美国商学院——MBA Essay 汇总

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Word Limits and the MBA Essay                                                                                
We get many questions regarding how strictly one should adhere to MBA word limits, page limits, fonts etc. So in a nutshell, here’s the easy answer.
The schools simply don’t want essays that are longer than their requested limits. They only want the amount of content that falls within their word limits. If you need 1.4 pages to write an essay that is supposed to be 1 page, then you are approaching the essay incorrectly. You are including too much information, too much detail, too much pontification, too many adverbs–too much something. In the wise, wise words of the movie classic, Mr. Mom, “You’re doing it wrong.”
Don’t try to game the word limits/spacing requirements. Write a shorter essay that falls squarely within their required parameters. Those are the essays they want to read, and the essays that they want you to write.
Some schools are deadly serious about it (HBS). Others are lax (Tuck). When they give you a range, fit within the range. When they say “Recommended Limit” (or the like), you have around 5-10% breathing room. When they say “limit” observe the limit. Why tempt fate?

Hope this helps gang and keep in touch!

Jon Frak

HBS Class of 2005

Founder Precision Essay

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HBS's Essay Questions – 2010-11

So many choices!

Harvard’s essay questions mostly resemble previous years’ applications, but there are some rich new additions to the mix.

The questions are:

What are your three most substantial accomplishments and why do you view them as such? (600-word limit)

What have you learned from a mistake? (400-word limit)

Please respond to two of the following (400-word limit each):

1. What would you like the MBA Admissions Board to know about your undergraduate academic experience?

2. What is your career vision and why is this choice meaningful to you?

3. Tell us about a time in your professional experience when you were frustrated or disappointed.

4. When you join the HBS Class of 2013, how will you introduce yourself to your new classmates?

[We believe that analysis should always be revisited… while the questions and wording may remain the exact same as in years past, the world around us changes, often times necessitating fresh analysis. So, stay tuned… we will rip into the main questions again and again. For now, however, we wanna crack the code on the new kids on the block and tackle the OPTIONAL stuff.]

As always, you’ll want to choose the stories that will best promote your application and match you up to Harvard Business School’s profile. This can mean different things for different people (hence, the multiple options—the folks at HBS aren’t dummies!).

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First, we’ll give some examples of “ideal” situations which could be used to exploit each question to its fullest, and then discuss overall strategy afterwards.

1. What would you like the MBA Admissions Board to know about your undergraduate academic experience? – Leadership, Leadership, Leadership. Student groups, athletics, organizations, community service… anything that will consistently show you LEADING. Doing. For example someone who was president of his or her Student Government organization, or someone who founded a university non-profit or interest-group would be an ideal choice for this question. Also if you’ve done looooooots of go-getter leadership/organizing stuff, this question can really be ideal for you; the phrasing of this question allows mention of two or even three items of importance.

2. What is your career vision and why is this choice meaningful to you? – This question is ideal if your career (past and future) is extremely impressive. For example, you’ve worked for three years at McKinsey and are promised a managerial position upon your return? This one’s for you. Have a career vision and proven past in politics? Yep, this Bud’s for you. If you need a lot of space to introduce and SELL your dreams… this may not be the greatest choice because the 400 word restriction can squeeze the life out of it. And force an essay that doesn’t seem as impressive as it might in, say, the Wharton app where you have nearly twice as many words to grab a reader and take them on a journey.

3. Tell us about a time in your professional experience when you were frustrated or disappointed – If you choose this question you want to make sure that you aren’t doubling up with a second mistake essay that sounds too much like the other mistake essay. In fact, the two experiences should be completely separate. Good example for this one: the project you are leading (along with its requisite team of men and women) isn’t going as you’d planned. Great place for a very revealing human story (keeping in mind that this IS Harvard, and if you are trying to make the AdCom cry, it’s because you were disappointed your multi-million dollar company launch didn’t go as planned, not because your boss shouted at you). A good choice if you have very impressive results and accomplishments in spite of the frustrations. How you overcame them is the key here.

4. When you join the HBS Class of 2013, how will you introduce yourself to your new classmates? – You could choose this essay if you have lots of volunteer experience for example, or if you have been a professional sports player, or are an active member of your church/synagogue/mosque. Not really the place to write about your love of snowboarding, and drinking in parks  . This is a fantastic opportunity to cement that idea of “I’m the guy who…” Leave an imprint here. You wouldn’t say “I’m six feet tall, brown hair, brown eyes, and I have a heart that works along with a fully functional skeleton.” You want to be the guy who “invented XXX” or “started YYY foundation” or “spends all of his free time doing ZZZ amazingly cool thing.” While you can certainly use this space to be interesting and endearing and fun… the NET RESULT has to be that we automatically picture you as a DOER, LEADER, FUTURE SUCCESS.

Overall, in all likelihood Questions 2 and 3 will be the simplest to get the most out of: you all have career visions and dreams that you can link to your impressive career past; and for question three, it shouldn’t be too hard to dig up yet another nice achievement (while differentiated from the three accomplishments you have already mentioned).

For those who were real go-getters in their student years, question one is ideal, and question four is probably the hardest to get the most out of, unless you have a story that just KILLS whenever you tell it. A memorable app is almost always a good thing.

Good luck everyone--as always!


Jon Frank
HBS Class of 2005
Founder , Precision Essay

houri

Wharton Essay 1 – 2010-2011

Wharton did what Greg Maddux used to do so well in his sleep: change it up. A fairly radical change of tack in their essay questions this year.

Awesome, let’s dig shall we?

Required question: What are your professional objectives? (300 words)

Okay. For those of you brand new to Wharton’s ways, Wharton USED to be famous for giving applicants MORE space than most other schools. Typically a career goals question elsewhere allows for roughly 500-750 words, and Wharton was almost always in at around 1000. Well, they are NO longer interested in dinner, a movie, and a nightcap. They want the main event, and they want it… quick.

300 words is incredibly tight. And it means you CAN’T just copy and paste that other PERFECT essay you wrote for HBS or Stanford and marble it with some fat just because they give you the space. Don’t even think about a copy/paste job here, you will be ruined.

Here’s a great starting point for how to answer this question. Rather than 300 words, try to answer it in three. That’s right: three. Could be:

Banking, villages, India.
Social networking, reinvented.
McKinsey, Startup, CEO.

The point is, just identify (however you need to) the CORE things you wanna achieve. Tune out the noise about the why and the how you got there and your love for Wharton and all that twaddle.

Here’s another way of looking at it. Imagine you’re being interviewed and are asked the question THIS way:

Inteviewer: Do you have professional objectives?

You: Yes

Interviewer: What are they?

You: [NOW, answer the question.]

Watch what happens. The result will likely be a much better start than trying to game it by overthinking the thing.

Structurally, let’s first think about what the reader needs to be LEFT with, and then work backwards. At the end of reading these 300 words, the reader needs to be able to project your potential career arc. Imagine two potential chefs sitting in front of you. Chef A says “I want to be the best chef in the world.” Chef B says “I would like to win the James Beard Award within 10 years.”

No brainer, Chef B any day of the week and twice on Sunday. Why? Homeboy has a plan. And seems determined (and destined) to achieve it. What’s the real difference between those two responses? Specificity. Milestone. Clarity. Achievability. Definition.

Leave your reader with a VERY clear sense of things you can actually achieve. It may feel as though you are SHRINKING the grandeur of a master plan, but in many ways, you’re blowing it wide open by suggesting a likeliness to achieve something imaginable. Ends up being more impressive.

Good luck everyone, let me know if i can help!

Jon Frank
Founder Precision Essay

houri

CBS MBA Essays 2010 – Analysis
Columbia has released its questions as many of you know, and there’s an interesting change from last year. Gone are the questions about Master Classes and about team failure; the application is now simply two big questions [listed below for your benefit].

One can only speculate as to why Columbia changed it up in this way, but what interests us is: “What does this mean for you?”

Well, let’s figure it out.

Clearly they were getting too much information compared to what they need in order to make a meaningful decision. Put another way, cutting the essays down, they’re really indicating very clearly that all they really wanna know is: (1) what are your goals, and (2) what are YOU all about? They’re picking PEOPLE, after all, and not just resumes.

Essay 1 remains a “classic” Career Goal essay. We’ve dug hard on it here in the blog, and we’ll continue to dig hard—there is absolutely NO such thing as too much analysis on this question. It is the cornerstone of the app—all apps.

(1)  Communicate clear goals—non-MBAs should understand them fully

(2)  Connect your past experiences and inspiration TO the goals—what you’re really doing here is convincing the reader that you “belong” at this party. You “belong” to your goals. You have good cause to pursue them. And will likely be successful.

(3) Map out a sensible PLAN—make us picture the path of success…

(4)  Indicate how CBS helps YOU achieve YOUR GOALS – not how CBS is a good school and can help your average MBA student; anyone can write an essay about that, but only you can write the one about your specific goals.

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Onto Essay 2.

We are seeing here a trend that is reflected in many business schools and the business community on the whole that comes from a sort of existential crisis, in which it’s not enough just to succeed, but to succeed in something that has personal significance, that connects you to the world, because that is both how you will find the most personal fulfillment, as well as bring yourself success.

This one’s all about WHO YOU ARE. (Not to be confused with the Pete Townshend song.)

Two huge concerns here:

(1)  Be Alive

(2)  Let your personality SPARKLE – and therefore be MEMORABLE.

Be Alive:

If you come across inert, chances are, your reader won’t even get through your application, let alone remember it. There needs to be momentum, spark, energy, enthusiasm, passion, aggressiveness, drive. You get the idea. How do you achieve that? Easy:

GET EXCITED ABOUT YOUR TOPIC!

If you think about stuff you love, you SHOULD find that when you write about it, your brain is flying at a speed that is physically impossible for your fingers to keep pace with. This is… great. Your first draft should be almost gibberish because you were too damn excited about whatever it was you were writing about. Get that energy down. You can work on clarity and efficiency and word choice and all that fine-tuning stuff in due time. If you start with a sluggish block of stone though, the thing will always just be dead weight.

Be Memorable:

What you’re interested in should REVEAL something about you. So, this is not so much about WHAT you’re saying, as HOW you’re saying it. Show us the passion. Make us get excited about the AUTHOR, not the AUTHOR’S topic. See the difference?

Imagine a really hot woman wrote a review of a particular restaurant. Imagine her review to be written in a kind of sexy, flirty way. At the end of it, you should want to meet HER more than you want to eat at the restaurant. Same exact thing here. Make it so that while your reader might be interested in the stuff you’re talking about, he’s more interested in meeting YOU because there was a “quality” that leapt off the page.

If you say “I like freedom” or “I would love for there to world peace” or “I am interested in real estate” … we learn nothing. But, if you said “If someone told me I had 24 hours to live and handed me $1M in cash, I would immediately buy myself a one-way ticket [First Class] to Buenos Aires. Why? Because there’s a street-food vendor at the corner of Uriarte and Cordoba who makes a beef empanada that is worth dying for.” —-> Now, I don’t give a rat’s tookus about anything OTHER than… I’m hooked. I like this kid. I want to like this kid. I see some energy here. I see fire. He can talk about anything, and I’m likely to be SOLD. If you come across smart, energetic, inventive, active, etc… it is EASY to picture you SUCCEEDING at whatever you attack. And that, my dear friends, is the key.

Rip into it. Show us who you are and what you’re all about. Reveal something about yourself. Don’t force it. Don’t try to out-creative your own passions. Start by asking yourself what are you ACTUALLY interested in? Truly? Generate a list, pick your favorite three (pick the three that make you smile just THINKING about it) and then fire up three word-vomits (pardon the unsavory image). Then see which one (on a second read) has some juice in it.

This is a fun essay question, so… have fun with it.

Good luck everyone- as aways !! ：）


Jon Frank
Founder Precision Essay

houri

Columbia Business School – Essay Analysis
What are your short-term and long-term post-MBA goals? How will Columbia Business School help you achieve these goals? (Recommended 750 word limit)

I wanna make a (hopefully) quick-ish point about “How will Columbia Business School help you achieve these goals?” Too often, the essays we see confuse this section with “Why do you love the idea of Columbia” or “Can you think of ways to flatter Columbia GSB?”

Guys, gals. Columbia knows why it’s awesome. And they don’t to hear you tell them why. This obviously goes for all schools that ask some version of this question. They’re not testing you on “do you like me? Check YES or NO and if Yes, meet me by the jungle gym at recess.” They know it. And it is a waste of words. A giant, colossal, profound waste of words.

Think about Business Plans. Investors don’t want you to compliment them on their ties. They don’t want to read about why you like them. They don’t want to be flattered in the business plan itself.

They want to read about HOW WILL MY MONEY HELP YOU TO BE SUCCESSFUL… SO THAT I WILL, IN TURN, MAKE A RETURN ON MY INVESTMENT.

Yes? We agree?

If you can demonstrate that you have a PLAN for my money—and can show what happens if I were to GIVE YOU MY MONEY—how AAA leads to BBB and BBB leads to CCC and wallah—PROFITS, SUCCESS, HOORAY. And if I can SEE it and am convinced that you’ve thought it through… I am likely to give you my money. I want you to succeed because then… I succeed.

It does me noooooooooo gooooooood to hear you talk about how great looking I am. And how charming I was on the night we met. And how brilliant my 2-run homerun against Bedford was in Marblehead, MA playoffs. [Honestly? It was spectacular. The dude threw me a 2-1 fastball up and in, and paid for it. Oh he paid for it. God damn what a shot.] While I will be flattered and will love to hear all that stuff about how AWESOME I am [see above example]… it’s not gonna persuade me to give you my money.

In order for me to give you my money—a seat in my illustrious MBA program—you need to present a logical plan. Show me how da money will work.

Fellas and fellasses… when they ask you about “How will XXX School help you achieve your goals” they want to see a business plan. They want to see how their “investment in you” (i.e., a seat in their institution, access to their resources, etc) will help you succeed and eventually… help THEM.

How will it help them? Oh that part’s easy. You’ll make money and give it back to them. You’ll get famous and Columbia Business School will appear under your name on your TV interview. That part’s simple. They need to know HOW you’re gonna succeed so that they have a reason to invest in you.

Stop complementing their ties. It’s not gonna do you any good at all.

[If you're DYING to complement someone, let's talk about my baseball career. Have I mentioned this incredible homerun I hit against Bedford at age 11?]

Good luck everyone--as always!!

Jon Frank

houri

Kellogg Essay Analysis – 1
Gonna roll these suckers out bit by bit over the course of the next few days. Kellogg week. Let’s dig.

Essay #1

a) MBA Program applicants – Briefly assess your career progress to date. Elaborate on your future career plans and your motivation for pursuing an MBA. (600 word limit)

They use the word “assess” and it’s worth paying attention to. Notice they didn’t say “describe” or “tell us about.” It’s a minor, but important distinction. When you ASSESS something, you measure its value. Determining its success… with respect to its potential. If you found an extraterrestrial rock and had to assess its luster, it would be impossible—you’d have no frame of reference. But if you were assessing the sharpness of a knife, you could easily do so.

Your career progress has a “potential” too. It’s the end game. It’s where it’s alllll headed. And this is KEY. Because once you have that objective clear in your mind, you are NOW in a position to evaluate your career progress, and describe to us how it has succeeded (or failed) in bringing you closer to achieving your potential. Again, context reigns supreme here.

They do NOT want “first I worked at X doing Y. then I was promoted and did Z. then I started a company and we expanded to ten countries in two years.” Tells us nothing about progress TOWARD something.

So, QUICKLY establish the end game (don’t dwell). And then show how each (significant) node in your career nudged you FORWARD along your progress bar. When you do so, we’ll be able to extrapolate how your goal is achievable, and THAT is what this question is all about. Does this kid’s track record convince us that he will achieve his goals?

That should take up approximately 300 words, or half of this sucker. Now that you’ve established the momentum, hit us with more details on where this juggernaut is headed. And explain your NEEEEED for an MBA. Show us both that you are hell-bent and eminently capable of achieving your goals, but that there is CRITICAL value to an MBA in making it all happen. Prove it.

No room for fat in here, hit these points clearly and crisply.

b) MMM Program applicants – Briefly assess your career progress to date. How does the MMM Program meet your educational needs and career goals? (600 word limit).

The only difference here is the need to speak directly to the ways in which their dual degree program affects your goals. Again, many folks make the mistake of offering PRAISE to the school or the program. Irrelevant. They don’t need to know why they’re good, they ONLY need to know HOW their offerings help you. Just tell them. Those who turn off that praise spigot tend to come across more measured and committed. Always reads.

Jon Frank

houri

Kellogg Essay Analysis – 2
Describe your key leadership experiences and evaluate what leadership areas you hope to develop through your MBA experiences (600 word limit).

Aha, here they’ve used that word “describe.” See? It is anything BUT arbitrary. This essay is about nothing other than “are you a leader, what kind of a leader are you, what kind of a leader do you hope to be.”

When you’re discussing leadership experiences, it is crucial to convey through action. Describe what you DID. What were the objectives? What were the challenges? How did you jump over each hurdle? Remember, relativity is key here. If you led a team of 7, someone else led one of 70. And, frankly, someone ELSE probably led one of 700. So dispense with the notion that hard numbers will impress. It’s all about setting up the specific circumstances that MADE those numbers impressive. A team of three can be incredibly impressive if it should have been 5 but two key members left prematurely.

Sometimes it’s hard to figure out what to write here that’s gonna sound impressive. The BEST way out of that is to simply (1) establish the objective and then (2) PILE ON the obstacles that were in your way. Whatever they were: time, difficult personalities, limited resources, etc etc. Then slowly, calmly… pick ‘em off one by one, like Eastwood in Unforgiven.

Good luck everyone- as always!

Jon Frank

houri

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