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Kellogg Essay Analysis – 3
Assume you are evaluating your application from the perspective of a student member of the Kellogg Admissions Committee. Why would you and your peers select you for admission, and what impact would you make as a member of the Kellogg community? (600 word limit).
Think “DODGEBALL.”
[Hopefully for our international friends, this concept isn't toooo alien. Dodgeball is a classic grade school gym class game where two teams face off any to nail each other with large-ish balls, and the goal is to avoid getting hit and elimitate everyone from the opposite team blablabla.]
If dodgeball isn’t familiar, think about ANY school game where teams are PICKED by team captains. You start out with everyone in a clump. Then team captains are assigned. JOHN DOE is captain for Team A and JANE DOE is captain for TEAM B.
Next, all the remaining players line up in a single row. Then? the captain from Team A selects his first pick.
Who does John pick? Well, the answer is never complicated. He picks the best “player” among the people in line. The player who has the best ability to help his team WIN the game, whatever game it is. Is it always the same guy? Heck no. If the game is basketball, he’ll pick the best basketball player. If it’s baseball, he’ll pick the best baseball player, etc.
But first, we have to understand THE GAME, and then figure out what qualities belong to the guy who gets that coveted FIRST PICK.
Well, the game here is a selfish one. It ends up being “Who is gonna help ME succeed the most?”
Yes it’s synergistic, yes it’s all about groups and togetherness blah. That’s all fine and great. But ultimately, you’re not paying a couple hundred grand to help a group do better in ITS goals. You’re getting your MBA to promote YOUR career. So, if you were gonna pick someone to be on your team, you’d pick the guy who was gonna elevate YOUR game.
What qualities, then, would someone ELSE have to fulfill that? Well, strong leaders for one. People who have a “brightness” to them—i.e., people who are energetic, driven, etc. Think about the opposite. A quiet, mousy, sullen smart kid isn’t gonna do you any good. Sparks need to fly here. You want the guy who’s gonna make you want to do BETTER. You want the guy whose ideas are unusual, that make you say “Holy shit, I would have NEVER thought about it that way. Wow am I better off for having listened to that guy’s story.”
So what do you do at the end of this exercise? Flip it. Imagine what happens when YOU are standing among hundreds of people in a line, waiting to be picked FIRST. Why is either captain gonna RUSH to snatch you up? What qualities do YOU have that’ll bring life to the party? And make everyone else… better? (In the same way you, yourself, would want to be elevated?)
Seems a little daunting, but thinking about that lineup will help.
Oh, and don’t take the conceit of “evaluating from the perspective of a student member” too seriously. That can trip you up unnecessarily (i.e., you don’t need to get hung up on writing a third person article, or pretending to be a different person, etc etc.). All they’re saying is step outside yourself and identify what those qualities are—and not just from anyone’s perspective, but from a fellow PEER.
Jon Frank |
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