this question. So let’s zero in on the THREE elements you need to
pay attention to here, along with the 500-word frame the MBA Admissions committee
at Anderson has given us.

1. Short Term Goals

The name of the game here is “how good is your plan.” Put differently, “how good are
you at conceiving of an objective, and then mapping out an action plan to getting it
done?” There’s ONE additional layer, which is, “does this plan make sense given who
you are, your background, strengths, weaknesses, etc. or… is it a stretch?”

Those are the only things that matter, folks. Notice how we didn’t say “is your actual
goal interesting, or good?” Why? Because it’s actually irrelevant. No one’s going to
follow-up on you to make sure you’re continuing along “the path you set out in your
business school application.” This is a test. “Do you have a business school mind? Can
you plan smartly? Are you logical? Is your brain efficient? are you connecting the right
dots?” You get the picture. As long as you pass that test, the actual goal is immaterial.
Those of you who can wrap your head around that will relinquish that vice-like grip
around needing to SELL the idea itself. Again, no one cares about your idea. They ONLY
care about that other stuff.

2. Long Term Goals

The long term vision – by contrast – can be a little more eye-popping. If you have a cool
idea, or if there’s a contagiousness to your aspirations, it can rub off on everything else
you touch. Now, that doesn’t make this a contest for “come up with the coolest-
sounding idea you can, therefore.” Because VIABILITY continues to matter.
Better to have a B+ long term vision that you seem 100% likely to achieve than an A+
idea that you’re 10% likely to achieve. (Can you feel the difference? And understand
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why?) In a nutshell, any couch potato can come up with an amazing idea. But the
person who can execute on it ALSO… that person is a diamond in the rough. Show us
that you’re THAT person, and the best way to do that is to ooze that sense of “this is not
a pipe dream, this is all doable” at every turn.

3. How can UCLA add value to your professional development?

Standard stuff. But don’t just point out things that appeal to you about Anderson. Don’t
just name drop classes and organizations and professors and suggest that you’re going
to engage with them. It’s the equivalent of reminding us that you’ll also be
remembering to breathe in and out during yours days at UCLA, and that you’ll also be
eating meals and showering on occasion. “We assume all that, and this tells us nothing
new.” The trick is to reveal the precise way that some aspect of UCLA will propel you
forward/up toward your goals. Think about attempting your goals in three different
ways:

1. Without an MBA from UCLA Anderson.

2. With an MBA from ANY OTHER BUSINESS SCHOOL.
3. Specifically WITH an MBA from UCLA Anderson.

Like, actually do it. Go through that exercise. The answers should all look DIFFERENT.
Isolate the specific ways in which the UCLA version is different from numbers 1 and 2.
Then convey them here, the way you would explain in almost-scientific terms, the
impact a chemical has on another chemical, causing it to react or respond in this way
and that way, etc.

Think of certain aspects of UCLA as being chemicals that will cause YOUR PROGRESS
TOWARD YOUR GOALS to “react” (positively) in a certain way. Walk us through it. Be
specific. Is Los Angeles a character here? Are there certain professors at UCLA who will
impact you in a specific way? Are there UCLA offerings that no other school has that
will make a meaningful dent in your progress?

With each example, it must be evident how the UCLA component has nudged you
further along on your career goals trajectory. If it isn’t, you haven’t done your job here.
Here’s a cool test. Leave us with the sense that, even if you were to be admitted to UCLA
alongside a few higher-ranked MBA programs, you may still elect UCLA MBA because
of the case you JUST made for how UCLA specifically, impacts you in a particularly
tasty way.

The 500 words in your UCLA MBA Essay should go something like:
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1. Establish the Problem/Opportunity/Lay Out the LT Vision (50-75 words)

2. Relevant Background Highlights, Significant Milestones that show us a
trajectory (125 words)
3. Leading up to Short-Term goals – Create an ACTION PLAN, be specific, convince
us you’ve thought this through from every angle (100–150 words)
4. Muse Briefly on the Long-Term aspects of the overall plan, explain the
significance, reveal your passion (75 words)
5. Connect the dots between UCLA and Pushing You Forward (two or three solid
examples) (100 words)

As an additional resource, check out this blog post we wrote about addressing the “How
will our school help you?” question (in general). You can also read another blog post
(from the same four-part series) that covers the “of all the B-schools on earth, why are
you interested in ours?” question. You can also learn more about UCLA Anderson’s
essays and additional MBA application requirements here.

Short Answer Question: What are you passionate about and

why? (300 words maximum)

Sound familiar? It’s kinda similar to Stanford’s “What matters most to you and
why” no? Or any number of other “goals essays”? Well, we dig distinctions, however
small, so let’s have at it.

Something you’re passionate about generally implies that you’re leaning forward… in
spite of yourself. Or, put differently, stuff you’re passionate about tends to be stuff you
remain committed to, in the face of obstacles or other inconveniences. Consider this
hypothetical:

You really really like New York City and you’re so-so about San Francisco. You get a job
offer in NYC for $150,000 per year doing … whatever. And for the exact same job, exact
same role, suppose another company offers you 1.5M per year… in San Francisco.
Probably, you’d move to San Fran and earn 10x what you would have earned in NYC,
right?

Unless…

You were so PASSIONATE about NYC, and so dispassionate about SF that the
significant bump in salary did NOT deter you. It’s a neat test to expose where you’re
REALLY passionate. What stuff would you NOT LET GO OF, even if someone offered you
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a LOT OF MONEY to do so? Chances are the thing that transcends dollar bills is
something you’re genuinely passionate about. The “no matter what happens, as long as
I’m experiencing ABC, or having XYZ impact, my soul is in a good place” thing in your
life. Give that a think, what remains?

Another (fairly related) way to think about it is… what would you still do, even if you
earned VERY LITTLE MONEY (or even NO MONEY) doing it? That is usually a fantastic
indicator. Many things masquerade as “passions” but when the money (or some
equivalent material reward) goes so too does the supposed passion. It’s the stuff that
has an infinite shelf-life, regardless of material reward, that tends to define what you’re
most passionate about.

In 300 words, you’re gonna aim for two, maybe three paragraphs. Here are two
versions:

Whether it’s two or three paragraphs, make sure to hit both of these:

Number 1: Sell us on the passion. Explain how it came to be. Prove it to us through
examples. We’re looking for tangible things we can see and taste and feel, stuff that
demonstrates your passion through actions, decisions, attitudes, behaviors, reactions,
etc.

Number 2: Give us a reason to care. Tell us not just why you care about this so much,
but also your plans in the space and why being passionate about this … matters. Why
should the adcom care? What will the impact be for everyone else?

Optional Essay
[Please see the section on Optional/Re-Applicant essays at the very end...]
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UNC (KENAN-FLAGLER)

SURPRISING moments within all of us, where we became men and women. Usually it
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UNC (KENAN-FLAGLER)
UNC Essay 1

Please respond to the questions below that will assist us in

learning more about you (500 Words):

• Tell us what your immediate career goals are and how

you will benefit personally and professionally from
earning an MBA at Kenan-Flagler Business School.
• As the business world continues to evolve,
circumstances can change and guide you in a different
direction. Should the goals that you provided above not
transpire, what other opportunities would you explore?

The balance for this sucker should be around 350–400 or so for Part 1, and 100–150 for
Part 2. Let’s attack them one by one.

Part 1 – Immediate goals, how will you benefit personally and professionally,
specifically from a Kenan-Flagler MBA.

Step 1 – Lay out the big picture vision first. This is the important context that your
short-term goals will fit into. Do it in a sentence or two, max. Quickly move into what
your short-term goal is, and establish why that’s necessary toward your long-term
goal. [75 words]

Step 2 – Now, get into the GRISTLE. Walk us through the goals, and why they all snap
together – why one goal is necessary for pursuing the next one, and why that one is
necessary for the next one. It needs to be utterly logical, and evident that you’ve
thought through it very clearly. It should read like a recipe or a checklist that an airline
pilot goes through. Logical. Stage-based. The segue to Step 3 is this: you can’t just
launch that plan today, you’re missing some stuff… [125–150 words]

Step 3 – Explain what you need both personally and professionally – that you don’t
have today, that Kenan-Flagler will give you, better than other choices – that will allow
you to succeed at achieving all your goals. It’s useful to think of it this way… “I can’t just
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start now because … ” Because why? List out all the professional and personal areas in
which you fall short somehow, and then MAP specific aspects of Kenan-Flagler TO
those things, explaining how each one chips away at filling those gaps in. [125–150
words]

Part 2 – Things are likely to change at b-school. We get it. “When” that happens, how
might your path change?

Step 4 – This is the part where you explain more about what drives you… at a root level.
Such that if you get thrown off track in the way of “industry” or “sector” or “job type” or
any other variable that may easily change on account of an MBA program… that it
won’t fundamentally affect the thing you need in order to feel fulfilled. So, what is that
thing, deep down, that you wanna achieve? The extreme version of this would be
something like “to be happy.” Which allows for someone to “switch” from consulting to …
“tap dancing” and still have succeeded, because that switch CONTINUED to deliver
happiness. See how that works?

Now, “happiness” is too broad and sappy and easy for a b-school app. So you need to
find a way to describe the SOURCE of your ultimate motivation in a way that allows for
an unexpected change that changes the way your ROUTE looks, but ultimately gets
you to the same fundamental “Oz” but… in a business-y way. A great way to test this is
to imagine a scenario where some THING happens at business school that takes you
on a different-LOOKING journey, big or small. The key is to grapple with why that
option is not as ideal as your first choice, but why you’re still open to it because it still
scratches that same fundamental itch. As long as you can connect those dots, you’re
golden.

If you can do this not just once, but twice (three times may be too many), it’ll show that
you’ve placed the correct amount of emphasis on the END RESULT and not just on the
path, which is ultimately not that meaningful. Those who are LOCKED on outcomes,
will find multiple (possibly even infinite) pathways to get there, regardless of whatever
should throw them off course. To them, there’s no such thing as “off course.” It’s
“achieve goal versus don’t achieve goal.” Show us that you’re open to “whatever gets
you there.” You wanna come across obsessed with “getting it done” more than “how you
look when you attempt to get it done.” [100–150 words]
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UNC Essay 2

The UNC Kenan-Flagler community lives by its core values:

excellence, leadership, integrity, community and teamwork.
(250 words):

• Pick a core value that resonates most deeply with you.

• Identify the most challenging situation that you have
encountered and how you responded while upholding
that core value.

250 words isn’t a lot. Certainly not enough to philosophize much about “the word” and
what it means to you. You really only have time to get into the meat of the “situation”
you’re gonna talk about, and explain your relationship with that word THROUGH the
telling of that experience itself.
Here’s how:

Paragraph 1 – Explain the dilemma/challenge. Explain why it was not just challenging…
but a THREAT to “one of those words.” In other words, explain how ONE or SEVERAL
choices you had at solving this problem required COMPROMISING one of those values.
This is key. Because the whole point of this essay is to explain why you chose an even
MORE DIFFICULT course… which was to solve the challenge AND uphold one of those
values, which presumably increased the risk, made it harder, increased the stakes, etc.
[125 words]

Paragraph 2 – Take us through the ACTION, explaining at each step (maybe two or
three highlights) how you had a choice between upholding your chosen value, or,
taking the easier route. And how in each instance, you prioritized upholding that value.
Justify this choice from both a businessman’s perspective (it won’t play if your devotion
to your beliefs UNDERMINED the objective) but also a personal/moral perspective. That
balance is key. If you seem stubbornly devoted to certain principles which are “feel-
good” in theory, but ultimately make you a terrible businessman, it’s not really… what
Kenan-Flagler is after. They’re after the guy who MEETS the threshold of “good
businessman” but ALSO has a strong moral compass which makes him far preferable
to the other guy who might ONLY be good at business, but is untethered to any
morality. See the difference? So make sure to demonstrate smart business sense AT
THE SAME TIME as a sense of principals, which ultimately guided you to a better
version of success. [125 words]
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Optional Essay
[Please see the section on Optional/Re-Applicant essays at the very end...]
 107

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO (BOOTH)

SURPRISING moments within all of us, where we became men and women. Usually it
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UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO (BOOTH)

How will the Booth MBA help you achieve your immediate
and long-term post-MBA career goals? (250 word minimum)

Check out our suggested offline exercise for this Wharton question. Essentially, the
idea is to plan out your next five years of growth WITH and WITHOUT the MBA, and
then examine the delta between the two paths. This will be useful here as well. In fact,
regardless of your interest in Wharton or Booth, you should go through the process of
imagining this exact same timeline for MULTIPLE schools, with the intention of “ending
up slightly different” five years from now in EVERY VERSION because the experience(s)
at each particular school will alter your trajectory, somewhat.

250 word MINIMUM is also an interesting signal. Generally, when no strict word limit is
given, we recommend landing somewhere around 500-600 words. Why? Cuz that’s the
amount of space most “M7 MBAs” need to make their case.

Try this format, and what you SHOULD end up with is a QUALITY first draft that’s well
on its way to being dissected and remolded into Rodin-esque mastery:

1. Sell us on the OPPORTUNITY or PROBLEM you wanna solve. What is it you’re

trying to achieve? Why? What will the impact be? Why should anyone care?
Convince us this is a cool idea or problem to fix, and convince us that your
vision is sensible and achievable. [75-100 words]
2. Great idea, but what business do YOU have attacking it? Convince us. Walk us
through a few KEY highlights of your past that put your credibility here on full
display. Focus on only the stuff that allows us to say “Yah, this is the kind of
person and these are the kinds of skills that translate PERFECTLY to solving the
problem you’ve identified.” At the end of this section, explain what things you
are MISSING that prevent you from attacking these goals today. There have to
be SOME, otherwise, why bother wasting two years? Describe the stuff you need
IN GENERAL, as if from “any MBA.” [125-150 words]
3. Now, map specific things at Booth to those deficits in your skill set. Don’t point
out things that exist at Booth that are theoretically valuable. Create “proofs” for
how those “things” AFFECT you in a way that results in “skill set boostage” …
aka, “improved ability to achieve goals.” Show us how specific aspects of Booth
will TRANSFORM you from “guy who can’t quite achieve ST and LT goals” into
“guy who can.” Until you make that “chemical reaction” clear, you haven’t quite
nailed this section yet. And this is hard, so there’s a 97% chance you’ll get close
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on your first draft but won’t quite nail it. Don’t be discouraged. It’ll get there!
[100-125 words]
4. Finally, lay out the BLUEPRINT of specific things you plan on doing in the short
term toward your long-term goals, once you’re equipped with that Booth MBA.
Prove to us that you’re likely to achieve all those steps, and make sure the logic
and sequence of it is all plain as day. We need to prove that your short-term
goals are the BEST POSSIBLE stepping stones between the MBA and your long-
term ambitions. Then segue seamlessly into a more far-off look at the horizon:
Where it’s all headed longer-term, and what it all means, why this is meaningful
to you, why these ambitions are not a flame that’s gonna burn out anytime
soon. [125-150 words]

Depending on your individual case, [3] and [4] can sometimes flip.

Chicago Booth immerses you in a choice-rich environment.

How have your interests, leadership experiences, and other
passions influenced the choices in your life? (250 word
minimum)

Response Guidelines:

• Length: There is no maximum length, only a 250 word minimum. We trust

that you will use your best judgment in determining how long your
submission should be, but we recommend that you think strategically about
how to best allocate the space.
• File Size: Maximum file size is 16 MB.
• Acceptable Formats: Use the text box provided in the application or upload a
Word document.

We’re used to variations on the question: what are your influences? You’ll see it a
bunch of different ways: what makes you tick, what led you to XYZ, who or what has
been most inspirational to you, etc. The knee-jerk instinct is to consider the influences
that you remember easily, and then to draw some conclusions about them. That’s an
okay approach, but honestly, it’s somewhat “bunny hill” for Admissionado. We prefer
going straight to the double black diamond. There’s a cooler, more critical way to think
about this…

And we can start with the obvious: Identifying the key influences/experiences that
spun you in a new direction, or intensified your resolve. But let’s go further. The real
 110

challenge is to grapple with some of the POTENTIAL influences that were also there,
but that you DIDN’T respond to. What influences did you ignore? Or disagree with? Or
that you engaged with, but didn’t move the needle for you? How many of THOSE were
there? The answer is many. More than you can count. In fact, on a daily basis, without
even realizing it, you are bombarded with influences that you filter out, consciously or
otherwise.

Here’s the key point: We are confronted with more POTENTIAL influences than ones
that actually leave an impact. Why did those other ones fail to influence us when a few
succeeded? What, specifically was different about the ones that landed? Let’s do THAT
analysis, and see what we find.

If you’ve ever been drawn toward a particular IDEA or INDUSTRY, think about all the
ones you denied, and try to determine what makes the one you chose DIFFERENT. If
you simply try to describe why you chose whatever you chose, your rationale might be
incomplete because you’ve unconsciously taken a lot for granted. Doing the “delta
analysis,” isolating those few variables that became the “ultimate deciding factors”
tends to reveal something powerful about who YOU are, and what pulled you toward (or
away from) something.

This is true even with “leadership experiences.” Hopefully, you haven’t had a “just one
leadership experience lifetime.” Presumably, it’s in your DNA, and on a day-to-day basis,
you’re behaving like a leader, with a meter that’s never OFF DUTY. So, you’ve had
hundreds of leadership experiences. And yet, probably only SOME or maybe even just
ONE stands out from the rest because of some specific reason that you find yourself
drawing on, over and over again. It’s the “lesson that keeps on giving.” Consider a few
leadership examples, even (maybe especially) ones that DON’T particularly stand out,
and then look at them together. And THEN zoom in on the one that you keep drawing
from, and figure out what it was about THAT one.

Once you’ve gotten a good sense of why you make the choices you make, based on this
kind of deep-dive analysis, and you’ve got the handful of GOLDEN stories you wanna
tell, it’s time to organize it in 500 words or so:

1. One way or another, the way you MAKE DECISIONS today, choose things, etc. is
DIFFERENT from how it was, say, five years ago. Take us through one or two
(three MAX) examples that contributed to a SHIFT in the way you used to think
about something … to the improved, better, evolved way. Could be a leadership
experience. Could be a passion that’s behind one of those leadership
experiences. Whatever it is, take us through it, being mindful of that SHIFT from
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the “before” you to the “after” you. [125-175 words for each influence/experience,
depending on your story or stories]
2. What’s the take home? What did we just learn about you? Try to sum this up in
a way that makes sense of your DNA. This is why I chose X and not Y. This is
why I’m compelled by A but not B. This is why ROLE ABC intrigues me over DEF.
This is why I measure success THIS way and not THAT way. We need to
understand the significance of this, with respect to you and your career. [125
words]

You probably won’t need that many more sections here folks. This is a “learning
something vital about you” essay, we don’t need a rehash of your goals (got that from
Essay 1). The trick with this essay is that initial step, before you put pen to paper, of
thinking long and hard about what the connection between your positive influences
has been. If you do this right, you may just learn something about yourself you hadn’t
quite thought of until now–––and believe it or not, that’s one of the PERKS of the
business school application journey. Enjoy the ride…

Optional Essay
[Please see the section on Optional/Re-Applicant essays at the very end...]
 112

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN (ROSS)

SURPRISING moments within all of us, where we became men and women. Usually it
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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN (ROSS)

Part 1: Short Answer Questions

Select one prompt from each group of the three groups

below. Respond to each selected prompt in 100 words or
fewer (<100 words each; 300 words total).
Group 1
• I want people to know that I:
• I made a difference when I:

Group 2
• I was humbled when:
• I am out of my comfort zone when:

Group 3
• I was aware that I am different when:
• I find it challenging when people:

The grouping is a little strange here. It’s best to think of these as six mini-prompts, and
then pick the coolest one from each group, simple as that. Don’t overthink the “groups.”
As we always say, don’t pick the question, pick first from your “Greatest Hits” – the
stories you need to tell, no matter what. Then find the questions which provide the
cleanest opportunities for you to tell those stories.

“100 words or fewer” (for each of the three responses) is the real trick. That’s just not a
lot of words, folks. We’re at 90 words so far by the way (99 if you count that last
sentence). Adds up, fast.

You’ve really only got a couple sentences and that’s hard as hell. But it’s also helpful in
some ways. You’re actually unable to get too stuck. You need to be seriously efficient
with your words. So let’s go through each prompt and figure out where to focus your
attention.
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GROUP 1

I want people to know that I:

Think about this one carefully. It shouldn’t be “an impressive resume bullet.” That
would be more appropriate for something like “It would be nice if people happened to
find out X about me.” Right? Isn’t that how a REAL badass approaches things? It’s
always the quiet guy/gal who decidedly DOESN’T give you his/her resume, but you end
up finding out somehow else, and go “holy crap, I had no idea.” So much cooler.

Have fun with this one. Think of this more like “These people will never know this
STRANGE thing about me unless *I* tell them right now. So, strap in folks, and try not to
smile and LOVE me after I tell you this thing.”

It can be an honest admission of … something funny, charming, silly, embarrassing,

weird.

Example 1:
“I want people to know that I do not like nickels. Can’t stand em. Thickness.
Worthless of amount. I like Jefferson? But I don’t love Jefferson. I’d rather be
poor than have a billion nickels. What else. I’m trying to find a way to fill my 100
word allowance, but I can’t say it better than that. I hate nickels. If you give me
change, and there are nickels present, I’m an adult, and I’ll seem composed, but
inside, as small part of me will weep a little.”

Example 2:
“I want people to know that I genuinely don’t know if I’ve ever sneezed properly.
I’ve observed people sneeze so loud that they injure themselves, or at the very
least, a sneeze that warrants an “Excuse me.” Is it possible I’ve never sneezed
before? On the one hand I feel like it may mean that I’m some kind of X-Men-
esque inevitability of evolution. Mankind’s 2.0. And while that’s a fun thought, I
can’t help but wonder, what have I been missing all these years? I’m tired of
wondering. I’m going to go inhale a cloud of black pepper. Pray for me.”

Example 3:
“I want people to know that I really like Justin Bieber. I want people to know that
I don’t care what YOU think of him, or what you think of people who typically
like him. The kid is rad. Fact. I like his hair. I like his muscle T-Shirts. Before you
decide things about my musical taste, consider this: I like Nirvana. I like Dre. I
even like Mahler. But, yeah, also, I like Justin Bieber. I don’t know what it means,
but I know is it’s 100% true.”
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See the pattern? There’s something about “not taking yourself too seriously” that can
make someone want to take you… more seriously. Ironic how that works out right? As
opposed to the guy who pulls up in an electric blue Lamborghini and announces with
chest puffed: “I want people to know that I bought this Lamborghini after I closed the
deal of a lifetime–” (if anyone is still listening to that guy speak, I’d be surprised).
So the safe bet here: don’t take yourself too seriously. If you do it right, it should have
the opposite effect. It’s not always true, there is an art form to it, so give it a whirl, see
where it takes you.

I made a difference when I:

We need a clear understanding of what things would have been like WITHOUT YOU.
And then we need to appreciate the delta that resulted after you were added to the
equation.

First, paint the picture of “If I hadn’t done X, this is how things would have gone.” Then
take a few sentences and show us how the thing YOU did made a meaningful
difference.

This question lives and dies by our understanding of that delta. Without the context,
your accomplishment may seem… kinda impressive? But we won’t know much about
how much of a DIFFERENCE you made. It’s inside THAT aspect that we can gauge just
how much of a change agent you can be. And based on that, ponder what your future
potential is like.

GROUP 2

I was humbled when:

Also a tougher one compared to the first group. You need to open your kimono up a bit
here and expose yourself. You need to get comfortable revealing a belief or position you
once held that later proved to be wrong. Or, the equivalent of that. If not a belief, then an
attitude you had about yourself that was shattered.

This one (similar pattern as the others) lives and dies by the contrast between the post-
humbling moment and the BEFORE picture. If it was overconfidence, let us see it.
Whatever it was, allow yourself to look bad for a second. The fact that you can admit
that you were humbled will quickly have the opposite effect, and make you stronger
(instantly) than the guy who is afraid to admit being on the wrong side of an issue.
 116

This one takes some courage, and says something about those who GO for it, and go for
it all the way.

I am out of my comfort zone when:

This is similar to the previous one in that you have to be comfortable ADMITTING to
something. Meaning, if there isn’t any discomfort along the way, you’re probably not
doing it right. We need to feel uncomfortable – as you did – when you take us through
the quick version of this story. We need to understand where you were comfortable,
and why you felt uncomfortable when pushed outside that zone. It’s not enough to drop
us into the “outside of comfort zone” and just tell us THAT this thing was outside your
comfort zone. We need to know what it means, and the only way to do that is for you to
establish the “normal” first. (Or whenever, but at some point.)

GROUP 3

I was aware that I am different when:

The moment they’re asking about has to have been something of a SURPRISE to you. If
you set out to be different (in some way), and then it proved to be true, that’s not exactly
what we’re going for here.

It’s almost needs to be the opposite. Either you tried to be SIMILAR to others, or weren’t
conscious of it at all… but discovered (inconveniently, or simply in the form of a
discovery) that your version of whatever it was, was different. Walk us through that
realization, that discovery moment. And then how you reacted, what happened next.
Remember, 100 words, this can’t be a richly textured narrative. So, whether you like it or
not, you will HAVE to be efficient. The key is to establish the thing that was to be
expected and then dwell on the realization that something about you (or your choices,
or whatever) made you different.

I find it challenging when people:

Don’t pick something that EVERYONE finds challenging. “I find it challenging when I’m
challenged to a fist fight by a person who is twice as strong and twice as angry as me.”
Gee, how unexpected. Or, “I find it challenging when people are disrespectful to others
based on race or class.” (Don’t most?)
 117

The trick to this one is to talk about a thing people do that most folks DON’T find
challenging… but you do. Something that doesn’t bother others, but bothers YOU.
Something others seem to have an easy time with, but not you. See the pattern? It has
to be the case that there’s something unexpected about your version here. So, as you’re
testing your “story choice,” make sure that most others wouldn’t find the thing to be
challenging at all. If that’s the case, you’re on the right track. If, however, the thing you
pick is met with a mostly universal response, keep digging.

Part 1: Essay

Michigan Ross is a place where people from all backgrounds

with different career goals can thrive. Please share your
short-term career goal. Why is this the right choice for you?
(300 words)

Kudos, Ross, for providing a slight twist on the classic MBA goals essay question. Let’s
be verbose for a second. On purpose. Same question, rephrased, all stretched-out-like:

“Michigan Ross is a place where individuals from different nations, different walks of
life, different socio-economic strata, different cultural influences, different exposures,
and different conditions (whether inspiring or depressing)… come together. Now, each of
these individuals has a career goal of some kind. That career goal itself might be
completely unique (‘I’m going to start a business that specializes in teleporting
unwanted winged bugs to the Upside Down’). Or, that goal may be shared by many (‘I’m
going to be a killer Strategic Management Consultant’). Either way, whether unique or
shared, given that each individual’s background is necessarily distinct, each person’s
goal will, therefore, end up somewhat different. We wanna peek into YOUR version of
YOUR goal. And also, we want to know what compels you toward it.”

Think of it this way: As soon as you land at Ross, you meet four other classmates who
all have the exact same 5-year plan as you do. Literally, on paper, it’s the exact… same…
plan. Whatever your plan is (even if it’s to take over your family business), spend some
time imagining this in the abstract.

Given all that BACKGROUND stuff (influences, nationality, peer groups, tastes,
experiences, circumstances, all that jazz)… what makes YOUR version DISTINCT from
those other four? Isolate whatever that is: your slant, the thing that makes your
version better, or even just different… get it good and clear in your head… and now: Walk
us through your short-term career goal, infusing it with THAT STUFF YOU JUST
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FIGURED OUT, such that we not only understand the goal very clearly, but also, your
version of it.

We should walk away saying to ourselves: “That’s not only a well thought-out plan, but
I’m particularly interested in THIS GUY’S VERSION of it.” You’re selling someone on a
role, and if you do it correctly, you’re making it hard for someone to cast someone
OTHER THAN YOU.

Let’s talk structure:

One Version (doesn’t have to go this way, exactly, but it can be a useful place to start)

Paragraph 1: I have a very cool and interesting background. I can capture it quickly
with an anecdote, or simply just a few incredible descriptions, such that you quickly get
a sense of where I come from, what my circumstances and influences were. Those
things all led me to THIS long-term aspiration (ya herrrrd right, long-term). [75–100
words.]

Paragraph 2: Here’s a very detailed road map of what I plan to achieve (not hope to…
PLAN to) in my first five years out of business school, step by step. Here are the reasons
these steps matter, this is why they are necessary building blocks, and these are the
reasons I expect to succeed at every turn because I understand what’s needed at every
step, and have thought through a solid plan for every stage of it. [100-150]

Paragraph 3: I love this industry/environment/field/thing for these reasons. It’s the

milieu that brings out the best of me, proven time and again here and here. If I’m going
to succeed anywhere, it’s here, because I’m passionate about achieving THIS thing
and/or to devote myself to THIS PROCESS for THIS REASON. And that’s why this is the
right choice for me. [100-150]

Optional Essay
[Please see the section on Optional/Re-Applicant essays at the very end...]
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UT AUSTIN (MCCOMBS)

SURPRISING moments within all of us, where we became men and women. Usually it
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UT AUSTIN (MCCOMBS)
McCombs Essay 1

We will learn a lot about your professional background

through your resume and letter of recommendation. We
want to get to know you further. Please introduce yourself.
Select only one communication method that you would like
to use for your response.
a. Write an essay (250 words)
b. Share a video introduction (one minute in length)

Introductions can take place in a variety of ways. Standing in a circle of a few at a

cocktail party. In a one-on-one interview. First day on the job.

The version we’re after here is much different. McCombs just handed you a mic,
dimmed the house lights, and threw a spotlight onto you. This is your time not just to
introduce yourself, but to perform. A performance is artful. And requires a special type
of messaging. Your challenge isn’t to hold the attention of the guy sitting across the
desk who is usually forced to tune in. Your challenge is to capture and sustain the
attention of a room full of people, whose magnitude (by itself) tends to make it an uphill
battle from minute one.

Golden Rule: Dullness is deadly.

Don’t be dull. Don’t be quiet. Don’t be average. Don’t be monotone. Don’t be… safe.
Now’s your chance to tap your inner Louis CK. Your inner MLK. Your inner Seth
Macfarlane. Charm. Wit. Risk. Energy. A deviating from that safe, straight, center
pathway.

Whether it’s an essay or a video, the very first thing you need to do is grab your
audience’s attention. There’s no real room for a slow burn here. If this were a two hour
movie, and you had a proven track record, maybe an audience would spot you an
unceremonious beginning, trusting in a future payoff. You have no such luxury here,
my friend. Your cohort doesn’t know you. You need to be spectacular and attention-
worthy from second 1.
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What makes for a good opener? Well, practically speaking, “it” can be absolutely
anything, which is to say it can take the FORM of just about anything. But what most
great opening moments have in common is this: they knock the reader/audience off
balance. For most of you, that may sound great, but it still may not mean much. “How
the hell am I supposed to throw the reader off balance?” Well, one way to think about it
is to leave some stuff OUT. The more buttoned up your opening is, the more likely your
audience will feel secure. And secure—for now—is lethal. Bad.

“My name is Craig Blodgitsnick. I am 27 years old. And I’m a banker.” Great. Super clear.
And therefore… too clear? It’s all buttoned up. The audience needs a reason to hear
more. With an opening like that, however, we’re left with no such desire. Here’s an
alternative.

“I make people cry for a living.”

Um, say what? What the hell does that mean. Did he just say that? I have no idea who
this guy is, I have no idea how I feel about him, I have no sense of whether that’s a good
or bad thing. What I do know… is that I’m dying to hear more. Success. This speaker has
the audience in the palms of his hands.

“Pond. Cigarette. Abandoned BMW. These three things almost got me arrested, led me
to my future wife, and ultimately set me on a path of world domination.”

Huh? I mean, I couldn’t be more in. Who the hell says that? How on Earth are those
three things connected? After everyone gives their boring standard speech, I can bet
you money I’m gonna remember the guy who said THAT.

Throw your reader off balance. Give them a reason to want to read more. Now, not to
scare you, but this isn’t easy. It is a touch risky, and it requires some finesse. But it is
absolutely worth working toward. But just for a moment, let’s talk about the downside…

If you can’t quite pull it off, and it seems forced and inauthentic, then you run the risk of
seeming like you’re trying too hard. And that’s a liability. So, get a gut check from a
second set of eyes (doesn’t have to be a pro, could be anyone—see if they buy it). If it’s
just not passing muster, there is recourse. Which is to tell a very honest, earnest story.
Your story, a personal story. But, it’s gotta be a cool story. If it’s a straightforward, you
are toast. There’s gotta be some GRIT in there, some adversity, some uniqueness. That
can be equally compelling.

“Hi, my name is Goran Crevitz and I became an adult when I was five years old when I
was separated from my parents and grandparents. My first job was…”
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Yah, I’d listen to that guy. (But did you notice how even here, the author has thrown the
audience off balance? This is not happenstance.)

Whichever medium suits you best, take advantage of it. Don’t choose the video if all
you do is read an essay. If you use video, it has to be because there’s something about
your look and body language and visible energy that communicates something a
written essay can’t quite capture. If you choose an essay over video, it’s gotta be
because there are certain things you’re able to do with the written word that would be
MORE effective than a video version.

Keep your audience on the edge of their seat, though, by throwing them off balance.

McCombs Essay 2

Picture yourself at graduation. Describe how you spent your

time as a Texas McCombs MBA, and how that experience
helped prepare you for the post-MBA world. (500 words)

Start thinking about this essay with a very specific (and crucial) premise: “I am not able
to achieve or even pursue my short-term goals effectively today because…” Because
what? Generate a list. Are they skills? Is it a lack of certain experience? Is it a lack of
plain, hard knowledge? Is it a lack of network? Got that list ready? Proceed…

Let’s play pretend one more time. Let’s say you’re like most MBA applicants and are
applying to 7-10 programs. Pretend that three of those are ranked in the Top 10, and
that 3-5 of those are ranked below #20. UT Austin is right smack dab in the center of it
all. Admit-time rolls around and you receive invites from 100% of the schools on your
list. Now YOU are in the driver’s seat. What is it about two years at McCombs that might
address the items on your list in a particularly appealing way? This is the part where
you need to dig deep. (Mind you, we haven’t done a THING toward writing a response to
this essay yet; this is all crucial prep work.) What extracurricular offerings does
McCombs have? What is it about the campus culture? What is it about certain
professors? What about folks who recruit there? What is it about Austin? What is it
about…. anything and everything you have researched and know about this program
that has convinced you that MCCOMBS IS THE ONE to advance your objectives
powerfully? This is the part where you make a second list. And even better, a second
list that’s connected to all the specific items on that first list. Once you have these
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elements secure in your mind, now you’re ready to generate a draft because the essay
has already – by now – written itself.

This essay should read a lot like a military battle plan. (You’ll hear us say that a lot, and
there’s good reason for it.) This should NOT come across wide-eyed and dreamy and
speculative and wishy-washy and general. It should instead feel like the result of
someone with laser focus, with ultra-clear objectives, a well-thought-out plan of attack.
Bonus points if there’s dried-up drool on this sheet of paper. McCombs wants feral
beasts who are salivating at the opportunity to ATTACK the program, and EXTRACT.
And that only happens when people have real INTENT. “Motive.” A battle plan. This is
your chance to lay out that plan.

HOW TO ORGANIZE THIS ESSAY

Part 1 – Establish the Goals

First up, we need to understand your goals, your existing skill set, and therefore, those
GAPS. Best thing to do is start off with a VERY brief overview of where this WHOLE
thing is headed, your overall vision. Within a sentence or two or three, we should have a
decent sense for where you hope to be in twenty years. Now, walk us through what you
need to do in the VERY near-term (first five years after your MBA, say), in order to get
you on that overall/LT path. Remember, think militaristic. Step A leads logically to Step
B which then leads to Step C, which then enables us to consider and pursue Step D.
That kind of thing. Explain the stuff you need to do, and the skills required to pull that
all off. (100-125 words)

Part 2 – Explain Your GAPS

First explain BRIEFLY some of the “thus-far” achievements that have brought you to
80% of the way there. Give us a sense for the stuff you already HAVE, skills-wise. Be
efficient here. Now explain the stuff you need. This is that GAP section. From that first
list you generated. Don’t just explain these gaps in a vacuum, explain each one within
the context of why they’re relevant specifically to your goals. This context is absolutely
key, because now you’re not just generic-MBA-person, you’re salivating-feral-beast-
person with lusting after PREY, locked in your sights. I needed “X in order to then
pursue Y aspect of my short-term goals for Z reason.” That kind of thing. (125-150 words)

Part 3 – How You Took a Bite Out of McCombs, Specifically

This is the part where you catalogue your experience at McCombs (as though in
retrospect, as though it actually happened, etc.). Take us through experiences with
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specific classes, professors, clubs, off-campus activities, internships, socialization

opportunities, anything and everything you can think of that might advance you from
your 80% starting point on Day 1 to the 100% version at graduation. Explain what you
did to narrow that 20% gap, bit by bit.

The key isn’t to actually write your future accurately, no one’s gonna ever check. The
key is to indicate that there’s CLARITY in the way you can establish an objective, and
then design a plan of attack to achieve it. Generally that comes from a plan that is
detailed, and rooted in logic. As long as it makes sense, and seems achievable, the
admissions committee is going to buy it. Now, if you can do that, and also let slip your
passion for the program, bonus points. (200 words)

Part 4 – Next Steps

The best way to send this sucker home is to give a brief description of what happens
immediately after graduation. No need to spend too much time here because you’ve
already laid SOME of this out in previous sections when establishing your short-term
goals. You may just want to close with a hypothetical “I will be starting as an X at Y
company this fall, where I will notch Step 1 toward my short-term goals.” You can even
have fun with what you plan to do in the few weeks between graduation and when you
start your job, or some other character-revealing fun reveal, like marrying one of your
b-school cohorts named Z that you met along the way, yadayada. (50-75 words)

Optional Essay
[Please see the section on Optional/Re-Applicant essays at the very end...]
 125

UVA (DARDEN)

SURPRISING moments within all of us, where we became men and women. Usually it
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UVA (DARDEN)
For the 2018–19 application cycle, Darden has decided to forgo one long essay, and do
multiple short essays. We want to get to know all of the various facets of your
background and personality.

Darden Essay 1

Tell us what you would want your learning team to know

about you - personal, professional or both. (100 words)

Have you seen THE AVENGERS? Or THE A-TEAM? Or “any heist movie ever”? If so,
you’re familiar with the concept of individuals with special talents contributing to some
group goal. The brute force guy: Hulk. The leader: Captain America. The espionage
badass: Black Widow. The guy with remarkable six-pack: Thor. You get the idea. Each
person should be capable of something that s/he can do better than just about anyone
else on the squad. “Specialists.” It’s not that that’s the ONLY thing they can do, it’s just a
more interesting proposition when you utilize everyone’s specialty and sum it all up.

The same idea applies to the “learning team” at Darden. You can read about it here. On
the one hand, you could say something funny here that endears you to your
teammates. Or you could wow them with some incredible thing you accomplished
somewhere along your road to Darden. But, neither of those will necessarily help you
as a crew “achieve your max potential as an Avengers-style squad.” In order to do that,
you need to reveal what your “super power” is and how it will be of use to the CREW
when the time comes. If you’re Iron Man, for example, it isn’t useful to talk about your
preference for Tom Ford suits. It WOULD be useful to talk about how quickly you
learned astrophysics, because THAT SKILL may come in handy in a “group mission.”

What’s the mission? You’re gonna be dissecting cases at Darden. What is it YOU BRING
TO THE TABLE that would be of interest to your mates? Be sure that this thing isn’t
something someone else might ALSO have, or it won’t prove useful in this setting.

In 100 words, spend 50-60 describing THE SKILL, and then use the remaining 40 or so
to explain how this will be useful to the group. Without that piece, it won’t sing as
loudly.
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Darden Essay 2

Each year, Darden connects with over 80 countries. If you

could choose any location in the world, where would you
want to go with Darden? And why? (50 words)

50 words isn’t a lot. But it’s enough to say something interesting. You’re either gonna
pick a place you’ve been or a place you haven’t been.

A Place You’ve ALREADY Been

If you go this route, there’s gotta be a reason you wanna go back with a group of
Darden classmates. Why do you want to do that? This is important… this is the part
where most applicants say something they think Darden wants to hear, and that
doesn’t work.
So, find that voice in your sub-conscious and um… extinguish it, kindly. Instead, ask
yourself, why would you truly, genuinely wanna go BACK to Country X with these
Darden fools? What do you have to gain from that? It can’t be because you want to
share some experience with other people, isn’t that kind of a waste of time FOR YOU,
and sort of disingenuous deep down? Sounds weird, but there’s gotta be some selfish
motive. Figure out what it is, and sell us on it. It doesn’t have to be “serious” and “save
the world” worthy. Just needs to be honest. The adcom wants to know what’s
motivating you.

A Place You HAVEN’T Been

If this is an “I’ve always wanted to” story, it had BEST include some version of “but I
never did it because going by myself or with Crew X wouldn’t be nearly as good as
going with team Darden. Darden mates represent the best version and so BAM, SIGN
ME THE EFF UP, cuz here’s what I’d wanna get out of it, and boy oh boy am I excited
about this opportunity.”

50 words folks. Zip in zip out, make your point, be matter-of-fact, be honest. If the
adcom smells a rat (aka, they detect you’re writing for the benefit of the reader), they
will call you out hardcore…
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Darden Essay 3

Darden strives to identify and cultivate leaders who follow

their purpose. At this stage, how would you describe your
evolving leadership style and please provide an example.
(200 words)

“Evolving leadership” is a deliberate choice. They could have said “what’s your
leadership style”? This plays right into our hands… our favorite device when it comes to
developing KICKASS business school applications: EXAMINE THE DELTA.

Let’s put it this way, if your current leadership style is EXACTLY unchanged from how
it might have been five years ago, or 10 years ago, or 20 years ago (wait, how young are
you?)… then you may THINK you have a natural-born leadership talent because you’ve
been succeeding and crushing it all these years. But it COULD also be a signal that you
haven’t really… learned much, or cared to learn, or improved, or pivoted, or pushed
yourself. Any of the above is bad. Evolution here is a KEY WORD. Shows that you have
a lust for getting better, improving. That you’re humble enough to feel as though there
are still things you can learn, from experiences, others, mentors, failures even. This is a
hallmark quality of bankably successful people. And guess what, business schools love
that guy.

So your first order of business here is to figure out how, over the course of maybe two
or three TOP leadership experiences, your leadership STYLE changed. Think about it
very carefully, before committing pen to paper. What decisions did you make in
Leadership Story 1 that went differently from, say, your decisions in your most RECENT
“top of the chart” leadership story? What’s behind that difference? What changed? Why
did you see things one way earlier on, and how do you see them differently today? A
truly effective tool here is to relive that initial story IN REAL TIME, and try to remember
and justify all the decisions you made then (as a leader). Sure, you may have evolved
and know of a better way TODAY, but allow yourself to come to the same conclusions
you did way back when. Then, take us through the thing(s) that IMPROVED your
algorithm, your instincts, your moral center, whatever it was that shifted, even if ever-
so-slightly, such that the NEXT TIME you were in a similar position, you acted better.
Walk us through all of that. And if you can, do it a few times. No more than three.

At the end of this, we should be convinced (among other things) that you possess an
impressive capacity to self-examine, and a very healthy appetite for betterment. This is
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equally important to “the actual insights we gain into your leadership style itself.” Too
much of one and not enough of the other is no good:

• Can’t just keep hammering home the idea that you love improving! That won’t
work if we end up not getting any insights into what you’ve actually DONE as a
leader.
• Similarly, not all that helpful SIMPLY to get a sense of your leadership style,
without knowing how that came to be. It won’t pack as much punch.

Here’s an example structure:

1. Walk us through two, maybe three experiences that paint a picture of some
kind of leadership style ARC, where there are clear and meaningful differences
(if even just to you). [100-125 words]
2. Try to sew it all together and describe what this style is, what it is you aspire to,
what it is that motivates your leadership approach. Deliver a sense of what it is
YOU might do in a situation that’s different from “the next guy.” We should leave
this section knowing how to “cast” you if we were handing out leadership roles
that required different styles. [50-75 words]
3. What is it you’re hoping STILL to develop? Where are you weak still? Where are
you inexperienced? What are you hoping the Darden experience will help you
develop? [50 words]

Darden Essay 4

Please provide an example of a situation in which you have

made a meaningful impact. (200 words)
Ah, impact. Lots of people attack this with excellent intentions and write killer essays…
but, not ones that are truly about IMPACT. Here’s where most folks go astray:
Let’s say you’re working at a consulting firm, or a bank, or a retail outfit. And you
outperform folks who have come before you, to the point where upper management
goes “wow, you are killing it in XYZ ways! Thank god we hired you, you’ve been an
absolute game changer. What an impact you’ve had on… operations, morale, sales, boy
oh boy!”

Cool. Here’s the thing, let’s say you leave, and an alien revisits that organization, say,
five years later, and does a thorough audit of sales, operational fluidity, morale,
everything. If ultimately, the findings are more or less the same as they were while you
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were there, and as they were five years prior… then while the things you did may still
have been INCREDIBLY IMPRESSIVE, and MEANINGFUL TO THE BOTTOM LINE, you
have not necessarily made an impact.

Think about impact like a tattoo that doesn’t wash away. A shift in something
(operations, supply chain, culture, something) that STAYS the way a tattoo
does. Forever. No going back. That’s the kind of story we wanna hear about. Not just
wild success. Success that left a mark. A thing that the guy who followed in your
footsteps now adheres to because of something YOU did.
“This company now does this thing THIS way which has had X benefit, and that thing
exists because of THIS STORY I’MABOUT TO DROP.”

“This team USED to do X but now they Y because I led an initiative to change it because
THIS STORY HAPPENED THATI’M ABOUT TO TELL.”

“I set out to change the way the company used to ABC, and HERE’S HOW I WENT ABOUT
GETTING IT DONE.”

Any of these will work, among others. Find your version, and spend some time
grappling with why we should care about any of it. Both in terms of why it was
important to YOU, but also, what we learn about how you approach new challenges.

1. Take us through an experience, explain the objectives, the challenges, and what
was going through your mind at the time. Explain how you pulled it off, and also
how you measured the fact that there was an impact after the fact. [100-125
words]
2. Give us a reason to care about this. Why tell us? What does it say about your
motivations? What did you learn here? Were you humbled? Did it affect the way
you define or measure goals/success? Give us some kind of take home… [75
words]
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Darden Essay 5

What is your short-term, post-MBA career goal and why?

(150 words)
Very straightforward. Always remember, the key here is that you’re not gonna win
anyone over with just a killer idea, or a killer goal. It has to be the combination of a
killer goal and a convincing argument that YOU’RE GONNA SUCCEED AT IT…

Let’s take that one step further. If you can give off the vapor that you’re THE KIND OF
GUY/GAL who will likely succeed at whatever your stated goal is… OR ANY OTHER
GOAL SHOULD IT CHANGE ALONG THE WAY, now you’ve basically printed your ticket
to a top b-school. THAT’S what they wanna see. Why state it this way? Because it
SHOULD affect the way you approach this kind of essay. It will force you to emphasize
and flesh out CERTAIN details and relax your focus on others. (If you’re ever interested
in seeing this for yourself, check out successful essays from top b-school admits. What
you’ll notice is that there is confidence oozing off the page, always, and clear
indications that these guys have success etched into their DNA.)

Okay, so, how do we do this in 150 words? Well, for starters, try to keep the MAIN focus
on the short-term goal. That doesn’t mean you can’t ALLUDE to your long-term goal. In
fact, we often find that the most effective way of selling your plan for your short-term
goal is to place it within the CONTEXT of an overall vision. The point is not to DWELL on
the LT piece here.

1. Indicate the problem you wanna solve, or the opportunity that intrigues you.
Explain not just what the goal is, but also the “what’s the impact when you
succeed at it” … in other words, the “who cares” factor. If you succeed, how will
things change? Do this relatively quickly. [25 words]
2. Now, studiously, rich with detail, take us through the steps, one by one, of how
you’re gonna GET. THIS. DONE. Starting POST-MBA, what comes next? How did
you come up with that first step to begin with? Why is it important? What do
you need to accomplish INSIDE that first step? And of course, what purpose
does it serve within a “four-step” ST vision? (We just made up “four,” it can be
any number.) Each step should logically lead to the next, and we should be
convinced that you have thought through not just what the steps should be, but
also how you will NAVIGATE those steps. For example, if you were to say “in
order to have an impact on telecommunications, first I’ll get my MBA from
Darden and then I’ll grab a post as CEO of a place like Google and then I’ll drop
some major impact, yo!” …it may be true that the guy who travels that path can
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indeed make an impact, but… is it likely? If not, the plan itself is garbage. The
PATH needs to make sense, AND your ability to travel it as well. [75-100 words]
3. Quickly, like, really quickly, leave us with a sense of why this matters to you,
not because we wanna feel fuzzy about it, but because we want to see “skin in
the game.” If you’re motivated by this thing, it’s gonna suggest that you have
the drive to succeed (even if your path changes) and that’s what we’re after. [25-
50 words]

Optional Essay
[Please see the section on Optional/Re-Applicant essays at the very end...]
 133

UPENN (WHARTON)

SURPRISING moments within all of us, where we became men and women. Usually it
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UPENN (WHARTON)
Wharton Essay 1

What do you hope to gain professionally from the Wharton

MBA? (500 words)

We love using “Before and After” to tease out meaningful insights into… things. Lots. O.
Things. This is another good opportunity. Let’s take ten minutes to do a little exercise
and see what that looks like:

Wherever you are right now (self-employed entrepreneur, consultant, banker,

marketing associate, whatever), imagine the next five years of your life WITHOUT
passing through Wharton Business School. Don’t just say, “K, gotcha,” actually imagine
it. Write it out even. On the left side of your “paper” draw a tiny circle that says “TODAY”
then draw a long horizontal line all the way to the right of the paper and draw a second
circle, “FIVE YEARS FROM NOW.”

Now let’s start filling this in with additional circles, but also, with content that can be
compared. You COULD describe yourself today in terms of your WEIGHT, and then
project what you think it’ll be, or want it to be, five years from now. You could also do it
in terms of “marathons completed.” You could do “average number of hours slept per
night.” As you can see, there are many ways to define the “Today You” versus the “5
Years From Now You”—the key thing is that to show PROGRESS, we need to measure
both present and future by the same metric.

For our purposes here, we wanna focus on what are you CAPABLE of doing,
professionally. Let’s start with what you HOPE TO BE CAPABLE OF five years from now,
that you know you CAN’T QUITE PULL OFF today. What are the three to five bullets you
wanna be capable of in FIVE YEARS? What are you aiming at? Write em down. Then do
the same for who you are TODAY. List a few KEY bullets about what your skill set as it
is today enables you to achieve. If you’re an entrepreneur, you can define it in a bunch
of ways: “I can easily manage a team of five, I can grow my business 1.5x, I can…” If
you’re a consultant at McKinsey, you’ll have a different version. So, fill in that second
circle, and then the first. Hopefully much or all of that future list EXCEEDS your current
skill level today, otherwise, you may be flatlining (which is fine, but not quite what
business schools are looking for).
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Now there’s all this SPACE in between. The intervening years. Walk us through maybe
two or three nodes that might reveal key turning point moments, milestones,
whatever, that propel you toward that future node. A promotion perhaps to a new role
with new responsibilities that will allow you to learn new skills? A gig at a new and
bigger company which then allows you to… xyz? Whatever those things are, lay them
out on this timeline. Keep it simple, two to three circles and maybe one or two bullets
for each explaining em.

Once you’re done, you should end up with an ARC that describes where you can go in
five years (rather, what professional GROWTH you can experience)… WITHOUT
attaining an MBA from Wharton. This shouldn’t be a bad arc, it should be a great one.
Cuz what if you don’t get in? That shouldn’t stop you from CRUSHING your aspirations.

But now, you’re gonna do this process over. But this time you’re gonna do it LEFT TO
RIGHT. Start with that left circle (the present), and DUPLICATE exactly “who you are
professionally today.” And now play out the next five years, but maybe in the next
circle, or perhaps two circles from now, you’re gonna include a NEW circle that’s gonna
change the game completely. It’ll say “Wharton” and above it, will be the word “booya,”
perhaps, or a thumbs up emoji. What does the NEXT circle look like NOW? And the
next? And what does the FINAL “Five Years From Now” circle look like? If you do this
correctly, that FINAL CIRCLE should look somewhat DIFFERENT from the first one you
made. This is where your answer to this first Wharton prompt will be revealed… “what
did you gain professionally from Wharton, that explains the DELTA between the first
and second versions of this exercise?”

Once you’ve gotten a sense of what that difference is, now you can apply it to the
actual essay:

1. This is the problem I wanna solve, or the opportunity I’m gonna take advantage
of. This is my ultimate vision, not so much in terms of job titles I want, but the
impact it’s all gonna have. Lemme sell you here on what results FROM my
success. [100-125 words]
2. This is my track record to-date, skills I have, proof that I’m credible in attacking
this stuff. But, in order to achieve ABC aspects of my goals, I’m lacking XYZ. [125-
150 words]
3. While I can get these things at any business school, here are the specific ways
in which the WHARTON VERSION will help me develop professionally … in the
most profound manner. [150 words]
4. Once equipped with the Wharton MBA, here’s a sneak peek at a very thoughtful
short-term plan that follows, and a recap of how this all propels me to the BEST
version of my long-term vision. [75 words]
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Wharton Essay 2

Describe an impactful experience or accomplishment that is

not reflected elsewhere in your application. How will you use
what you learned through that experience to contribute to
the Wharton community? (500 words)

The crux of this question is understanding (truly understanding) the concept of VALUE-
ADD. “Value” is only a part of it. Say you’re a Biz Dev guy, and you’re expected to bring
in five new partnerships and roughly 10M in new revenue. As long as you roughly hit
either or both, congrats, you’ve just “done the job that was expected of you.” Are you
adding value? Kinda. But kinda not. Great that you’re not causing a dip, sure, but, we
still haven’t achieved the “add” part of “value add” yet.

Let’s go a different route. Imagine a popular restaurant loses its chef, makes a snap hire
who’s not as good, customers notice, sales dip. The restaurant finds a hot new chef to
BRING IT BACK to the previous level of business. Say it works. That new chef kicks ass,
word of mouth spreads, and the restaurant RECLAIMS its previous position in the
ranks, back to where it was. Phew, the day is saved. But, again… did that guy “add
value”?

Kinda. But kinda not. Again, he was valuable, sure, in the sense that he saved the
business from collapse. But, until he pushes things to new heights, brings in a new
audience, does something to ruffle the status quo, changes the game, shifts things,
does something unexpected, it’s not truly a value ADD.

Let’s say that that’s our bar. First, we need to understand what the bare minimum is.
What’s “expected.” Only then, can we wrap our heads around what stuff pushes us into
the hallowed territory of VALUE ADD-NESS. For that Biz Dev guy, maybe it’s 10M and 15
(not 5) new relationships, which include a brand new CLASS of partner, that leads to a
new vertical. Okay, now we’re gettin somewhere. Or it’s the same ol five partners, and
same partner TYPE, but instead of 10M, homeboy brings in 40M instead of the expected
10M. 4x the expected revenue? That’s some sh*t (where “some sh*t” = “added value”). In
order to classify it as such, however, we first need to define and understand “the
normal.” For the chef example, what if while saving the restaurant, that guy also
brought with him a game-changing operations game that bumped efficiency by some
sick amount. Or, what if the chef brought in a younger audience with affected “lifetime
value,” and therefore impacted their marketing budget? “Value add.” It’s all about that
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thing the guy delivered that was unexpected, new, created a shift, created a surplus…
“went beyond the expected.”

Aight, so, let’s bring this back to the Wharton essay questions: before you look into your
resume and your application and hustle to “find the first available untapped story to
vomit out here,” you need to consider what Wharton’s community is, and moreover,
what’s expected of you as a student/member of that community. It can’t just be to
“attend classes” cuz if that were the case, why bother screening applicants! It can’t be to
attend classes and also hook into some extracurricular activities. “Everyone does some
version of that.” See where we’re headed? Keep going with it, do your research, talk to
alums, read like crazy, talk to folks who know Wharton/business schools inside-out,
and a very cool thing will start to happen. You’ll start to develop a sense for what it is
about YOU specifically, and YOUR EXPERIENCES, that can “add value” to this scene. The
thing that isn’t already there in droves. Might be a leadership story that at its core
might not be uncommon, but there’s something about the way you grew up, the
circumstances surrounding your particular experience –– whatever those elements are
–– that equip you with an ability or perspective that another guy doesn’t. THAT could
be a value add.

But we need to keep digging. HOW will it add value? Well, flesh it out. How will that stuff
positively affect another individual, a group of individuals, and eventually… a
community? Sell us on it. Show us in a way we can picture. We need to be able to
imagine a few years at Wharton WITHOUT YOU, and then those same few years WITH
YOU. And we should be able to see clearly (in our minds) that the version WITH YOU is
somehow better. THAT’s your challenge here, to make that case apparent. Once you
understand that, now you can figure out what story remains in your arsenal that you
can mine for gold here.

Let’s think of this as a Two-Act essay:

Act I – The Experience/Accomplishment

• Give us the experience/accomplishment itself. If it was an accomplishment, set

us up with the GOALS, and then establish all the OBSTACLES in your way that
made it “not easy.” Then lay out what you DID (actions we can PICTURE) as you
achieved it. If it was an experience, the structure can go a million different ways
depending on what type of experience it was, but your end point will be a THING
that changed you, bettered you, rocked your foundation, something. [150-200
words]
• What did you WALK AWAY with? This is (more important part) where you talk
about the take-away from it all. Cuz, remember, no one cares about the ACTUAL
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accomplishment so much as “the thing you peeled away that will positively
affect THEM somehow.” If you earned a company an extra $5M somehow,
Wharton isn’t gonna see any of that. So that’s the not the part to dwell on. Dwell
on the “thing you learned (or that you brought to the table) that will allow you to
do it again, and again, and again.” [75-100 words]

Act II – All That Stuff Above? Is a NET GAIN For Wharton, Here’s How

• Show us (not in the abstract) but as if you were mapping out the details of a
HEIST, exactly how you’re gonna rock the Wharton community. It’s a great
conceit to have to “prove it” with steps. Otherwise you’ll end up saying
superficial things like “I will share that story with my classmates at Wharton.”
And what… they’re going to magically improve upon hearing it? Maybe. If your
story is THAT good. But prove it. Walk us through the CHAIN REACTION. There
will be two pieces to this section: (1) demonstrating an understanding of what
Wharton and the Wharton community IS, and (2) convincing us that you’re
going to “add value” to it. [150-200 words or so]

This is gonna be hard. And it’s gonna get most of you STUCK. But grind it out, and see
what you end up with on that first pass. If you think about it this way for a bit, your first
draft will end up being a far more valuable hunk of clay we can sculpt than a much
more generalized stab (which is usually what we see from even the BEST of
applicants).

Rock and roll, comrades. Curious to see what y’all churn out.

Optional Essay
[Please see the section on Optional/Re-Applicant essays at the very end...]
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YALE (SOM)

SURPRISING moments within all of us, where we became men and women. Usually it
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YALE (SOM)
Describe the biggest commitment you have ever made. (500
words maximum)

Yale keeps doubling down on its brand: social responsibility. If you want to help people,
if you want to save the world through business… Yale’s the place for you. The same way
that Kellogg has (for better and for worse) become the school for marketing, Yale SOM
is the social responsibility mecca. (Make no mistake: if you want to end up in finance or
consulting or most other traditional B-School destinations, Yale, like Kellogg, and like
every other elite school, is as good a choice as any.)

They, like many others, are asking one question. Let’s unpack this sucker. What does it
mean to make a commitment? What makes one commitment cooler or more
meaningful or more impressive or more important than another?

Let’s look at a few sample commitments:

• To my wife/husband, I commit to loving and protecting you unconditionally

forever.
• To my child, I commit to loving and protecting you unconditionally forever.
• To Nonprofit Organization X, I commit $1M of my personal dollars toward your
organization and cause.

The first two are kinda obvious, no? We’re not inclined to be impressed. “Wow, what a
commitment! That guy just committed to loving his child forever. Inspired!”
The last one seems pretty legit. Contributing $1M toward a cause? That’s unarguably a
MAJOR commitment from anyone. (Right?)

What if, to that list, we added some… stuff:

• To my wife/husband, I commit to loving and protecting you unconditionally

forever, even if YOU were to hurt or betray ME. Because my commitment to
you and what that commitment is serves a greater purpose; to our children, to
society, and is more important than my own emotions.
• To my child, I commit to loving and protecting you unconditionally
forever, even if your sexual preferences fundamentally violate everything I
believe, that our religion allows; even if your political views and your morality
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unravels sacrifices my parents made for me, and sacrifices I have made for
you; because my commitment to you is more important than my own beliefs.
• To Nonprofit Organization X, I commit $1M of my personal dollars toward your
organization and cause. My net worth is $3 billion.

How does that change things? A lot.

Now all of a sudden those first two carry a little more weight. And that third one, not so
much. Yes, $1M is a giant number to most, but to put it in context, it’s .03% of $3B. To
someone whose net worth is $500,000, .03% would amount to $166. When you put it in
those terms, $1M feels… less… something, doesn’t it? On the one hand it is the exact
same “dollar commitment” but in a different sense it feels like LESS of a “commitment.”

What then is commitment really all about?

True commitment seems to require some amount of self-sacrifice, or putting of oneself

at risk in some capacity. Someone who pursues an action or takes up a cause or
embraces a responsibility, despite its being inconvenient in some way, has made a real
commitment (or more of a commitment) compared to when those inconveniences are
fewer or far between. This is not an absolute. Commitment, to be sure, lies on a
spectrum. But, the measure of commitment maintains an inverse relationship with
what we’re calling convenience. The more convenient the commitment, the less
impressive. And the opposite is true: the more INconvenient, the more impressive the
commitment.

Phew. Back to Earth and back to the practical task at hand: The Yale SOM application
essay for 2016. First things first. Dig into your personal and professional history and
generate a list of things you’ve committed to. Aim for five for the first attempt. Five
commitments you’ve made. Don’t overthink this first pass, just list them as you can
recall them. Try not to go back too far to your early childhood (although based on the
openness of the prompt, everything seems to be on the table). Now that you have your
initial list, go through each one and try to quantify somehow which ones put you at
risk the most. Or those items where you stood to lose the most. The ones where the
stakes were somehow highest. Rank that list most to least. Now look at it. The top item,
or the second item will probably be your best candidates to explore…

Once you have it, let’s consider an outline to get you on the right track:

1. Set up the commitment – Part 1. Bring us back to whatever the circumstances

were PRIOR to the moment you made your commitment. And one of our
favorite tricks to keep in mind, don’t write about it using the past tense (i.e.,
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using your modern day brain). Instead, travel back in time and imagine how the
world looked in real-time, and write in the present tense. Explain what was
happening, and who needed what. (Roughly 100-125 words).
2. Set up the commitment – Part 2. Establish the stakes (explain what you were
putting at risk, what you stood to lose, why it wasn’t an easy commitment to
make), and then reveal the commitment you made. (75-100 words).
3. How was your commitment tested? – Part 3. Explain the ways in which your
commitment was put to the test over time. Explain the times it was difficult to
remain committed. Or whatever your version is that made it not EASY to
remain committed and consistent. And walk us through your resolve
throughout. Or, how your resolve wavered, or disintegrated, and how you
regained it, whatever your version is. Remember, if your story doesn’t include
this element, it’s probably not a great commitment for this (100-200 words,
possibly two paragraphs).
4. Why is this meaningful? – Part 4. What’s the relevance of this to your future as
an MBA? Finally, draw a link between this story and your prospects for
succeeding in business school or in the future, or better yet, both. What were the
lessons learned that have strengthened you in ways that are applicable to your
business goals? (Roughly 100 words).
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OPTIONAL ESSAYS
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The Optional Essay

If this were an Agatha Christie novel, we’d title it: “The Case of the Missing Facet”

We’ll get to why in a sec…

First, a brief recent history of b-schools’ relationship with the optional essay, and how
our recommendations have evolved over the years:

2007ish – Generally, b-schools would say “Use this space… if you have anything else to
add. Cool?” So, our recommendation was essentially “Always do it, no matter what.
You’re given a choice to fire another bullet, why on Earth would you not take it!?”
Simple enough.

Early 2010s – But then, an interesting trend emerges. Several top b-schools start to
make a point of saying “Please, for the love all that is holy, don’t use this space to slide
in an extra essay. ONLY use this space to explain away major red flags. Like, seriously
dude, don’t test me on this.” It’s as if these people were saying, “If you don’t heed our
warning, we’ll count it against you.” Naturally, our recommendation was (a) to read
each school’s wording carefully, and (b) generally to avoid the optional essay UNLESS
you had a red flag you needed to explain away, in which case, absolutely use this space
to address possible negatives, efficiently and confidently. This was also happening at a
time when schools were generally starting to shrink word counts from 3000 or so to
2000 and in several cases 1000 or fewer. Clearly, they were getting more words than
they wanted, so the game was more about who can say everything they need to…
concisely?

2016, 2017, 2018ish – Nowadays, we’re starting to see a return to open-endedness in the
way the Optional Essay is worded. And we’re taking it as a signal, since their wording is
usually pretty deliberate, year to year. It’s as if they’re now saying, “Aight, we’ve asked
what we wanted to ask. You got somethin’ else to say? Do it, if you want.” This shift in
tone (and wording) that we’re seeing almost across the board is significant. It seems to
be opening a door that was once almost noisily closed SHUT. You’ll find that the
wording is usually more restrictive on longer applications: if the optional is one of two
essays, they’ll let you write almost anything; if it’s the ninth essay on the application,
they’ll discourage material that’s not 100% critical to understanding your profile. What
are they signaling, exactly?

Well, our take at the moment is this: unless the wording is clearly aggressive in the
direction of “don’t use this space EXCEPT for explaining away problem spots in your
 145

profile,” then… we recommend USING it to round out your profile in whatever way adds
the most value.

This won’t always mean walking the admissions committee through your best
leadership moment or talking about some obvious resume bullet point you weren’t
given the opportunity to talk about in the rest of your essays. It’s much more
complicated than that. The trick at this point is to add up everything you’ve got:
GMAT/GRE, the story your resume tells, the stuff your LORs will likely contain, your
transcripts, your other application essays, all of it, the totality of your entire app. Look
at it from a distance, and reduce it down to an essence. One way to do this is to coldly,
robotically, without emotion, describe that person (you) – this redux version – using
single-word-descriptions, pick maybe five. What words do you end up with?

Cool, now ask yourself… is anything vital MISSING from that redux list? What is a key
part of what makes you an amazing candidate that hasn’t been adequately captured
yet? It’s possible that adcoms will GET your leadership abilities at a glance from your
resume, and possibly from one of your recommenders. But perhaps your resume
doesn’t tell us that you have an INSANELY international perspective based on the
consistency of geography and work experience. Imagine someone coming to the
WRONG conclusion and assuming that to be a major weakness, when in fact, it’s the
opposite! Now would be the time to use this Optional Essay space to make a point of
that in whatever the most compelling way would be for YOU. Maybe it’s an anecdote,
maybe it’s simply matter-of-factly explaining it away.

This part is important: it is possible to paint the perfect picture through the rest of the
application. Such that, if you’re given this opening, and the BEST possible thing you can
come up with here is REDUNDANT (captured BETTER elsewhere/already), or, a second-
rate item on your resume, then you may actually risk WEAKENING your profile by
overstaying your welcome. Use this space only if NOT using it might result in the
admissions committee missing something vital about your candidacy.

Don’t just lob in a great story, because you can. Lob in a missing FACET to your profile.
A facet that – when added to the rest of the facets captured by the rest of your app –
now sums to something that may be MORE compelling than a competitor within your
demographic, or (even better) simply lift you a head and shoulder ABOVE the entire
playing field.

Find your missing facet.

And then use this space to bake it in. Think of the Optional Essay as an opportunity to
COMPLETE your application, not “BOOST” it.
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To make a culinary analogy, the “boosters” end up with a dish that they then say,
“Damnit, it was perfect before I added that extra pinch of salt.” Or, “Damnit, I shouldn’t
have added that lemon zest, now it’s too lemony.” Instead, it’s all about the chef who
tastes the almost-finished product, and is BOTHERED by the absence of something, “It’s
almost there, it’s just missing… some kind of acid/sweetness/spicy kick/etc.” And THEN
they add whatever is missing to bring it home. Those people… usually pick wisely.
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REAPPLICANT ESSAYS
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The Reapplicant Essay

Okay my friends, today we would like to talk about the MBA reapplication process. And
there is more to it, of course, than just the essays; MBA reapplications are an ART form,
gang. Essentially, you are answering the question, “How can I show that I have
improved enough to make the cut THIS year, even though I didn’t LAST year.” The
answer, as always, is pretty simple.

There are many things you can do and here today as an MBA reapplicant. We will
highlight three:

1) Get feedback on your old app. This is perhaps the most critical piece. Have an
expert read through your application. This could be a consultant, or even a
current or former adcom member. Reach out to them for feedback. Some
schools will provide it, and they may also take note that you showed this
additional interest.

2) Make small, continuous improvements. Again folks, you have TIME on your
side. Sign up for an additional extra-curricular. Retake the GMAT. Take on some
additional work at your job. The main mistake that most folks make as
reapplicants is that their application looks…just like it did the first time. This
obviously begs the question: why should we accept you now, and not last year?

3) Turn your misfortune into…GOLD. The key to a reapplication is to show

improvement. In a perverse way, last year’s rejection actually puts you at a
distinct advantage–your application now has a purpose. “Last year I did THAT,
but I fixed it and now I do THIS.” If you nail it, and if you address the issues that
were raised (in numbers 1 and 2 above) you are in a unique position to show
IMPROVEMENT. You can show how hard you work, how you stick to your goals,
and how you solve problems in the face of obstacles. This is actually a
tremendous opportunity that first-time applicants do not have.

Last year’s misfortune can become a distinct advantage for you. You just need to tell
the story the right way.
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INFO@[Link]