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App Essay

by oustone85 » Thu Aug 13, 2009 1:46 pm
I have a question regarding the goals essay that appears on pretty much all of the applications. When addressing the short-term and long-term goals portion, how specific do i need to be? I have a good idea of what i'd like to do, but for me to write about exactly what i'd like to be doing in 20 years seems difficult.

Also, I'm trying to approach grad school as open minded as possible, so as to leave all options available to me, should I communicate this in my essay or will that make me sound like I dont have a clear vision of what I'd like to do with my career?

Thanks in advance!
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by Lisa Anderson » Fri Aug 14, 2009 12:05 pm
Dear oustone85,

Most schools are looking for your plan upon graduating from business school and then about 5-10 years out. You can give an ultimate goal for your long-term goal if you do have something specific though (i.e., starting your own consulting firm).

While you do not have to have a specific job title in a specific company, you do need to have some idea of what you want to do so as to make business school the best, logical step between your career goal and where you are today. Thus it is acceptable to specify an industry if you know what industry you want to be in as well as to specify a functional area like finance or marketing. If you can narrow down to some degree from the big functions like finance or marketing, that is helpful. For example, corporate finance, investment banking, or asset management if you intend to pursue a career in finance. You do not want to say you are keeping your options open with no idea as then the admissions committee will question why you are going to business school and your judgment--since business school is less than 2 years in length there is not much time to figure it out and look for a job.

Hope that helps!
Lisa
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