Writing a good essay is equivalent to writing a story about yourself, by expressing your personality, career aspirations, thought process, and future plans. Everything must be tied to two objectives: (1) explain why you made the decision to go to business school, why is it a meaningful choice to you, and (2) what background and contributions you can bring and strengthen the student body of the incoming class. Your essays should be authentic and passionate, but in the language, the school speaks. This requires research about the schools and figuring out what they stand for. Here are 5 general tips:
1. Do a SWOT analysis on yourself.
Know your own strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats before writing your essays. This is something I wish I had done earlier in my career. And do this often and reevaluate yourself. This is particularly helpful when you look for a job, which we will talk about in another post.
2. Have a story behind everything.
Simply saying “I am a strong leader” does not add any value to your essay. Everybody can say that. Give a story of how you led a team of xyz to do xyz, which results in xyz. In the end, conclude your story by saying “I’ve gained my competency as an empathetic and efficient leader”. Show, don’t just tell!
3. Avoid the cliché
International students often use the “cultural shock” story as their biggest life challenge. It is absolutely true in most cases, but do you want to have the same story as the other 100 thousand international students? If it’s important to you and you want to use this, stress how that makes you a unique candidate. That means spending more than ¾ of the entire story emphasizing your cross-cultural skillsets and how you plan to use them as an advantage in business school.
4. Brag!
Don’t be afraid to brag – as long as you’re not lying and saying you led IBM Operations in some country after 2 years working as an Analyst. Be authentic and take credit for what you have achieved. This is your chance to highlight your accomplishments that are sometimes hard to express in interviews or conversations.
5. What do you bring to the table?
Now that you have talked enough about yourself, bring them into your story. Describe how you envision being a part of their institution and what you want to do to contribute to the growth of their program. Be specific with 1 or 2 things (could be building student clubs, enhancing the non-profit management focus, etc.), and don’t go overboard with vague ideas. Have a career goal in mind and stick with it.
Bonus: Be yourself!
Now, this is a cliché statement – but I can guarantee you 150% that schools are interested in knowing the real you and not just another candidate. Stand out, know your values, and express them sincerely.