Guest Post – How to Ace Your B-School Application Essay

I hope everyone had a great weekend. My was snowy and such, but more on that later. This is something that I have wanted to do for a while, but haven’t really followed through with it. A guest post, by someone who does this stuff for a living. So without further adieu, I present, Brenda Harris:

About Our Author, Brenda Harris

“With a background in journalism, Brenda brings both her background in writing and passion for business and entrepreneurship which she obtained from University of Houston to her feature pieces at Executive MBA programs. Once set loose in the world of blogging she has been steadily increasing her readership and enjoys the interaction between reader and author that allows her to get feedback from readers who suggest new titles, then publish those articles a couple of days later only to receive feedback from those same readers. This cycle improves writing and the reading experience and is something unique she feels she brings to Executive MBA Programs. To that end, we rely on your constant feedback and comments, so please email us with any comments, questions, critiques or suggestions. Brenda is originally from Houston and enjoys spending time with family and friends.”

How to Ace Your B-School Application Essay

The process of applying to a good business school is usually fraught with stress, especially when it comes to coming up with a good essay that will wow the admissions panel and get you into the B school of your choice. Most people know how to study for their GMAT and ace this test, because it is standardized and involves something they understand – focus and hard work. But when it comes to writing a personal essay of a 1000 plus words explaining why they want to get an MBA from this particular B school, they tend to mess up for various reasons. If you want to write a great essay, here’s what you need to do:

• Think of what you want to say before you start writing. Put your thoughts down on paper, and then order them in a cohesive manner. You could either use this as a rough blueprint for your essay or to ensure that you don’t forget to add all that you want to in the course of writing your essay.
• Make your essay personal; your desire to get into the college must come across through your words. This means you must write your essay on your own instead of outsourcing it to someone who you think is better suited to the task. While you can take their help, make sure the effort is all your own.
• Your reasons for wanting to study an MBA and to join this particular institution should be corroborated through other aspects of your application form, like the recommendation letters, your GMAT scores, and your academic grades. So if you want to say something just because you think it will touch the admissions panel, think again. The best essays are those that are true and spontaneous.
• Don’t go off on tangents or be too verbose about one particular subject or topic. Be as concise as you can and ensure that your flow of your narration is natural and continuous and that it does not jump abruptly from one issue to the other.
• Don’t use words that you don’t understand or because they sound good and are bound to impress. When you use flowery and bombastic language, you come across as pretentious and overeager to impress with just your use of words.
• Once you’ve written your essay, read it over a few times to ensure that there are no spelling or grammatical errors. If language is not your forte, get someone who does not need a dictionary and who knows their verbs from their adverbs to look it over. An essay filled with mistakes does not make a good impression even if what you have to say is interesting.

Almost every one of the students who is applying for the same degree will have academic records and achievements similar to yours. So more often than not, it is the essay which becomes the differentiating factor that determines admission – all the more reason why you must pay attention and accord importance to it.

By-line:

This guest post is contributed by Brenda Harris, who writes on the topic of executive mba programs . She can be reached at her email id: brenda.harris91@gmail.com .