EssaySnark

($) “Halp! What do I do with all these stories?” aka how to identify your theme – especially for HBS!

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We worked with a Brave Supplicant recently who was having a tough time implementing some of the feedback we were offering on their Harvard essay. They were trying to write about their professional experiences but things weren’t coming together cohesively.

In case you need a reminder, the prompt for Harvard Business School is:

“As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School MBA Program?”

In the review we sent back, we were concerned about how the stories they’ve chosen were fitting together into a cohesive theme.

Here’s what we offered to this applicant:


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Wherein we share some real-life feedback offered to an actual applicant trying to figure out what to say in their MBA essays…
 
 

 
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The feedback we offered to this applicant is specific to them, but as you can see, it’s also fairly universal, in terms of guiding on overall execution of the strategy in putting together the content.

A content strategy is the most important thing to get right with your essays, and for the entirety of the application. This will need to be set on a school by school basis. At the same time, once you go through that process once, for your first school (say, using our Complete Essay Package protocol to guide you) then you’ll be in good shape to apply the same structured approach to developing your content strategy for the other schools you’re applying to.

Harvard’s question is unique, but the thought process you have to go through to construct a solid strategy is going to be similar for other schools too.

Want more insights into HBS specifically? Our SnarkStrategies Guide for Harvard Business School helps you tackle both big-picture and also detailed decision-making at each step of the way.

($) Already have a Master’s degree? Why do you also need an MBA now?

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Some schools don’t really focus on this issue but a few of them do – including Tuck in particular, who in the past wouldn’t even consider a candidate with a prior MBA or MBA-similar degree, like the PGP from India. They are (somewhat?) loosening those restrictions in the new admissions climate but even if you have some other business-y graduate degree that’s not same-same to an MBA, it always helps to take the bull by the horns and make the case for why the MBA is needed now.


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Providing a rationale and explanation for the specifics of your profile
 
 

 
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($) All schools do a “holistic review.” But…

by EssaySnark

So we just spent 1,000 words yesterday telling you that the schools look at everything. And they do. In every chat, webinar, and info session, you’ll hear admissions directors of top MBA programs tell you that they do a “holistic review” of their candidates, that they don’t weight any particular component of the profile, that…

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($) “Do the adcoms *really* look at the whole package?”

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Here’s a question that a BSer asked us:

quick question you guys about applications in general – is everything *really* looked at on a holistic basis? I ask because obviously, in sharing only one of my essays with you fine folks, I got one response, but after framing up my profile, etc., it was a different one. I’m trying to get my head around this whole complete package thing, especially since applicants tend to focus on things within their control (essays, general online app, gmat) and it’s easy to get lost in the weeds with that stuff. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it seems like a good sign if everything comes together (i.e., your essays support what you’ve put in the online app, and your recs support the stories in the essay, etc.).

What do you guys think about the whole “holistic” notion of the process? BS or truth?

 


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It’s always fun to go deeper into questions that y’all are posing!
 
 

 
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($) An example of the type of writing that does not work well in MBA essays

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We spend a lot of time here on the blahg helping you learn the skills of good MBA essay writing.

It’s important to recognize that the way to write a good MBA essay is quite different from the way to write other kinds of stuff.

Admittedly, this can get confusing, because we offer recommendations that many types of MBA essays work best when you tell a story — yet today we’re going to talk about techniques used by professional storytellers that don’t work well at all in your essays.


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The art and the craft of good MBA essay writing
 
 

 
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If you find that this type of example is useful, here’s another where we go into the same concept using Stephen King and Hemingway.

($) Evaluating MBA admissions consultants: Why “client success rate” is not to be trusted

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It’s only natural that you’d want to know how many of the MBA admissions consultant’s clients have gotten in. After all, picking the right consultant is a fraught decision: You are putting YOUR DESTINY into their hands. And it’s not a transparent marketplace any way you look at it.

We understand why you’d want to know what percentage of their clients made it in.


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How do you know what to look for in an MBA admissions consultant?
 
 

 
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($) The *really* best essays… tell a story.

by EssaySnark

Recently we had a rather simple post saying what you should already know: The best essays communicate clearly.  That may be in the category of so obvious that it’s unhelpful. The biggest issue with that advice is that nobody intentionally does it differently. We’re certain that we’ve never received a mystifying and obtuse and unfathomable…

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($) The best essays are…

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Today we’re going to go over some attributes in common with all strong MBA essays. Premium content starts here… ———–   ———– Premium content ends.   It doesn’t matter if you have a 770 GMAT and you work at McKinsey, if you don’t do a good job in telling the adcom who you are and…

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2022 MBA Application Guides available!

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Hello all you Brave Supplicants!

This is just a quick heads-up to remind you that, hey, we’re moving through June pretty darned quickly, and another hey, did you know that there’s a bunch of our SnarkStrategies Guides already updated for the Class of 2025 essays?

So far we’ve got the following essay guides ready to roll:

More are in the works too! Pick one up and get started on your applications before we even officially head into summer! That would truly give you a heads start on the process.

Also, it’s not too late to join The Round 1 MBA Countdown! Get weekly emails of tips and guidance to help you stay on track as you navigate the weeks ahead till Round 1.

It’s Juneteenth and this is important.

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Technically Juneteenth is on Sunday, June 19th, 2022, but some are recognizing it all week.

Depending on your background and the region you live, you may have only first heard of Juneteenth in 2020 (when more residents of the United States began to recognize the realities of racism following George Floyd’s murder), or maybe you remember it being mentioned last year. If you’re not Black and/or don’t live in the U.S., you may have never heard of it at all.

No matter your race or nationality, though, you’ve probably heard of the 4th of July. Juneteenth is as significant a day in the history of our country as that one, as it is a day of liberation and freedom.

Given that that’s supposedly a core value of this country — Land of the Free and all — then it seems like something that should be more widely understood and honored. Even (especially) by white people and other non-Blacks.

Here’s the basics:

Here’s a white guy queuing up Amber Ruffin explaining this:

Or somewhat better, as at least this one is featuring only POC, if you need your Black history sanctioned by HBS then you can watch this one instead:

We agree with this too — just as relevant today as it was then.

Black History Month needs to be more than just the shortest month of the year. Last year, the U.S. government made Juneteenth an official federal holiday for governmental employees. That’s barely progress, but it’s something.

They’ve been saying they are going to put Harriet Tubman on the $20 for years and years now, and over a year and a half after taking office, the Treasury Dept still hasn’t done it. They say it’s coming but we have to wait.

So many things apparently are still stalled, in wait-and-see mode, watching and waiting for change, but if you’re someone who cares about these things, you can embrace these changes in yourself, by paying attention to things that matter to people who don’t look like you or don’t carry the same privilege as you. That increase in intentional awareness is probably the first step needed for anyone to become antiracist.

The work of creating equity in our world needs to happen by those in the majority who make it a priority, who change themselves and thereby change the culture. There was a new consciousness of these issues in 2020 and now two years have passed, but the systems have not substantively changed. We will continue reminding those in power, bringing things like Juneteenth to the attention of our readers who are non-Black, and working on improving our action-based allyship for BIPOC.