($) “Should I write about my ADHD in my essays for business school?”

More and more, the schools are asking their applicants to get personal in the topics they choose for their MBA essays.

We previously talked about aspects of your identity such as being Republican or Democrat, or religion, or being vegan, or a meat-eater so you can start with that post, especially if you’re trying to identify what to write about for the Stanford GSB question on how your background influenced your participation.

But how personal is too personal?

What about struggles with mental health?

What about something that has interfered with your performance in the past — depression, anxiety, ADHD, dyslexia?

What if you’re writing about something that actually raises red flags?

Premium content starts here…
———–
 
Let’s dig into the idea of TMI and MBA essays.
 
 

 
Premium content ends. Not yet a blahg member? Buy access to all the snark here!

 

We’re going to write tomorrow on a similar subject: Whether to disclose the very difficult personal event or circumstances from life history. Do subjects like rape or awful experiences like domestic violence or child abuse belong in an essay?

If you’re left wondering at the end of this: Dang it EssaySnark I still don’t know if I should write about this or not… We have a useful App Accelerator on Essay Ideas, which has a tutorial that gives all sorts of guidance on structuring different types of essays, or even more useful is likely to be the Essay Decimator Essay Review Service which lets us dig in to the exact strategy that you’ve constructed, to give insights on how it will be received by your reader, and what opportunities there may be to shift things around, re-focus the emphasis, go deeper, or sometimes whether angles should be skipped completely.

Or you can try for getting a freebie review here on the blahg! If you’re feeling brave. One essay only, and no promises that we’ll be able to review it, given how busy things have gotten here, but it’s an option in case you want to go for it.

 
 
You may also be interested in:

• Writing essays: Inside-out, versus outside-in stories
• TMI: When is it really “too much”? (first published in 2010 — the world has changed a lot since then! but may still be worth reading if you’re struggling with the question of how personal to get)