The Application Process

Business Schools have started releasing their application essay questions. Harvard and INSEAD have already published them. Here are some suggestions to make your applications essays a compelling read.

1. Start Early :

Do not procrastinate. Start early, so you have enough time to plan, draft and revise. Essay writing is an acquired skill and you need TIME to attain perfection in this skill. If you are a working professional and are planning to apply to 5-6 schools, you need to start working on your essays at least 2-3 months before the deadline.

2. Provide real-life examples:

Essays are NOT extended resumes, so do not elaborate and EXPLAIN your resume through your essays. Answer your essay question through real -life examples and let your voice come through your essays. B-Schools want to know you through your essays, so do not hesitate to share your personal experiences/stories that illustrate your personal and professional qualities. In order to make your essays convincing and persuasive, you must connect your essay themes to your life experiences.

3. Answer all parts of the essay question :

Break down all parts of the essay question and try to give equal footage to all of them. If the question has three sections, answer all of them. Prepare an outline before writing. Rewrite and make sure you have satisfactorily answered all the questions in essay prompt.

Example:
Question no. 4 in the Personal Statement of MiF LBS has 7 parts and it is a possibility that the applicant may miss 1-2 parts of it. In order to avoid that, I recommend numbering all the parts of the question and then answer them one by one. After making sure you have satisfactorily answered all the questions, delete the numbers.

4. Be Specific:
Read the essay question carefully and answer it precisely The 'how' part of your answer is as important as 'what' part. This is what will bring out your personal and professional qualities.

Example: If you are discussing your accomplishments or failures / setbacks, do not forget to describe how you navigated through different situations and what you learned from them.

4. Demonstrate your impact:

Do not forget to state what impact/ contribution you are going t o make to the school. Whether the essay question requires you to discuss your contribution or not, make sure to briefly state what value you will be adding to the school. For example, while answering a 'Goals' question, it is imperative to add a concluding sentence or two about the specific contribution you will make to the school even if the essay question doesn't require you to do so.

Example:
" I am confident that with my academic potential, team-working abilities, innovative spirit, and leadership skills , I will add significant value to X school community."

5. Edit for Grammar Errors:

Get your essays edited for sentence structure, punctuation, grammar and spelling errors. These errors are poor reflections on your candidacy and can jeopardize your chances of admission despite your great GMAT score , GPA and work experience. Try to write a mix of simple, compound and complex sentences to bring variety to your writing. Do not write extremely lengthy sentences stretching 4-5 lines, for they are bound to confuse the reader.

6. Stick to word limit :

Stay within word- limit) and try to be as precise as you can (5% over or below word limit is usually considered ok). Admission officers have thousands of applications to review, so they don't like to be frustrated with essays filled with overly lengthy paragraphs or sentences that they need to read 2-3 times to make sense of. They want to evaluate you for your ability to make your point in a concise manner. Also, exceeding word limit reflects your unwillingness to follow the guidelines.

Summary:

To sum up, when writing your application essays, make sure to give yourself sufficient time to brainstorm, draft, revise and edit your essays. I strongly recommend giving yourself at least 2-3 months' time to be able to create compelling essays for one school . You should think through the essay prompt and provide specific answers substantiating it with relevant real life examples that help to set you apart from other applicants. Do not skip any part of the essay prompt, and stay within word limit. Lastly and most importantly, make your essays error- free , precise and clearly comprehensible.

I hope it helped.

Good luck.