Which application to start with

[ankitns]

Hello,
Most of the schools have questions that focus on similar topics such as career experience up until now, future plans, how the school will help you and what will you bring to the school...to mention a few. Of course each school has its own little twist to these questions but once we have worked on application for couple of schools, it should be easier to work on the rest of them.

I am looking for applications that will force me to think the most...applications that will cover most of the ideas and that can be used for other applications as well.....I understand that it will need to be tweaked for each application but am hoping that I could reuse some of the events/aspects across the applications...So my question is which 2 or 3 school should be on the top of the list?

The schools I am shooting for are:
1. London Business School
2. Wharton
3. Chicago
4. Kellog
5. Columbia
6. NYU
7. MIT

Thanks in advance.

[Lisa Anderson]

Dear ankitns,

I'm not really sure what you are asking here with regards to similarity of essay questions and which schools should be at the top of your list. You can compare questions for each school as most have released their fall 2010 applications by now. Yes, you will find great similarity in the types of information they are looking for, with small differences in how the question is asked and answered. However, that is not how you should choose a school. You want to identify a school that presents the best match for you and your goals based on curriculum, connections and culture.

Good luck,
Lisa

[ankitns]

Hello Lisa,
Thanks Lisa but I think you misunderstood me or I was not clear. I am not selecting the schools based on the essay questions. At this point I am sure that I will be applying to all the schools that I listed. My question is which application should I start with first..and which will force the most brainstorming? Considering that once I start with couple of applications, I will have done enough brainstorming that it will help me out with the general idea/direction for the other schools.

thanks.

Dear ankitns,

I'm not really sure what you are asking here with regards to similarity of essay questions and which schools should be at the top of your list. You can compare questions for each school as most have released their fall 2010 applications by now. Yes, you will find great similarity in the types of information they are looking for, with small differences in how the question is asked and answered. However, that is not how you should choose a school. You want to identify a school that presents the best match for you and your goals based on curriculum, connections and culture.

Good luck,
Lisa

[Lisa Anderson]

I don't think there is any advantage to doing one school's application first over the others; you will benefit from your brainstorming on any of them. Perhaps do the applications by which deadline is first? or do your first choice first? or do your first choice second or third to benefit from the writing on the first application(s)? or pick the one with the questions that you find the most challenging first? Happy writing!

Regards,
Lisa