The Most Common Mistake in MBA Admissions Essays

by , Aug 2, 2010

You've heard this over and over again, and yet it still remains adcoms' top pet peeve: applicants stuff their application essays with the phony baloney they think adcoms want to hear, rather than relating who they really are and what they want the adcoms to know.

In other words, nothing drives the adcoms crazier than when applicants ignore this crucial essay-writing rule: BE YOURSELF.

Don't write what you think the adcom wants to hear

When adcoms receive thousands of essays, each one enumerating the A-Z of what applicants think adcoms want to hear, it can get boring, not to mention annoying. The person who writes, "I am a 24-year old Indian IT male who has a dozen patents in the software engineering," is impressive, but needs to pep it up a bit. Even someone who doesn't possess a heavily-represented profile can't simply rely on the facts. "I am a goat shepherding woman from the Chilean coast," sure is interesting, but unless you continue to express HOW that makes you unique and HOW it strengthens your candidacy as a student at a top MBA program, then it'll sound just as drab as the first example to the exhausted person reading your essay.

Do write what YOU want to tell the adcom

You want to write what adcoms want to hear? Fine. Answer their questions! Just know that they want to hear about YOU, about your individual experiences, about what makes you tick. This is not the place to reel off your accomplishments (they belong in your resume) or to discuss your professional or ethnic profile. Your essay is where you transform from being the straight-A, leadership-driven, innovation-producing MBA applicant number 658, to a person, a human being. With a voice. With a passion. And with something important to say.

Forget what the adcoms want to hear for a moment. What do YOU want to tell them?

Related Accepted.com Resources:

• From Example to Exemplary, a free, 5-day email course or a free, instantly downloadable special report.
• 5 Fatal Flaws, a free, 5-day email course.