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3 stylistic “don’t dos” in your MBA essays

December 2, 2011 by EssaySnark - Discusses ISB 7 Comments

Today we have a list of items that certainly aren’t “mistakes” but they’re practices that EssaySnark is not fond of. We prefer NOT to see these things in business school essays – and your professors in college were probably not too keen on them, either:

1. Cross-references. Each essay should be self-contained and complete. Please don’t put a reference in one essay to what you’ve discussed in another — no parentheticals that say “As discussed in Essay 2, blah blah blah.”

  • The main rationale behind this advice is that you should be presenting new and different info in each essay. If you’re cross-referencing, it’s like you’re a stand-up comic from the ’70s dredging up old and tired material in his Las Vegas routine. Make each essay fresh and new; bring in some other part of your profile here, don’t rehash what you’ve already covered.
  • The other reason is, what’s the point of the cross-reference? Do you want the reader to drop the current essay and go over there to that other one, right now in the middle of the sentence, to read up on the whatever-it-is you’re referencing?

2. Headings and Subsections. In some cases, when a school has a part A, B, and C in their essay, they want SEPARATE ESSAYS. In other cases, they’re simply calling out the different parts that they want you to answer IN A SINGLE ESSAY. In the latter case, it should be written as a complete unit. For most schools with multipart questions, you should not use subtitles or labels in your essay – even for a longer essay like the single Harvard essay allows, it’s better to just write it out as a cohesive unit. That’s what makes it an essay instead of a report. We go into the specific requirements (and expectations) of specific schools like Haas and NYU in their respective MBA essay guides.

  • Headings take away from your valuable word count, and they are just unnecessary with today’s shorter essays. They chunk your content up too much. It becomes a choppy series of answers, instead of a cohesive, polished presentation that flows. Your essay should have a formal intro and conclusion, and transitions between each paragraph. Remember, this is an essay. 

3. Start with a quote. We’ve ranted about this one at least once or twice before. Please don’t put inspiring words from Gandhi* at the top of your essay. Embroider them on a pillow if you are thus enamored of them, but don’t weigh down your bschool essay with such high-and-mightyness. They’re eating up valuable words, and they are NOT ABOUT YOU. And they are setting the bar so g*ddamn high for you that it’s ridiculous. Make the essay about YOU, not about some dead dude who said something that sounds smart. The adcom wants to see if YOU’RE smart. Based on what YOU have done. Quotes at the top are college admissions essay material (and even then they’re not recommended!!!).

None of these are illegal — you are not committing some type of grave bschool applicant sin if you do them. But they don’t help you, and in some cases, they can be detracting, at least mildly. Your essays are your own, of course — feel free to disregard EssaySnark’s advice completely!! (Just please don’t talk about “business acumen” in any essay you send over to us or we will get a little upchuck in the mouth and not like you one bit for it.)

And one more? Just for the history books? This one other little act of irksomeness that we hope you will never commit? Please don’t call bschool a “college.” We don’t often see this in essays but we sure do on the message boards. “Tell me what colleges I should try with a XXX GMAT.” People. Bschool is graduate school. Not college.

For those of you struggling with these basics of how to write an essay, we have another useful post: How to cut a too-long essay down to size. (Most people don’t have the opposite problem; we have only rarely ever encountered an essay-writer who couldn’t get to the max length of their writing assignment.

And if you’re still not sure how to do it: How to write an essay.

* Or Steve Jobs!!!!!!!!! Please God no, don’t put a quote from Steve Jobs in your essay… Even if you had it there before he passed away, it totally does not belong.

 
Updated February 2016: Here’s an excellent article from the smart people at Stanford GSB about innovation… and buried within it is some great guidance for those of you who still can’t resist using that Gandhi “be the change” quote in an essay.

Filed Under: writing tips Bschools: ISB

« Previous: planning for HBS 2+2: GRE or GMAT?
Next: Should you do 30 Days of Essays? »

So who the heck is EssaySnark, anyway?!

We're the snarky experts in MBA admissions!

Sometimes amused and often appalled by what candidates write in their MBA applications to top bschools, EssaySnark created this little blahg to share common mistakes. Learn from them and avoid making admissions directors laugh (or want to hurl) when they read your essays. If you are hoping to have your essay reviewed anonymously on the blahg for free, submit it for consideration.

Want EssaySnark's personal assistance with your MBA applications? Start with our menu of consulting services and please read the Help FAQ to learn how we operate. Still have questions after doing all that? Email Team EssaySnark at gethelpnow at essaysnark dot com.

Good luck on your apps, Brave Supplicant!

Here's what others have said about this:

  1. Anonymous says

    December 6, 2011 at 2:51 pm

    >Hi essaysnark!
    thanks for the awesome blog! It gave me great pointers for the essays! i'm bummed i just found this blog! i've already submitted one BUT i'm still working on another. so there's still hope!
    thanks again!

    Reply
  2. essaysnark says

    December 6, 2011 at 4:33 pm

    >Better late than never, right Anonymous?? 🙂

    Glad to have you around and even gladder that you're finding value here! Good luck with that next app!

    Reply
  3. Anonymous says

    December 7, 2011 at 3:13 pm

    >Thanks! totally need it!
    i thought the GMAT was hard but the essays are worse! Now I'm pretty embarassed that my first school have to read through my rumblings. *gulp*
    My goals should be more specific and "why XXX" should be more tailored.
    i'm glad i edited my quote! all thanks to the word limit, the quote was the first to go!

    Reply
  4. Anonymous says

    December 7, 2011 at 3:19 pm

    >opps! *ramblings*…

    Reply
  5. essaysnark says

    December 7, 2011 at 8:55 pm

    >Sounds like you're on the right track, Anonymous!! Yes, the essays typically are found to be much harder than the GMAT – and at least with the GMAT, you know immediately how you did!! The big Achilles' Heel with essay-writing is that people often assume that they've done a pretty good job with their drafts… it's near-impossible to be objective about your own work, and besides, without having a lot of experience with reading other people's essays, how do you know what a "good" one is? So we fully understand the stress!

    Glad to hear that quote got X'ed out of the Rd 1 draft. 🙂

    Keep us posted on your progress!!

    Reply
  6. Anonymous says

    January 11, 2012 at 3:07 pm

    >Hi ES
    I forgot to remove a bschool's name from an app for duke . I hit myself in the foot . I didnt even copy the whole essay.I just copied a very generic and cliched line about contributing to the bschool;something that most bschool apps have in common.
    Will such an error at a single place be forgiven ? Is that a deal Breaker ? Coincidentally I worked the hardest on my Duke essays .

    Reply
  7. essaysnark says

    January 11, 2012 at 4:32 pm

    >@Anonymous, sorry to hear about the mistake! Unfortunately for some admissions readers, yes, it is a dealbreaker. It speaks to attention to detail and care etc etc. Plus, think about it from their side – it seems a little offensive to be telling your beau that she's the love of your life and how much you're into her, and then all of a sudden, you call her by the wrong name.

    Of course, all the schools know you're applying elsewhere, and if your Duke app really was that strong (and did not have all the typos in evidence in your little blahg comment here – we count 9) then maybe they'll be willing to overlook this faux pas.

    Reply

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