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We were gonna talk about getting into Columbia today but

September 13, 2019 by EssaySnark Leave a Comment

…getting a gift like this dropped from the heavens cannot be passed up.

You probably did not watch the Democratic debates last night but apparently there was…. an essay question asked of the candidates?

A classic format for many top schools is to ask you to talk about a significant challenge and what you learned from it. This question pops up from time to time in actual essay requirements for different bschools, and it’s a frequent question in MBA interviews too.

Well guess what? THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES WERE ASKED THIS!

Here’s the entire clip – it’s almost 10 minutes but truly, it’s worth watching with an essay-writing hat on.

As you watch these, keep the question in mind:

“What was the most significant professional setback you’ve had to face, how did you recover from it, and what did you learn from it?”

You might even want to jot down notes on what each candidate said – not because we’re evaluating candidates, but because we’re evaluating answers.

We encourage you to watch; even though the video is edited, it’s still insightful to hear people answering in real time. If you don’t have time for a 10-minute video, the answers are also captured in this Washington Post article and here is a locally saved PDF of that in case you can’t get behind their paywall (sue us, WaPo, for illegally distributing your content if you want — we’re just trying to help essay-writers get better!): Washington Post: Presidential candidates at Democratic debates asked about recovering from a setback (September 12, 2019)

When that question was asked, there must’ve been admissions directors around the country scrambling to write it down.

Because it’s a good question!!

Does anyone want to comment on the answers that the candidates gave?

Would love to see you folks use your analytical minds to see how well they did!

The comments are open if anyone wants to procrastinate on writing essays contribute some insightful thoughts over the weekend.

We’ll come back with thoughts of our own after letting you BSers chime in first if you want.

Filed Under: "failure" essays, lessons learned

« Previous: One warning about overthinking
Next: ($) Examining those non-answers answers from the presidential debate! »

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.

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