My Understanding of Writing B-School Essays
Every admissions officer says that "we expect to read about who you are from your essays and to hear a story that no one else can tell". Many people interpret it as this: business school application is a marketing game and you have to tell something unique about yourself to win.
When I started out on my essays, I was trying to write something unique, presumably something impressive in both content and form, in order to catch the admissions officers' eyes. I did my 'soul search', trying to identify the most unusual things I have ever done and package them into a coherent 'marketing plan', about myself – but only to find my creative juice drain out.
I was stuck and much puzzled. How could you write a story that's supposed to stand out from the crowd? What does 'uniqueness' mean? Does something special to me appear any unique to their trained eyes? How…
Then I read something that shed much light on some of my puzzles and changed my mindset. I set out with the wrong ends in mind – to impress other people without understanding the inner forces that ultimately drive me. I tried to answer the 'how' before even having a right answer for the 'why'. The 'soul search' I did was not a real one; what I did should be rather called a 'brain search'. I took it as a mean while it, in and of itself, should be the end. The real soul search helps you to understand 'why' rather than 'how'. When you give a good thought to this 'why', the 'how' will follow. If you can write something reflective and insightful about your true self (not necessarily unusual or flowery), the 'uniqueness' will naturally show up.
Here, I'd like to share this with you – it is from an article written by Derrick Bolton, the Director of MBA Admissions at Stanford GSB. Personally, I benefit tremendously from reading this. Give a good read of this passage – read it ten times if you must. I hope you will find enlightenment in the article, like I did. And if you were lucky enough, you would receive The Letter, on which Bolton would sign and leave you a very personalized message. But more importantly, I hope you could learn from the business school application experience, which is essentially a self-discovery journey – regardless of the outcome.
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One of the most good-spirited but misguided pieces of advice is "Tell the admissions committee what makes you unique" in your essays. This often leads applicants to believe that you need to have accomplishments or feats that are unusual or different than your peers (e.g., traveling to an exotic place or talking about a tragic situation in your life). How are you to know which of your experiences are unique when you know neither the backgrounds of the other applicants nor the topics they have chosen? What makes you unique is not that you have had these life-altering experiences, but rather how and why your perspective has changed or been reinforced as a result of those and other everyday experiences. That is a story that only you can tell. If you concentrate your efforts on telling us who you are, differentiation will occur naturally; if your goal is to appear unique, you may achieve the opposite effect. Please remember that most Stanford MBAs have excelled by doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.
Alumnus Leo Linbeck, MBA '94 told me on an alumni panel in Houston a couple of years ago something that I have since appropriated. Leo said that, in management terms, the Stanford essays are not a marketing exercise – they are an accounting exercise. This is not an undertaking in which you look at an audience/customer (i.e., the Admissions Committee) and then write what you believe we want to hear. It is quite the opposite. This is a process in which you look inside yourself and try to express most clearly what is there. We are trying to get a good sense of your perspectives, your passion for leadership, and how Stanford can help you realize your goals. As professor Damon would say, we are helping you ensure that your rudder steers you to the right port.
Derrick Bolton
Assistant Dean and Director of MBA Admissions
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