MIT Sloan MBA Essays for Fall 2016 Admission

In this post I will discuss the Class of 2018 MBA application admissions essays for the MIT Sloan School of Management.   You can see the my client results and testimonials here.

BIG CHANGES IN THE APPLICATION PROCESS AT SLOAN
On May 7, 2015, MIT Sloan’s Admissions Director, Dawna Levenson, announced the following:
“By popular demand, I am happy to announce that we will have 3 application rounds this year!
Round 1:
Application deadline: September 17, 2015
Decisions released: December 16, 2015
Round 2:
Application deadline: January 14, 2016
Decisions released: April 4, 2016
Round 3:
Application Deadline: April 11, 2016
Decisions released: May 18, 2016.
We have one required essay at the time of submission (that is right, just one question this year!): Tell us about a recent success you had: How did you accomplish this? Who else was involved? What hurdles did you encounter? What type of impact did this have? (500 words or fewer).
A second (short-answer) question will be asked of those invited to interview: 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. Please share with us something about your past that aligns with this mission. (250 words or fewer).
We will also continue to ask an open-ended, optional question.
The application will go live in early July.”
MIT made three big changes:
1. They introduced a Round Three. Creating a Round Three might not seem like a big deal because the chances to get in Round Three at similar schools like HBS,  Stanford, and Wharton is so small, but really it does make a difference. It means that some outstanding candidates who could not apply until late now have a shot at MIT.  On the other hand, I think it means that MIT will no longer be captive to its waitlist for filling the class, so I suspect getting waitlisted at MIT from next year will be less likely to result in admission.
2.  MIT now has only one required essay of 500 words. Compared, especially to last year’s particularly annoying (at least that is what my clients thought) write your own recommendation question, this will make applying to MIT very easy.  The one required essay is the kind of behavioral question that MIT has been asking for years and a question anyone can answer.
3. As far as I know, no school has ever required a new essay for those it invites for an interview. This is a new one.  The question itself is a modification of a question that MIT has asked previously.

The above changes are not necessarily good for applicants from the viewpoint of admissions chances: My predication is that MIT will see a significant increase in the number of applications it receives and become even harder to get into. What is positive for applicants is that the amount of specific effort (assuming someone is applying to multiple programs) that has to be put into an MIT application is less than in previous years.

Before analyzing MIT Sloan School of Management MBA Essays for Fall 2016, I think it is important to take a look at MIT Sloan’s motto:
MIT’s motto, “Mens et Manus” (Mind and Hand) fosters an attitude of excellence that transforms a career path into a lifetime of exploration, innovation, and leadership. "Learning by doing" is fundamental to the MIT Sloan experience, as it allows you to fill the gap between what you know and how to apply that knowledge to make a powerful impact in your chosen field or career. In hands-on Action Learning Labs, student teams develop solutions to partner organizations' most pressing business challenges, and then go on-site to implement those solutions. This in-depth interaction — coupled with the application of knowledge and skills gained from the multitude of unique course offerings at MIT— exemplifies the School's motto.
MIT is well know for transforming theory into practice and this is certainly true of its business school. In my experience those who can effectively demonstrate how and why they share this “core idea” are most likely to be accepted.  I also suggest looking at an interview I conducted with members of the Class of 2011 and Class of 2013.  For those interested in the LGO Program, I suggest taking a look at this blog by a member of the Class of 2012. For those who can read Japanese, I suggest looking at http://ningsquared.hotcom-cafe.com/wordpress/, http://web.mit.edu/sloanjapan/101/index.html and Kaz’s MIT MBA留学日記 blog. My English language interview with Kaz is here.  If you are able to, I suggest visiting campus or attending a Sloan-on-the-Road event. Click here for the full list of admissions events.


REQUIRED ESSAY
 ”Tell us about a recent success you had: How did you accomplish this? Who else was involved? What hurdles did you encounter? What type of impact did this have? (500 words or fewer).”
This distinctive style of question that MIT asks is based on the behavioral interview method. Before reading the rest of this post, I strongly suggest reviewing MIT Sloan’s guidelines for behavioral interviews because reading it first will maximize the value of my comments below. The behavioral essay question ask have their origins in behavioral interviewing. "Bill Byham, CEO and founder of Development Dimensions International, originated the behavioral interviewing method in 1970."

The STAR technique was developed by Byham as THE WAY to answer behavioral questions:
Byham calls an example of past behavior a STAR, because a complete example consists of a situation or task, the specific action you took and the result of your action. The result you describe doesn’t have to be positive; it could be that you learned a valuable lesson from doing something the wrong way. In his book “Landing the Job You Want: How to Have the Best Job Interview of Your Life” (Three Rivers Press, 1997), Byham tells candidates how to identify the skills for a job; explore their own “behavioral dimensions” (the behaviors they use every day to get things done); and recognize and present a STAR with positive impact in an interview.

The STAR technique is really the core method you need to use for answering behavioral questions in MIT essays. It is simply this:
• Situation: define the situation or "set the stage."
• Task: identify the task/project performed.
• Action: describe the action you took.
• Result: summarize the outcome

Just keep in mind that you need to be introspective as well, so write what you thought as well as what you did. Don't just present "the facts" but actively interpret your actions. There is really nothing overly complicated about this as long as you understand that you need to tell a DETAILED story. Pure abstractions disconnected from a concrete set of action steps are highly likely to result in a weak answer. Similarly, grand actions not told in any depth are also likely to be weak. Identify specific actions that contributed to the result so as to establish a clear link between cause and effect. As when answering any kind of question, another important consideration is to think very critically about what your story selection, understanding of the task, actions taken, and results say about you. Keep in mind that the whole point of asking behavioral questions is to determine how someone acts and thinks as a basis for selecting or rejecting that per son. It is obviously critical to be aware of your own message.

Now I will analyze each part of the required essay in some depth. 

 ”Tell us about a recent success you had”
This is very nice open ended question. Anyone really has to have had a success of some kind. Keep in mind that the success in question need not be professional.
Recent:  (Note: If MIT  changes the wording when they put the official application, I will alter if needed.) Previously MIT time limited stories to three years or less in the past, but the specific year requirement seems to have been eliminated in place of the more ambiguous word, “recent.”  Personally, I think recent does mean something that has happened in the last year or earlier. On the other hand, the success part could be a culmination of effort that took a number of years to accomplish. Ultimately the meaning of recent is left to your discretion (or at least until MIT says otherwise when they release the application).

Success you had:  This is an accomplishment story.  Whatever you did, resulted in a positive outcome. It might not be your greatest accomplishment if your greatest accomplishment was not recent. Given the subsequent part of the question, the success must have required your actions (not solely), the success should involve other people, involve challenges (“hurdles”), and have an impact. The subsequent part of  the question those does suggest that are certain limits on what MIT is looking for, which I will elaborate on below.

“How did you accomplish this?”
Just as discusses above with STAR, your actions must have contributed tangibly to the result. While you may have worked in a team or group, you must be able to isolate the specific actions that you took that contributed to the outcome. Watch out if your essay only involves what “we” did and does not show what “you” did.  Don’t overstate your role, but do focus on it and help the reader understand the value and meaning of your actions.
Who else was involved?
While not indicating that you write a group or team story here,  other people have to have been involved. In other words, the success can’t just be something solitary and that does not involve others.  MIT is looking to understand the way you work with, handle conflicts with, communicate with, and/or motivate other people. The people may be colleagues, clients, friends, family, classmates, etc. The point that the success should involve others.

What hurdles did you encounter?
MIT is not looking for an essay about something you did that did not challenge you in some way.  If you are about to write an essay about a success that happened easily without any difficulty, either change the topic or think more deeply about it to uncover what challenged you. The reason hurdles matter is that highlight abilities. After all, doing something that does not involve a hurdle is by definition easy and hence not a test of ability. Your actions should involve overcoming hurdles.
Here are some types of hurdles to get you brainstorming:
-Hurdles that relate to lack of ability or skill. For instance having difficulty completing a task or being successful because of your limited capability.  Overcoming such a hurdle involves a story about gaining or otherwise obtaining access to the necessary skill.
-Hurdles that relate to relationships with other people or groups, such as conflicts within a team. Overcoming such hurdles typically involves effective utilization of interpersonal skills.
-Hurdles  that relate to one's psychological condition, cultural understanding, or other deeper mental assumptions.  Overcoming such obstacles typically involves a change in mindset.
-Hurdles that relate to a challenging task. It is possible, even likely,  that you write about a challenging situation which you use to highlight your abilities rather than a situation where you were initially deficient in some way.
When you are thinking about which success to write about, one key test for determining that is the extent to which your actions required overcoming hurdles.

What type of impact did this have?
Impact results to the “Result” in STAR.  Given MIT’s aforementioned mission, a success is only one if it has impact.  Be as specific as you be about the impact.  Make sure you connect your actions directly to the impact. Don’t overstate your role in the impact, but do make it clear for the reader.  If the success had multiple impacts indicate that.

Finally, you should ask yourself "What does this essay reveal about me?" If you can't answer that clearly, you need to clarify your message. When asking this question, think about both what you intend the reader to think and what you might also be revealing. Control for the possibility of sending out unintended signals. One of the best ways of handling this issue is to have a very careful and intelligent reader review these essays. If you are working with an admissions consultant, they should be able to do this. Getting multiple perspectives on what you wrote will help you better understand your likely effect on an admissions’ reader.

OPTIONAL QUESTION
“We will also continue to ask an open-ended, optional question.“
  I will edit this part if the wording changes when the application goes up. The wording last year for the question  was “Optional Question The Admissions Committee invites you to share anything else you would like us to know about you, in any format.”
This is just a great question.  It is not one of the two essays above and does not necessarily follow the three year requirement.  Given the completely open ended nature of this question, I think the important thing to really consider first is what you think they need to know about you.  Again don’t write a career goals essay or an essay totally focused on why you want to go to MIT Sloan.  Instead tell them more about you in whatever format you want.

This is the  third year that MIT has asked this question.  One thing that is a bit interesting here is that they say they will take any format, but don’t actually indicate how to provide them with files in any format. All they have is a 7000 character box and no file uploader for the optional essay.  I think this means if you do any sort of  audio or visual or multimedia thing, you would need to take care of your own hosting externally and just provide a brief description and a link.  I could not find any instructions regarding the optional essay that clarified this issue.  7000 characters is well over 1000 words, but I would not necessarily recommend giving MIT an essay nearly that long since the one required essay is 500 words.

While it is surely possible to discuss problematic issues here as would be typical for the optional essay of another school, I would only do that if absolutely necessary and in conjunction with something more positive.

Here is advice for brainstorming your way through this. It is based on my analysis of New York University’s Personal Expression Question, which is actually potentially quite similar.  The big difference is the NYU essay is focused on introducing yourself to your potential classmates, while the MIT question is much more open-ended.

To be honest, I have found a creative essay to be as effective as an “arts and crafts project,” which you could surely do with MIT’ essays.  If you think you can answer the question most effectively by writing an essay, just do that. A creative essay means one that does not appear to be an answer to another school’s question, but is uniquely made for MIT.

In past years, I have had clients who have done slide presentations for NYU, but given that Chicago Booth uses one, if you are applying to Chicago and Stern and state that on your MIT application, don’t do the same kind of PowerPoint for MIT because the MIT admissions people will assume you are trying to cut corners.  In general, anytime a school has a non-standard question, you should really keep in mind that they are looking for answers that demonstrate an applicant’s willingness to put time into it.


Regarding time, try to give yourself significant time before the deadline if you are going to make anything from scratch. In my experience, most successful versions for answering this kind question take more time and drafts. Of course, some applicants can do it right quickly (or might have to do it quickly), but since you are trying to make a positive impact on MIT admissions by helping them understand more about you, you certainly want to put together something effective.

One very common initial error with this question is to focus on being creative at the exclusion of thinking about the purpose: to  provide more information about you that MIT should know because you think it will increase your chance of admission.  It may be creative, but make sure that MIT admissions knows you better after they read/view/listen to your presentation. It is your job to provide a sufficiently clear message regardless of the way you present yourself.


Some Questions to get you brainstorming:
1. What do you want MIT Admissions to know about you that would positively impact your chances for admission?

2. What major positive aspects of who you are have not been effectively INTERPRETED to the admissions committee in other parts of the application?

3. Beyond what you have discussed in the previous essay, what would you tell someone about yourself to create a strong first impression?
4. If there was one story about yourself that you think would really help admissions understand you and
want to admit you, what is it?

5. Do you have a personal interest (painting, video, photography,  and poetry for example) that would work effectively?

6.  Is there some aspect of MIT Sloan that itself really relates to you? What about my career goals and what kinds of classes I want to take? My clients sometimes have the urge to tell MIT about career goals or why MIT,  but they are not asking for these details here.  Actually, except for some interviews, MIT never asks about career goals. Admissions is very clear about stating that they assume your goals will change and that you are going to MIT to figure out what you really want to do. That has always been their message when applicants asked in the past why there was no career goals essay. You need to align yourself with MIT, so you might find it necessary or useful to mention something specific there in this essay, but only do so if such content really helps to tell your story.

Given the open-ended nature of the question, I am sure my questions above don’t cover all possibilities, but I hope they are a good start to getting you thinking.


IF YOU ARE INVITED FOR AN INTERVIEW
 ”A second (short-answer) question will be asked of those invited to interview: 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. Please share with us something about your past that aligns with this mission. (250 words or fewer).”
MIT used this question last year in a longer format which may have involved multiple examples. In this case, those fortunate enough to be called for an interview will only need to write about a single topic.
We can break this into a number of possible topics that relate to MIT Sloan’s mission, which I will break into three categories:

1. Describe a time when you were principled.  While this might simply mean  discussing a time when you were ethical in terms of a decision or action you took, it could also relate to a situation when you convinced others (a boss, a colleague, a team, an organization, etc.) based on position you held.  Being principled might mean ethical, but also relates to ones professional ideas or even perceptions of the world. To be principled means to stand up for what you believe in.

2. Describe a time when you were innovative.  Think of situations were you were creative, original, or otherwise made a positive impact by doing something new. Maybe you were innovative in your approach to solving a problem, but this could be about many possible topics.  For example, describing a time when you improved something, invented something, established a new best practice, or formulated a new idea.

3. Describe a time when you showed  leadership. Think of situations when you actively lead as a thought leader, team leader, supervisor, decider, and/or  convincer.  Leadership takes many forms.  Leadership is no easy thing. Nor is it obvious. The worst possible thing is to conceive of leadership as simple formal responsibility or a title because this conveys nothing about the person in that position. While some applicants will have held formal leadership positions, many will not. Formal leadership positions are great to write about if they involve the applicant actually having significant impact, making a difficult decision, being a visionary, showing creativity, or otherwise going beyond their formal responsibility, but the same is true for those showing leadership without having a formal title.  If you are having difficulty really understanding leadership, find out what kind of leader you are by taking this quiz based on Lewin’s classic framework. I think leadership is more complicated than Lewin’s framework, but this quiz is a great way to get you started thinking about yourself, a key part of answering any leadership essay question effectively.

Ideally it would be great to have a story that combines all three of the above aspects, but don’t worry if it does not. For example, if you find your story focuses on being principled rather than innovative, I would not necessarily abandon that story. The point is to give MIT an understanding of you as a person sufficient for them to understand why you fit at MIT Sloan.
Finally, given that this essay is being asked as part of your interview, assume that whatever you write about you may need to elaborate on in detail in the interviews. I could be wrong about this, but until I  read something from MIT admissions indicating otherwise or subsequently get interview reports from my clients or elsewhere indicating otherwise, I assuming that this essay is a part of the interview process.  Therefore only write about a topic that you will be comfortable discussing in detail.

Best of luck with your application.  If you do get to write on the interview invite essay, be sure to read my post on interviewing at MIT Sloan.








My analysis of MIT interviews can be found here.

-Adam Markus

I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.

Wharton MBA Essay Questions for Class of 2018

In this post, I analyze the essay questions for Wharton for Fall 2016 admission. You can find testimonials from my clients admitted to Wharton in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 here.

While Wharton has not changed their website yet to indicate that the application essays from 2015 have not changed, John Bryne, at Poets & Quants, was told by a Wharton spokesman “that it plans to repeat last year's essay questions and expects its online application to go live in early August.”  Therefore I am going ahead with this post now.  If there are any modifications when the questions are officially published by Wharton admissions, I will alter this post.

For my most recent post on Wharton interviews, please see Preparing for Wharton Interviews for the Class of 2016.

Wharton has decided to go minimal with an essay topic that takes more thought about what you want from Wharton MBA. It is basically a very typical statement of degree purpose type question with the only twist being that you need to state personal and professional reasons for pursuing the degree. It is a future focused statement about what you want from the program and why.

“ (Required) What do you hope to gain both personally and professionally from the Wharton MBA? (500 words)“

An excellent answer to the Wharton essay question would identify those specific aspects of Wharton that you will most benefit from. A general characterization of Wharton- data driven, but also a place with a commitment to experiential learning, East Coast focused but with a San Francisco campus that is now become integrated into the MBA program, highly international, highly flexible with strengths in a large number of areas, including healthcare, finance, real estate, and marketing- is  helpful to keep in mind when writing this essay. Wharton has a lot to offer and, while  some have characterized it as a CFO school, a finance school, a Wall Street school, all too some extent true, this is not so helpful when you consider that, for example, Sundar Pichai, Google’s guy in charge of Chrome, Android, and Google Apps, is a Wharton alumnus. Wharton is a huge program with so many strengths that the point is not to think about some big overall image of the school, but to focus on what you want to get out of it. Which specific resources you want to use and why. Keep in mind that Wharton is much bigger than HBS because of the undergraduate program. The range of courses, research, and opportunities is huge. The point is to provide a specific game plan on how you will use Wharton for your professional and personal growth.

I think an effective essay here will do the following:

1.  Provide both personal and professional content. Personal content can be expressed in academic, personal, extracurricular, and even professional contexts. Personal means giving insight into who you are as person and not just what you know or what you can do.  Professional means providing Wharton with a clear understanding about your capabilities in a professional context, about your ability to work with others, show leadership, overcome challenges, and/or accomplish something.
2.  Be analytical, not merely descriptive. It is very important that you engage in a sufficient amount of interpretation of your actions and not merely a description of what you do.  Given the length, you really don’t have much space for highly descriptive writing or big stories told in significant detail. Your objective is to efficiently guide your reader’s interpretation of what you write, so that they perceive you in the way that you intend.

3. Think widely about what you want from a Wharton MBA.  The point is to give Wharton a sense of the best of who you are so don’t limit yourself too narrowly, but if you try to cover too much, you will end up not covering anything effectively.  Really consider what is best about you and is relevant to answering this question.

4.  Make sure you are stating things as briefly and effectively as possible.  Don’t waste your words. Use them carefully.

Think about the rest of the application when writing your essays.  The application form, your resume, and recommendations are other ways that your strengths as an applicant will be conveyed. Where possible, make sure that what admissions reads in your essays is both distinct from and complementary to what they read in the rest of your application.

If you are having difficulty determining what your goals are and/or why you need an MBA in general, please see my analysis of Stanford Essay B or Columbia Business School Essay 1. In that post I provide a detailed method for thinking about goals and need for an MBA.



Make the assumption that an MBA from Wharton will be a transformative experience for you.  If you don’t make this assumption, you will likely find it particularly hard to explain what you want from the experience personally and will also probably come across as rather dull.  Your job is to engage the admissions reader so that they understand what you want from Wharton for your future.

What are your aspirations?  You need to give Wharton admissions a very clear image of personal and professional objectives for attending the MBA program.  You might include a clear post-MBA career goal and a longer term vision/goal, but depending on how you answer the question, you might express what you want from Wharton more in terms of the kind of person and kind of professional you want to become. You might express it in terms of your present situation and how you hope to be transformed by your Wharton experience.  A purely abstract dream or visionary statement could easily come across as unrealistic or ungrounded if not handled carefully, so be careful to connect your aspirations to  your past actions and/or clearly defined goals. Career changers (those planning on  changing industry and/or function after MBA) should explain why they want to change their careers and how Wharton will enable that. Career enhancers should explain how an MBA will en hance their careers to continue along the pathway that thy are already on.

While you should be explaining why you need a Wharton MBA in  particular. You should  learn about the curriculum, clusters / cohorts/ learning teams, Learning @ Wharton, community involvement, clubs, and WGA in order to determine what aspects of Wharton really relate to your professional objectives. You need not mention the names of particular courses as long as it would be clear to your reader that your aspirations align well with Wharton’s offerings. For example, it is really a waste of word count to mention the names of particular finance courses if the main point you are simply trying to make is that you want to enhance your finance skills. Every admissions officer at Wharton is well aware of the programs major offerings.  If you have a particular interest in a more specialized course or studying with a particular professor, it might be worth mentioning it as long as it is an explanation of why you want to study the subject and not based on circular reasoning.
An example of circular (tautological) reasoning:  ”I want to take Advanced Corporate Finance because I am interested in developing advanced corporate finance skills.” This kind of bad circular reasoning is so common in early drafts I see from my clients and in the failed essays of reapplicants that I am asked to review. Usually it takes place within a paragraph consisting of many such sentences. These sentences actually convey nothing about the applicant. The admissions reader wants to learn about you, not about their own program. If you don’t explain what you need and why, you are not actually answering the question, you are just writing something dull, surface level, and without positive impact.

An example of an actual explanation:  ”While I have been exposed to finance through my work at MegaBank, I presently lack the kind of comprehensive understanding of corporate finance that I want to master at Wharton to succeed as a future leader of cross-border M&A.” By focusing on very specific learning needs and explaining those needs in relationship to one’s goals and/or past experience, admissions will be learning about you and really be able to understand what you need from Wharton. Mentioning a course name is not important if the learning need is already something obviously obtainable at Wharton. A more complete explanation would include additional details about the kind of issues that the applicant is interested in learning about and/or specific ways the applicant intended to apply what he or she would learn at Wharton.

Finally, remember that if you have something that you really want to discuss about what you contribute to Wharton or wish to mention particular classes, clubs, and events at Wharton that you could not fit into the essay, you can always discuss that in the optional essay.

IMPORTANT NOTE: WHARTON HAS TWO OPTIONAL ESSAYS. THE FIRST ONE IS FOR THE GOOD STUFF, THE SECOND ONE IS FOR ANY ISSUES OF CONCERN AND/OR REAPPLICANTS.  For 2015 entry applicants this was confusing. Actually I was confused too!  Maybe the new application for 2016 entry will do a better job of eliminating that confusion.  We will start with the Optional good stuff essay and then discuss the other one.

“(Optional): Please use the space below to highlight any additional information that you would like the Admissions Committee to know about your candidacy (400 words).”
From my perspective and I think that of my clients who applied for 2015 admission, this question was really helpful and not necessarily so hard to answer.  Given the deadlines for top schools, most applicants will not be writing Wharton first and I would not advise doing that because this is a really easy application to handle if you have a couple of other schools done first.  Especially in regards to this Optional Question, you may easily have content from schools like CBS, HBS, MIT,  and MIT that can be repurposed here, but make sure it does not look like you are answering a question for another school.

Given the completely open ended nature of this question, I think the important thing to really consider first is what you think they need to know about you.  Again don’t write a career goals essay or an essay totally focused on why you want to go to MIT Sloan.  Instead tell them more about you in whatever format you want.


Some Questions to get you brainstorming:
1. What do you want  Wharton Admissions to know about you that would positively impact your chances for admission?

2. What major positive aspects of who you are have not been effectively INTERPRETED or presented  to the admissions committee in other parts of the application?

3. Beyond what you have discussed in the Required Essay, what would you tell someone about yourself to create a strong first impression?
4. If there was one story about yourself that you think would really help admissions understand you and
want to admit you, what is it?


5.  Is there some aspect of Wharton that itself really relates to you and is different from what you might have mentioned in the Required Essay?

6. Is there a particular contribution you want to focus on?

Given the open-ended nature of the question, I am sure my questions above don’t cover all possibilities, but I hope they are a good start to getting you thinking.

Optional Essay: This is the essay for those with concerns and for reapplicants. 

“First-time applicants can use this essay if you feel there are extenuating circumstances of which the Committee should be aware (e.g., unexplained gaps in work experience, choice of recommenders, inconsistent or questionable academic performance, significant weaknesses in your application). (250 words)
All re-applicants (those who applied for Fall 2014 or 2013) are also required to complete the Optional Essay. Please use this space to explain how you have reflected on the previous decision on your application and to discuss any updates on your candidacy (e.g., changes in your professional life, additional coursework, extra curricular/volunteer engagements). You may also use this section to address any extenuating circumstances. (250 words)”

First for reapplicants, an effective answer here will do the following:

1. Showcase what has changed since your last application that now makes you a better candidate.

2. Refine your goals. I think it is reasonable that they may have altered since your last application, but if the change is extreme, you had better explain why.

3. Make a better case for why Wharton is right for you.

For more about reapplication, please see “A guide to my resources for reapplicants.”

Second, for addressing any extenuating circumstances: As with the school’s other optional question, do not put an obvious essay for another school here. If you read the above, it should be clear enough that this is the place to explain anything negative or potentially negative in your background. If you have no explanation for something negative, don’t bother writing about it. For example if your GPA is 2.9 and you have no good explanation for why it is 2.9, don’t bother writing something that looks like a lame excuse. This is more likely to hurt than help you. In the same vein, don’t waste the committee’s time telling them that your GMAT is a much better indicator than your GPA (the opposite is also true). They have heard it before and they will look at both scores and can draw their own conclusions without you stating the obvious. That said, if you have a good explanation for a bad GPA, you should most certainly write about it. In addition to GMAT/GRE, TOEFL, and GPA problems, other possible topics include issues related to recommendations, serious gaps in your resume, concerns related to a near total lack of extracurricular activities, and  major issues in your personal/professional life that you really think the admissions office needs to know about.

Best of luck with your Wharton application!

-Adam Markus

-Adam Markus

I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.

Stanford GSB MBA Essays and Application for the Class of 2018

In this post, I analyze the Stanford GSB MBA essays and additional information/resume/employment history/activities for Class of 2018 Admission. My analysis of Stanford GSB interviews can be found here. In addition to the Class of 2018 posts, I also recommend reading and/or listening to my presentation, “So you want to get into Stanford GSB?” which was made to a Japanese audience in March 2011. That presentation focuses on issues that are applicable to all applicants as well as some issues specific to Japanese applicants.

You can find results and/or testimonials from my clients admitted to to the Stanford Classes of 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010 here. While I had four clients interviewed at Stanford for the Class of 2017, but unfortunately none made it. (The Class of 2017 was my HBS year with 10 admits).  My clients admitted to Stanford GSB have come from China, India, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, and the United States and have had extremely diverse professional and educational backgrounds. The advice I provide below is based on that experience.

Initially I provide some overall comments about the Stanford GSB MBA essay set for admission to the Class of 2018, an analysis of the centrality of demonstrating Stanford GSB’s three central admissions criteria- Intellectual Vitality,  Demonstrated Leadership Potential, and Personal Qualities and Contributions-, and some suggestions for how to proceed in order to put together a great application for Stanford GSB. Here are the complete essays and instructions from the Stanford GSB website:

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Essay Questions for the Class of 2018
We request that you write two personal essays. The personal essays give us glimpses of your character and hopes. In each essay, we want to hear your genuine voice. Think carefully about your values, passions, aims, and dreams prior to writing them.
Essay A: What matters most to you, and why?
For this essay, we would like you to:

• Focus on the "why" rather than the "what."
• 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.

Essay B: Why Stanford?
Enlighten us on how earning your MBA at Stanford will enable you to realize your ambitions.
A strong response to this essay question will:

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

Length
Your answers for both essay questions combined may not exceed 1,150 words. Below are suggested word counts per essay, but you should allocate the maximum word count in the way that is most effective for you.

Essay	Suggested Word Count
Essay A	750
Essay B	400

Formatting

• 12-pt. font size
• Double-spaced
• Recommended font types: Arial, Courier, or Times New Roman
• Indicate the question you are answering at the beginning of each essay (does not count toward the word limit)
• Number all pages
• Upload one document that includes both essays

Be sure to save a copy of your essays, and preview the uploaded document to ensure that the formatting is preserved.
Editing Your Essays
Begin work on the essays early to give yourself time to reflect, write, and edit.
Feel free to ask friends or family members for constructive feedback — specifically if the tone and voice sound like you. Your family and friends know you better than anyone. If they think the essays do not capture who you are, how you live, what you believe, and what you aspire to do, then surely we will be unable to recognize what is most distinctive about you.
Feedback Vs. Coaching
There is a big difference, however, between "feedback" and "coaching." You cross that line when any part of the application (excluding the letters of reference) ceases to be exclusively yours in either thought or word.
Appropriate feedback occurs when others review your completed application — perhaps once or twice — and apprise you of omissions, errors, or inaccuracies that you later correct or address. After editing is complete, your thoughts, voice, and style remain intact. Inappropriate coaching occurs when you allow others to craft your application for you and, as a result, your application or self-presentation is not authentic.
It is improper and a violation of the terms of this application process to have someone else write your essays. Such behavior will result in denial of your application or withdrawal of your offer of admission.”

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I know that was long, but I think it is really important to actually read the whole thing. Especially note that you can decide how to divide your 1150 words amongst the two essays and the emphasis on providing your own essays.  The only change from last year’s essays is that instead of 1100 words, applicants have 1150 words to work with.



INTELLECTUAL VITALITY
The simple reality is that Stanford is for really smart people and specifically for people who want to think and explore: This is a school fueled and surrounded by innovation and collaboration. If you have ideas, there is no better place than Stanford GSB to explore them.

My clients who get interviews and most certainly those who are admitted are, without exception, objectively smart people. One primary way, but not the only way, to measure this criteria is by looking at the key numbers (Taken from the premium version of US News & World Report):
GPA: Average 3.73 80% range from 3.43-3.97
GMAT:  Average 732   80% range from: 690 to 770
When I am helping clients determine whether to apply to Stanford, GPA is a major consideration  because the numbers make that clear enough.  While GMAT (or GRE) can be a hinderance, it is a solvable problem, whereas undergraduate GPA is simply a fact.

When I am talking with a client or potential client, if I have somebody with a really strong academic background and I see a real sense of purpose and focus to their academic and professional career, I might advise them to apply to Stanford. And in the last few years, I have literally convinced three of my clients to apply to Stanford because basically I said “Hey, you're perfect, you're what they are looking for.”  And that's a sense.  It's not objective.  And so, it's just based on my experience. I am not always right about this, but I am right about it enough of the time to think I know when I have an applicant who is right for Stanford.

The Curriculum: Hard!
Consider what my former client, a member of the Class of 2010, said in an interview with me:
Adam: How hard was the first year?
Yukihiro: The first year in GSB was very tough! Especially in the first quarter, students must prepare hard for each class and deal with tons of readings and assignments. Actually, if there is one thing I have to complain about the program, it is that there is a risk that the understanding about each subject might be become halfway due to the lack of time. Even American students said the first quarter was very tough. Also, there are a lot of parties, networking and recruiting events in MBA. The students must manage their time efficiently to tackle the academic requirements.

When I visited GSB in May 2010, I had the opportunity to meet with Yukihiro as well as a former client who is a member of the Class of 2011, both expressed that the program was challenging. Please also see my interview with that member of the Class of 2011 as he also discusses this issue.

DEMONSTRATED LEADERSHIP: THE CENTRAL ROLE OF LEADERSHIP AT STANFORD
Stanford should, like HBS, be associated with a leadership-focused education, which is reflected in its mission statement:
Our mission is to create ideas that deepen and advance our understanding of management and with those ideas to develop innovative, principled, and insightful leaders who change the world.Our mission is to create ideas that deepen and advance our understanding of management and with those ideas to develop innovative, principled, and insightful leaders who change the world.
However, there is no specific essay that is  focused on assessing leadership potential.  As a result, what you write in the two essays, resume, and application form really must account for leadership potential.  It is also important to advise your recommenders on the importance of discussing your leadership potential.

PERSONAL QUALITIES AND CONTRIBUTIONS
I think reading what Stanford says about  Personal Qualities and Contributions is the best place to start when thinking about this third criteria.  In essence, Stanford wants to know why should be a part of the 6%-7% of the applicant pool that they will be admitting.  What makes you stand out?  How will you contribute?  What is it about your experience and attitude that will not only make you a good fit for Stanford, but will give you the potential to make an impact to the Stanford community?  This does not just come out in one particular place, but is something will come of your entire application as well as in an interview.

STANFORD IS LOOKING FOR HONESTY
In my analysis of Essay 1, I will discuss the critical importance of providing honest answers to Stanford’s questions, but the following comments from Derrick Bolton apply to the essay set as a whole:
Please think of your Stanford essays as conversations — when we read files, we feel that we meet people, also known as our "flat friends" — and tell us your story in a natural, genuine way.

I can confirm that what has always made a winning set of essays for Stanford is the ability to commit to making an honest and insightful presentation of yourself. Based on my experience I can say the following are not effective:
1. Over-marketing: While I believe in the value of the marketing metaphor to some degree, I also believe you have to be able to understand that a crude, over-determined approach to doing so will not work here (For more about this, click here).   If you are not real, you fail as one of Derrick Bolton’s “flat friends.”
2. Not writing your own essays. If your essays are not written in your own voice and don’t reflect your English ability, don’t expect to make it past Derrick Bolton’s team. My own approach to helping my clients does not involve me writing their essays, but instead I act as a coach, a close reader, and someone who can benchmark their work against those who have been admitted. I make the assumption that overly cooked essays that look like they were written by a professional journalist when you are not one or by a native English speaker when you are not one or similar inconsistencies are unlikely to succeed.

IS STANFORD RIGHT FOR YOU?
Stanford really does provide great advice about both the Stanford GSB essays and about how to handle your applications. Just start exploring their website!  Also see my discussion of Stanford GSB in my analysis of Essay 2. Don’t make assumptions about what Stanford GSB is or based on what someone told you it is. Instead, make that determination yourself after sufficient research. If you are thinking about Stanford GSB and have not yet attended one of their Admissions Events, I suggest doing so if you can. Visiting when school is in session is ideal. Most importantly try to talk to current students or recent alumni.


THE ESSAYS
SHOULD I WRITE ESSAY  A OR B  FIRST?
Applicants often ask me this question. I think it is important that knowing why you want an MBA, Essay B, be clearly established first. Therefore, at least at the conceptual level, you should have a clear answer to Essay B initially. You might do the writing in either order, but as I will discuss below, what matters to you most, Essay A,  must be consistent with and complimentary to your rationale for pursuing an MBA. Stanford does not specifically ask you to write about your post-MBA goals in Essay B, but I would argue that it is impossible to explain why you need an MBA without explaining what you need an MBA for.  And a major part of what you need an MBA for is what you will do after you finish at Stanford.  Now it is possible that what matters most to you might actually relate directly to your goals, so the amount of detail about your goals need not be extensive in Essay B, but explaining why need you an MBA is at the core of this essay set.


Essay A: What matters most to you, and why?
This is the classic Stanford GSB essay question. If you want to enter into the MBA Class of 2018, you will need to find your answer to it. Essay 1 for admission to the 2016 entering MBA class has not changed and it would have been big news if it had.
WHERE DO SUCCESSFUL ANSWERS TO ESSAY 1 COME FROM?
In my experience, answers to this question that result in acceptance come from the HEART and the HEAD. The two combined will allow you to tell your story about what matters most. GSB’s Admissions Director, Derrick Bolton, makes this very clear in his advice regarding the question:

In the first essay, tell a story—and tell a story that only you can tell.This essay should be descriptive and told in a straightforward and sincere way. This probably sounds strange, since these are essays for business school, but we don't expect to hear about your business experience in this essay (though, of course, you are free to write about whatever you would like).Remember that we have your entire application—work history, letters of reference, short-answer responses, etc.—to learn what you have accomplished and the type of impact you have made. Your task in this first essay is to connect the people, situations, and events in your life with the values you adhere to and the choices you have made. This essay gives you a terrific opportunity to learn about yourself!Many good essays describe the “what,” but great essays move to the next order and describe h ow and why these “whats” have influenced your life.The most common mistake applicants make is spending too much time describing the “what” and not enough time describing how and why these guiding forces have shaped your behavior, attitudes, and objectives in your personal and professional lives.

I suggest beginning with no fixed assumptions about what Stanford wants here. One of the easiest ways to write a bad version of Essay 1 is to have a theme that does not directly relate to your actual experience: Round pegs do not fit into square holes.

Heart: The admits I worked with found what matters most to them by looking inside of themselves and finding something essential about who they are. No one is reducible to a core single concept, a single motivation, or any other sort of singularity, but certain things do make each of us tick. Beyond the most basic things of survival, what motivates you? What do you live for? What do you care about? How do you relate to other people? Are you driven by a particular idea or issue? Where do you find meaning?

Head: Once you think you have identified that essential thing that matters most to you, begin analyzing it. What is its source? WHY does it remain important to you? How? How does it relate to the career aspirations you discuss in Essay B? The heart will tell what it is, but the head must explain it. From my perspective, great answers to this question combine a very strong analytical foundation-A FULL ANSWER TO WHY AND HOW IS MANDATORY- and specific examples. Avoid the common mistake that Derrick Bolton mentions above of ignoring the “Why?” and the “How?” by focusing too much on the “What?”If you are having difficulty answering Essay A to your own satisfaction, I have few suggestions:

If you are feeling totally blocked and making no progress on this essay, write some other schools essays first. In the process of doing so, you may discover the answer. This has worked for a number of my clients, while others prefer focusing on Stanford first.

Stanford admissions repeatedly emphasizes that there is no one right answer. Some applicants become paralyzed because they want THE RIGHT MESSAGE. You need to fully account for who you are and what you have done, but should not try to overly sell yourself to Stanford because that is simply at odds with the way in which the school selects candidates. Therefore don’t focus on finding THE RIGHT MESSAGE, instead be honest and give an answer that is real. If you are having some more fundamental difficulties with this question, one book I suggest taking a look at is Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning. This classic is worth a look for anyone who is thinking about what their life is about. Frankl makes us think about meaning from the most extreme of perspectives, inside a concentration camp, and in the process helps us to understand that meaning itself is deeply tied to ou r own survival. If you need to engage in some self-reflection, Frankl's book is one place to start. I might also suggest reading Plato or doing some mediation, but in my experience those take more time and Frankl’s book has the advantage of being short, inexpensive, available at many libraries, and has been translated from the original German into at least twenty-two languages.

The answer may be real, but is it a good one? If you are not sure, look critically at Stanford GSB’s mission statement discussed above in this post.  Does what matters most to you fit within this mission to develop innovative, principled, and insightful leaders who change the world? Think about this statement in the widest possible way. Given the small class size and the highly collaborative nature of the program, admissions will only be doing its job right if they select students who fit into Stanford GSB’s mission. Stanford is looking for leaders, but leaders come in many forms and the values and ideals that inform them vary greatly. In my experience, Stanford highly values “Thought Leaders” as well as those who demonstrate more standard forms of leadership. If what matters most to you is something that admissions can clearly connect to informing your ideals as a leader and your professional goals than you are on the way to forming an effective answer to what is Stanford’s most unique essay question.

Some Common Types of What Matters Essays
While I am not known for giving examples or sample answers, I would like to discuss three common types of answers.


Abstract and metaphorical: Abstract and metaphorical answers can produce very creative responses. An example (Note all examples I will use here are not from my clients) would be “What matters most to me are the doors in my life.”  Using the whole concept of entering and exiting, this essay concept might work very well, but could easily generate a series of disconnected stories that don’t leave the reader with a really clear answer.  I have had clients use such answers effectively, but more often than not, the more abstract the answer, the harder it is to make into something really convincing.  Remember that writing MBA essays is not primarily a literary exercise, so be careful with this approach.

Core value: A core value response might involve a very simple answer to the question, such as “What matters to me most is love.”  Applicants frequently stress out about giving simple answers to the question because they worry that the answer will be too common.  I think it is a mistake to worry that your core conceptual answer is too common because you should assume that Derrick and his team have seen almost every possible answer to this question already.  What is ultimately important is not the what, but the why and how you explain that why in the essay.  Simple can work exceptionally well if it is a way to connect key aspects of yourself effectively.  I have had a number of clients who were admitted with one to three word answers to the question.

The Mission: A mission version of the answer works exceptionally well if your stated mission is really backed-up by your resume and other aspects of your application. An example would be “What matters most to me is protecting the Earth’s environment for future generations.”  I have seen many answers like this that were truly excellent and resulted in admission for candidates who could really prove they had the mission in the past and would be continuing  it in the future.  On the other hand, I have seen so many bad answers that lacked believability because the applicant’s biographical details did not align with the answer, and/or lacked a clearly stated mission with a scope that was clarified in Essay B.

While I have seen all three types result in admission, I have seen more Core Value and The Mission type answers work successfully.

Make a choice! All successful versions of this essay that I have read involve making a choice. That is to say, you must actually clearly indicate something that matters most. As someone who is frequently contacted by those who have failed to obtain admission to Stanford and want to know why, I often find that they don’t make this choice. Their “what matters most” lacks clarity and unity. Make a clear choice and really explore it. This will best reveal your self-awareness and your passion.

Essay B: Why Stanford?
Your objective in the essay is demonstrate why you would greatly benefit from a Stanford MBA education.  Stanford is proud of what they are and what they can offer. They can reject anyone and they do reject a higher percentage of applicants than other schools. Keep in mind what Derrick Bolton, the Director of Admissions, says about Stanford Essay B:
In the application form, we ask you what you aspire to do after your MBA. In this essay, we ask you "Why Stanford?" Given what you hope to achieve, how will your education and experiences at Stanford help you turn your dreams into reality? We give you broad license to envision your future; take advantage of it. The key here is that you should have ideas for your best self after Stanford, and related objectives for your Stanford education. How do you plan to take advantage of the incredible opportunities at Stanford? How do you envision yourself contributing, growing, and learning here at Stanford GSB? And how will the Stanford experience help you become the person you aspire to be? You do not  need to make up a path if you are uncertain, but a level of focused interests will enable you to make the most of your Stanford experience. Be honest with us, and especially with yourself , in addressing this question. 

One thing I think that separates great versions of Essay B (the ones that get applicants an interview) and mediocre versions (the ones that usually don’t get applicants an interview) is the extent to which the applicant is able to show that Stanford is not a mere afterthought or an option, but actually a necessity to accomplish one’s aspirations. Fully account for that in your essay. Learn as much as you can about the program and think deeply about who it will impact you. Stanford views itself as a change agent. Show in you essay how it will change you.In my experience a good answer to Essay B  will do the following;

1. Shows how the applicant intends to be an agent of change in whatever career he or she pursues after his or her MBA. Stanford is looking for innovative change agents, so make sure that you demonstrate that in this essay. Your answer should be consistent with Stanford’s mission to “Change lives, Change organizations, Change the world.”  This really does matter.  Stanford takes 400 people a year  and is typically admitting approximately 7% of those that apply. It is a precious opportunity to go there and hence giving a spot to someone whose goals are simply mundane and not focused on impacting the wider world is not what Dean Bolton and his team are interested in doing. I had known this before meeting Dean Bolton when I was part of a group of admissions consultants who met with him in 2011, but I am even more convinced of it now. Whatever your objectives, whether it is to be a partner at a consulting firm, a leading investment ban ker, a social entrepreneur, a global marketer, an executive in the energy industry, a politician, etc., you need to provide a sense that you have the capability to have wide impact in your chosen field.

2. Shows connectivity with Essay A.  Whether the connection is extremely direct or relatively abstract, the reader should feel a sense of synergy between these essays. For those who have mission (see above) type answers in Essay A, Essay B is opportunity to explain how an MBA will help you carry out that mission. For  those with other types of Essay A answers, the connectivity will be more indirect, but should still be intuitively obvious to the reader.

3.  Consistent with the applicant’s biography.  That is to say, applicants have facts in their past experience that must make their goals believable.  I work with reapplicants to Stanford and for those who are dinged without an interview, I frequently find their goal essay lack this consistency. For instance, someone who says they want to go into social entrepreneurship, but has no history of getting involved with non-profit organizations, lacks significant recent volunteer experience,  and/or has no significant entrepreneurial experience, simply lacks credibility

4.  Does not just make a series of dumb lists of classes or tell Stanford about itself, but explains what the applicant wants from Stanford.  Go review Stanford’s curriculum,  course catalogue, and faculty and research. The resources available at Stanford GSB and Stanford University as a whole are vast, so figure out specifically what you want from the school as you will need to discuss that. While you should be explaining why you need an MBA, you need to make sure that your reasons align well with Stanford. You need not mention the names of particular courses as long as it would be clear to your reader that your learning needs align well with Stanford’s curriculum. For example, it is really a waste of word count to mention the name s of particular finance courses if the main point you are simply trying to make is that you want to enhance your finance skills. Every admissions officer at Stanford is well aware of the programs major offerings.  If you have a particular interest in a more specialized course or studying with a particular professor, it might be worth mentioning it as long as it is an explanation of why you want to study the subject and not based on circular reasoning;

An example of circular (tautological) reasoning:  ”I want to take Accelerated Corporate Finance: Applications, Techniques, and Models  because I am interested in learning advanced corporate financial techniques.”

This kind of circular reasoning is so common. Usually it takes place within a paragraph consisting of many such sentences. They actually convey nothing about the applicant.  They are just abstract needs and will have limited impact on your reader.  The admissions reader wants to learn about you, not about their own program.

An example of an explanation for why:  ”While I have been exposed to finance through my work at MegaBank of Joy, I presently lack the kind of comprehensive understanding of corporate finance that I will need to succeed as an investment banker.”  A more complete explanation would include additional details about the kind of issues that the applicant is interested in learning about and/or specific ways the applicant intended to apply what he or she would learn at Stanford.  By focusing on very specific learning needs and explaining those needs in relationship to one’s goals and/or past experience, the admissions reader will be learning about you.

THIS IS A FUTURE DIRECTED QUESTION
Unlike some other “Why MBA” questions, Stanford is not asking about the past.  You have Essay A, your resume, and the application form to discuss the past. This essay is about who you want to become. While Stanford does not require you to elaborate on your short and long term goals in this essay, without some consideration to your post-MBA future, it will not be very easy to write an effective answer to this question.  You need not have have an elaborate plan here.  You hardly have the space for it.   Instead of focusing on your goals,  focus on your personal mission:
-How will you make a difference and how can Stanford GSB help you do that?
-What impact do you want to make on the world that an MBA will help facilitate?
-What do you need to learn at Stanford in order to transform yourself for your future?

You need to be ambitious. Simply stating what your goals are and why Stanford is the best place for you to accomplish them is not exactly what you need here. Instead, you need to articulate a rationale related to why you want an MBA  that is connected to Stanford’s mission to train global leaders. For more about being ambitious and visionary, see here. While the Stanford essay may not require goals, you will need them if you are interviewed by an alumnus.  Most Stanford interviews involve a discussion of goals.  So having a well thought out set of goals, even if they are not written about extensively in Essay B is something that you should have in place. While many applicants will be able to successfully apply with relatively standard goals (“I want to be a consultant because…”), communicating aspirations requires going beyond the typical.

When formulating goals, the necessary prerequisite for formulating aspirations, I suggest going through a formal process of goals analysis. If you are still trying to figure out what you want to do with your life, you can use the following grid.

The following image may not work for all browsers. If so, see here. Click to enlarge it.

(A Google Docs version: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WobczFFLHBzQRxUeuwBRNmGQ3q-RKP_94iGHuLlXXEs/edit?usp=sharing)

How to use this matrix:

Step 1. Begin by analyzing your “Present Career.” What  roles and responsibilities have you had in clubs, part-time jobs, internships, volunteer activities, etc.? What was/is your functional role(s)? What was/are your responsibilities?

Next, analyze your present strengths and weaknesses for succeeding in your present career. In particular, some of your greatest strengths may have been demonstrated outside of work, so make sure you are accounting for them.

Strengths: What are you good at? Where do you add value? What are you praised for? What are you proud of?

Weakness: What are you bad at? What are you criticized for? What do you try to avoid due to your own limitations? What do you fear?

Next, analyze your situation in right now. What opportunities exist for your growth and success? What threats could limit your career growth?

Step 2. Now, do the same thing in Step 1 for your “Post-MBA” future after you have earned your graduate degree. If you cannot complete this step you need to do more research and need to think more about it. I frequently help clients with this sort of thing through a process of brainstorming.

Step 3. If you could complete step 2, than you should see the “Gap” between your present and your future. What skills, knowledge, and other resources do you need to close the gap between your present and future responsibilities, strengths, and opportunities?

Step 4. After completing Step 3, you now need to determine how an MBA will add value to you. It is possible that an increased salary as a result of job change will be sufficient “ROI” for the degree to justify itself, but you should show how a degree will allow you to reach your career goals. How will the degree enhance your skills and opportunities and help you overcome your weaknesses and external threats? If you can complete Step 4, then you should be ready to explain what your goals are, why you want a degree, and the  relationship between your past and future career, as well as your strengths and weaknesses.

The above table will also help you answer such common interview questions as: Where do you want to work after you finish your degree? Why do you want an MBA? What are you strengths? What are your weaknesses? What are your goals?

The Essay B writing process
After going through a process of reflection and analysis, prepare versions of Essay B that includes everything you want to say. Next begin the process of revision. Here are a few key things to consider when revising:
1. Think about the most important thing you need admissions to know about what you want to do after your MBA and why Stanford GSB is the best place for you to do that. Begin your essay with that. Chances are good that on your initial draft the most important thing is somewhere in the middle or end of your essay.
2. Prioritize the rest of your content: What do they really need to know? Chances are you have lots of details that can be cut.
3. Make a formal argument: Your essay should be neither a set of disembodied points or a summary, instead it should be a formal statement. Effective forms of this statement vary. The important part is that the reader should be able to understand it clearly and be convinced by it.
Once you have put together Essay B, consider how the rest of your application supports what you say in it. Without over-marketing yourself or even necessarily writing it directly in the essays, make that your other essays and other aspects of your application show how your potential will contribute to your future aspirations.

USE ADAM’S AMAZING STANFORD WORD COUNTER!
I developed a very simply spreadsheet so that word count between Essay A and Essay B can be easily calculated simultaneously, which is useful when editing.  You can find it as a shared GoogleDoc here. You have 1600 words to play with, but you don’t have to use them in any particular way.  I can say that my successful clients distributed word count in a variety of ways.


THINK ABOUT THE REST OF THE APPLICATION
There is nothing more depressing to me than to look at an MBA application that is hastily put together. Worse still if it is for a school that is hard to get into. Worse yet if it is for Stanford, where, under Derrick Bolton, there is a very rigorous approach to application review.
The application form, transcript, and resume all play a significant role in the evaluation of your suitability for admission.  Given  that Stanford GSB is evaluating your intellectual vitality, demonstrated leadership potential, personal qualities, and qualifications, you can be certain that beyond your essays, the rest of the application will be highly scrutinized to determine how you benchmark against these criteria.
Some people look at application forms as mere forms. I look at them as opportunities  to provide admissions with as complete and impressive presentation as one can. The reason admissions made the application was because they need the information to make a decision about you, so don’t provide something that is done at the last minute.

Stanford expects that you will take the application seriously:

“As you complete this section of the application, you have an opportunity to describe your employment history, including your responsibilities, challenges, and accomplishments. How have you made the most of your professional opportunities? Are you cultivating your leadership and team skills and making a difference? We look at your responses in conjunction with your letters of reference to create a picture of the impact you have had in your work environment(s).”

The worst thing you can do is treat this section as a last minute thought. I have heard Dean Bolton specifically indicate that he takes the short, but substantive answers in the Employment History  section of the application seriously.

ONE PAGE RESUME PLEASE

Stanford really does prefer a one page resume!

“Please attach your one-page resume. Unless you have a very compelling reason, do not submit a resume that is longer than one page.”
For a one page resume template, see here.   This is the resume template that many of my clients admitted to Stanford and other top programs have used.

Along with the essays, the Resume and Employment History are the most critical documents that you control. Both should present you as effectively and honestly as possible. These two values are not in conflict: Be honest, be thorough, and do not be humble. You are being judged by your professional experience and this is where they get your complete record of it. Since Stanford generally prefers a one-page resume, my suggestion is to provide that if at all feasible. You can always provide any supplemental information in the Additional Information upload section of the application.


Transcripts
At a Stanford presentation in Tokyo back a few years ago, the admissions officer emphasized that the admissions committee closely reads transcripts. While you don’t control the content at this point, you have the possibility of impacting how the transcript is interpreted. Scrutinize your own transcript. If your GPA is high, this is easy. You can relax. If on the other hand,your transcript reveals an unimpressive GPA, some very low grades, gaps in study, or anything else that concerns you, you had better figure out how to address in the Additional Information section.



Additional Information: Use it or don’t use it, but don’t abuse it.

“Additional Information

If there is any information that is critical for us to know and is not captured elsewhere, include it in the "Additional Information" section of the application. Pertinent examples include:

• Extenuating circumstances affecting academic or work performance
• Explanation of why you do not have a letter of reference from your current direct supervisor
• Work experience that did not fit into the space provided
• Academic experience (e.g., independent research) not noted elsewhere”

If you read the above, it should be clear enough that this is the place to explain anything negative or potentially negative in your background or to provide additional information that did not fit in the space provided elsewhere. DO NOT USE IT FOR ANY OTHER PURPOSE. Yes, you may have written a great essay for Tuck, Wharton, Harvard, Chicago, NYU, MIT, INSEAD, Columbia, or London Business School, but don’t include it here. I don’t think the categories above require interpretation as they are clear.

If you really have no explanation for something negative, don’t bother writing about it. For example if your GPA is 2.9 and you have no good explanation for why it is 2.9, don’t bother writing something that looks like a lame excuse. This is more likely to hurt than help you. In the same vein, don’t waste the committee’s time telling them that your GMAT is a much better indicator than your GPA (the opposite is also true). They have heard it before and they will look at both scores and can draw their own conclusions without you stating the obvious. That said, if you have a good explanation for a bad GPA, you should most certainly write about it.

ALMOST EVERYONE HAS SOMETHING THEY WANT TO EXPLAIN. It might be small or it might be large, but if you don’t give your interpretation of something that may look odd in your application, why assume that someone reviewing it will interpret in a manner favorable to you?   Your objective is to always provide the admissions reader with an interpretation, especially of something you think is relatively obvious and potentially negative.


Activities
“We do not expect you to be involved in activities outside the classroom or workplace. But if you are, this can be an excellent way for you to demonstrate leadership. In this section of the application, you may share more about your interests and experiences. Examples of activities in which you are/have been involved may include athletic, charitable, civic, community, or professional.
In the application, report your activities and interests in order of their importance to you, with the most important listed first. A sustained depth of commitment in one or two activities may demonstrate your passion more than minimal participation in five or six organizations.
Be sure to:

• Report activities in which you participated as an undergraduate or graduate student as well as those in which you participated after completing your degree(s).
• Avoid using acronyms to describe your activities.
• Exclude internships; report them in the "Professional Experience" section instead.”

This section is important. Of course, some applicants will not have much here, while others will have a plethora of things to mention. In any case, provide the best answer you can. Use your judgment about what to include. The above instructions make it very clear that Stanford GSB is not looking for quantity. Give them quality and don’t mention anything that will show your lack of commitment: If you joined a lot of organizations for a really short time and did nothing, I don’t think that it will help you to mention it.
Finally, please keep in mind that there is no perfect applicant, just like there is no perfect human being. If you have had to work 100-plus hours a week since graduating from university and your idea of extracurricular activity is sleep, don’t assume that not having any great activities will hurt you. Admissions will evaluate your whole application. I have had the opportunity to work with great applicants who were admitted to Stanford GSB, and I can say none of them were perfect, but what they were able to do was present themselves as honestly and effectively as possible. Some had amazing extracurricular activities, while others really did not having much worth mentioning.


I plea with you to give yourself enough time to do a first class job on the entire application. I can’t guarantee that doing a great job on the application form will get you into the Stanford Class of 2018, but if you make it part of your overall approach to applying, it will not hurt either.  Given the central importance of the resume to the interview process at Stanford, it is critical that you give that document the time and attention that it deserves. Getting into Stanford GSB is simply harder than getting into any other MBA program, but if it is where you want to go and if you think you fit there, commit to putting a significant amount of time into making a great application. Best of luck!

-Adam Markus

I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.

Columbia Business School MBA Recommendation Question Analysis

In this post I analyze the Columbia Business School MBA recommendation MBA for January 2016 admission. The recommendation has not changed.  For my analysis of the MBA application essays and whether to select J-term Class of 2017, please see here. For my analysis of Columbia Business School application interviews, please see here.  At this time the August 2016 application is not yet up.

Before reading my post below on Columbia, you might want to read  two of my other posts first. For overall MBA recommendation advice, I would suggest beginning with my 10 KEY POINTS FOR WRITING AN EFFECTIVE RECOMMENDATION: WHAT EVERY RECOMMENDER SHOULD KNOW, which provides core advice for what recommenders need to know.  Applicants can use this post to help educate recommenders.  In Further Comments on Selecting the Right Recommenders, I provide applicants with some very detailed advice on how to select the right recommenders. This post addresses the most common kinds of questions that my clients and blog readers have asked me about selecting recommenders

Columbia has the most user friendly and simple recommendation of any top MBA program.   The instructions, taken from the recommendation form,  are quite simple:

“Recommendation Upload

Thank you for your willingness to recommend a candidate to Columbia Business School. Your recommendation adds vital perspective to the admissions process. Please consider the following guidelines when writing your recommendation:

• How do the candidate's performance, potential, background, or personal qualities compare to those of other well-qualified individuals in similar roles? Please provide specific examples.
• Please describe the most important piece of constructive feedback you have given the applicant. Please detail the circumstances and the applicant’s response.

Please limit your recommendation to 1000 words. Thank you once again.

Upload a Word or PDF document”

Recommender Friendly: There is no quantitative evaluation form and the recommender needs to only consider the above questions, but unlike on most other recs (Well, we will see what other schools do this year. Previously, only Booth had a similar rec),  the recommender is not forced to answer specific questions.  Given that the recommendation is simply uploaded as a MS Word or PDF file, clearly they are not really counting words. I will surely suggest that recommenders keep to around a 1000 words, but if it is a bit over, clearly not something to worry about.  That said, keeping it to 900 to 1100 words would be a general rule of thumb.

Not set questions, just suggested topics for the recommender’s consideration: This is particularly user-friendly because it means that the recommender can really focus on the best stuff they want to mention about the applicant.

Beyond the suggested topics, I suggest you provide your recommender (Especially if they are not a Columbia MBA alumnus) with some background information on what Columbia is looking for.  Fortunately Columbia provides a very nice FAQ on this issue:

“Who makes a good applicant?
The Columbia MBA Program is carefully designed to instill both the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in the fast-moving, competitive world of business. Many top managers credit the skills they acquired at Columbia Business School as the springboard to their successful careers.
We look for intellectually driven people from diverse educational, economic, social, cultural, and geographic backgrounds. Our students share a record of achievement, demonstrated, strong leadership, and the ability to work in teams.
The Admissions Committee seeks intellectually inquisitive applicants with superior academic credentials from their undergraduate and graduate programs. Excellent written and oral communication skills are essential. Fluency in multiple languages is not required for admission but is increasingly desirable for the study and practice of global business.
Over the past five years, competition for admission to Columbia Business School has continued to rise steadily. We typically receive and review 5,500 to 7,000 full-time MBA applications each year, and in recent cycles only 15 percent of applicants were admitted.”

I will refer to this statement in what I discuss below.

Let’s look at each of the topics that your recommenders need to consider:

While, not stated a good recommendation should always mention the recommender’s relationship to the applicant.”As I emphasized in my 10 Key Points Post, "#2: YOU BETTER KNOW THE APPLICANT OR CREATE THE APPEARANCE THAT YOU REALLY DO," it is critical that the recommender establish the legitimate basis upon which they are making this recommendation. A clear description that is explicit about the time knowing, organizational relationship to, and extent of observation of the applicant is critical.

“How do the candidate's performance, potential, background, or personal qualities compare to those of other well-qualified individuals in similar roles? Please provide specific examples.”
Columbia is asking the recommender to compare the applicant to others in a similar role. You should advise your recommender to evaluate your performance comparatively, which is something many schools require. Comparing your performance to others is one very clear way to address your performance. While a recommender should not unrealistically overstate the applicant's performance, it will not be helping the applicant very much if they are not positively distinct in one or more ways. Ideally the recommender should provide at least one very concrete example of what makes the applicant special in comparison to others. The recommender should make it clear who they are comparing the applicant to. They should make that comparison in a way that supports the applicant. Measurable positive indicators of performance, especially in the recommendation by a supervisor or former supervisor who regularly evaluates/evaluated the applicant, can be an effective way to hig hlight the applicant’s performance, especially if the numbers relate well to one of the applicant’s accomplishments. The recommender may discuss an applicant’s strengths relationship  to overall performance, interpersonal skills, and  language skills or simply in terms of specific qualities or skills.

A good recommendation will help admissions understand why the applicant will make a good classmate and has the potential to be personally effective throughout their career.    Since Columbia is looking for applicants with  strong leadership  and the ability to work in teams, interpersonal skills (via personal qualities) are a very important consideration.  Interpersonal skills relate not only to aspects of leadership (For example, ability to motivate others and ability to manage up/down/across an organization) and teamwork (For example, ability to work well with teammates, ability to help with teammates, and ability to gain support from others on a team), but also in a number of other ways (For example, sales skills,  ability to gain the trust of others, ability to influence others, charisma, winning personality).  Given the importance of the Cluster System at Columbia, admissions is looking for applicants with the ability to work effectively with their classmates.

For non-native English speakers,  a positive statement on the topic of the applicant’s written and spoken communication skills should hopefully be in at least one of the recommendations.  Admissions officers are always concerned about English speaking ability on the part of international applicants in general because low-level English speaking ability can significantly impact both a student’s and their classmates’ experience, which is to say that it is a gate keeping/overall student satisfaction issue.  Given that Columbia has been known to conduct post-interview English checks of non-native speaking applicants, it is surely important that a recommendation not overstate the applicant’s English abilities.

For native English speakers, If the recommender has a basis for commenting positively on your non-English language skills, they should do so. Especially for American and Canadian- Not many of my Anglophone Canadian clients have had solid French skills- if one or both of your recommenders can positively comment on your foreign language skills, they should do so. Again, they should only do this if they actually would have observed you using your foreign language skills. In most circumstances, I don’t necessarily recommend that Indian applicants have their recommenders discuss their non-native Indian language skills (Even if for example, you are native in Tamil and you use Hindi in your work, assume that admissions will not get the fact that Tamil is a Dravidian language while Hindi is Indo-European.) because it is surely much more important that the specific language is not mentioned and/or assumed to be English. East and Southeast Asian applicants mi ght have a recommender mention their non-native non-English skills, but in general mentioning an applicant’s native Japanese, Mandarin, Korean, Vietnamese, or Thai language skills would not necessarily have much positive impact on admissions. Use of a non-native non-English language (A French applicant using German, a Japanese applicant using Mandarin, a Chinese applicant using Spanish, a Korean applicant using Thai, an Australian applicant using Japanese, a Indian applicant using Portuguese, etc.) is surely worth mentioning if the recommender has a basis for doing so.

“Please describe the most important piece of constructive feedback you have given the applicant. Please detail the circumstances and the applicant’s response.”
While feedback need not be in response to weakness or need for improvement on the part of the applicant, it is often effective if the recommender does just that.  While good advice is a possible kind of constructive feedback, what is typically meant by constructive feedback relates more commonly to advice designed to help someone improve in the future.  I find that many recommenders resist writing about weaknesses, yet to do so reveals a deeper understanding about the applicant. While I think it is necessary to practice good judgment when writing about weakness, I think it is also important that the recommender actually reference your areas for future development. One standard defensive strategy that many recommenders seem drawn to is to write about knowledge or skill areas where the applicant is weak, but such weaknesses, unless specifically connected to past failures,  are rather superficial.  To quote my  general advice for recommenders: BE CRITICAL, BUT NUANCED. You will likely be asked to provide a critical perspective on the applicant. Questions about areas for future growth, weaknesses, or characteristics about the applicant you would change are very common on MBA recs.   The objective of such criticism is to help the admissions committee understand the applicant and also the extent to which you are relatively objective.  Still, make sure that your criticisms are not fatal ( Examples: "The applicant loses his temper easily and has been disruptive on teams."  "The applicant lacks the ability to analyze complex issues."  "She is too aggressive to work effectively with some people."), but are measured and nuanced. Be honest about the applicant, but when you answer such questions think carefully about the answer and provide a full and complete answer that  explains (and hopefully delineates) the extent of your criticism.

Is it a good strength (performance, potential, background, or personal qualities) or weakness? Some questions to ask yourself:
1. Does the strength demonstrate the applicant’s potential for future academic and/or professional success? If so it is a probably a good topic. If not, why does Columbia  need to know about it?
2. Is a weakness fixable? If you are writing about a weakness that cannot be improved upon, why do want to mention it to Columbia?
3. Is there sufficient context provided to really understand the strength or weakness? Providing a low context answer unsupported by evidence is likely to have little impact.
Finally, recommendations play in an important role in the admissions process at Columbia Business School, so make that you give recommenders both sufficient time and appropriate input for them to be your strong advocates.

-Adam Markus

I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.