writing essays

($) Breathless bloat and gloat can backfire.

January 6, 2020 by EssaySnark

This is most frequently an issue with the older MBA applicant though we see it across the board. You’ve been involved in some high-profile projects. You have a sense that the adcoms want to hear about “impact.” You combine those two into an essay that talks about how “we helped millions of people by launching...

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Don’t wait to deliver the punchline

January 3, 2020 by EssaySnark Leave a Comment

There’s a common tendency among novice essay-writers (which everyone applying to bschool always is) to want to have a big ending. This happens all the time with Stanford Essay A on “what matters most” — we see BSers write a full 700 words and then, finally, they pull out the answer to the question: “Because […]

“completely lost on HBS essay and need help”

December 24, 2019 by EssaySnark - Discusses Harvard Leave a Comment

We heard from a BSer once that he stumbled upon the ‘Snark through a google search that was phrased somehow like that, so let’s see if we can offer some starting points and ways to break into the analysis process for dealing with the Harvard MBA question this year. Just in case you’re in the […]

($) An essay is an argument redux (with some comments on MBA application theme)

December 23, 2019 by EssaySnark

We’ve talked about this before – “an essay is an argument” post from 2012 – but it’s unlikely many of you have seen it, and this concept keeps coming up in feedback we’re giving to BSers. So we thought we’d do it front-and-center on the main page today for all of you. Let’s break things...

($) Goldplating

December 19, 2019 by EssaySnark

This is a tricky thing to critique, because the type of MBA applicant who does this actually has a lot to offer. And by calling this out, it can make it seem like we’re critiquing the person, or saying that this applicant is not going to make it in to a top school. Not at...

A jumble of jargon

December 18, 2019 by EssaySnark Leave a Comment

Jargon is insidious. Even when we issue warnings to BSers that they cannot have jargon in their apps, we still see it crop up everywhere. Finance candidates can be particularly guilty of this, but it’s a risk in literally every resume. When you’re living and breathing the sector you work in, doing it every day […]

($) Yet another “Ack! I don’t know what to write in my Harvard HBS MBA essay!” post

December 4, 2019 by EssaySnark - Discusses Harvard

You thought we were kidding when we said it’s time to write essays? Nope. Here we are, telling you really truly to start writing essays. With some advice on specifically what to write for Harvard! Now, before we get into it, let’s direct you here to what we talked about in the run-up to Round...

We don’t publish sample essays for your own benefit, and now we have science to back that policy up

October 3, 2019 by EssaySnark Leave a Comment

We have never published sample essays on the blahg. We also encourage you not to read others’ essays even if they make them available to you. As we have cautioned umpteen times before, reading other people’s essays will not make it any easier for you to write yours. And, there’s never any guarantee that someone […]

($) Your task is not to try to impress the bejeebus out of them.

September 20, 2019 by EssaySnark

Here’s some examples of the types of commentary we’ve offered to Brave Supplicants just like you in the past few weeks! (Modified to protect anonymity of course.) We figured, since we were repeating this so often to so many, that it would be worth publishing here as a caution for everyone. Here’s what we said...

($) Examining those non-answers answers from the presidential debate!

September 16, 2019 by EssaySnark

We got such an overwhelming response to our invitation to critique the answers from the politicians! (not) That’s OK. We don’t really have a heavily interactive community, and we don’t mind. It’s fine for all of you to come here for your daily dose of ‘Snark and move on. We know you’re busy. Besides, critiquing...