“show don’t tell”

($) 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...

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($) The most important technique you need to learn to write a good MBA admissions essay

June 17, 2019 by EssaySnark

What we’re going to cover today is what we cover over and over again on this here snarkolicious blahg – and it’s one of the slipperiest techniques to master. It’s also perhaps the most sophisticated, and while we cannot say that if you write your essays using this technique, that you’re guaranteed to be accepted,...

($) Embroider it on a pillow.

November 28, 2018 by EssaySnark

But please don’t write it in an MBA essay. We originally started this blahg because we saw too many earnest MBA applicants (aka BSers) saying earnest MBA applicant things in their essays. That was nine years ago (and we’d already been reading MBA essays for many years before then). Alas, not much has changed. 🙁...

($) Another “show, don’t tell” post

November 21, 2018 by EssaySnark

Often when doing an Essay Decimator essay critique, we come upon a story that the BSer is trying to use to support their application and, well, we just can’t figure it out. Frequently it’s a question of alignment: The story starts off in one direction, emphasizing how the BSer did certain things to bring something...

($) “no other school has…”

November 13, 2018 by EssaySnark

Over the summer we did a two-part series about “compare and contrast” in your MBA essays and it’s worth revisiting, since this comes up a lot in what BSers submit in their apps. This is another component that seems innocent enough (and it is) but it’s a style of communicating that doesn’t actually help you...

($) Being a “thought leader” is not a career goal.

September 18, 2018 by EssaySnark

BREAKING: Study Finds No One Quite Sure What The Hell “Thought Leader” Means — ADWEAK (@adweak) September 12, 2018 Sometimes people tell us that their long-term post-MBA career goal is to be a “thought leader.” (Apparently in Washington, DC, people say this on first dates , too.) This is not a career goal...

($) Compare and Contrast (Part 2)

July 26, 2018 by EssaySnark

Recently we laid out two techniques that applicants often use in essays: 1) Talks about how the school they’re applying to is “the best at blah blah” or is “world renowned” or something about how it’s so set apart from its peers 2) Talks about THEMSELVES in similar language, saying that they were the only...

($) Do not overpromote!

July 16, 2018 by EssaySnark

Given our fraught public dialogue these days, the adcoms are becoming ever more sensitive to hype and propaganda in MBA apps. You don’t want to risk your candidacy by taking liberties with language! We don’t mean our standard exhortation about lying. Instead, we’re talking about hype. We have seen BSers inadvertently step in it when...

($) Taking credit

December 13, 2017 by EssaySnark

Like our recent posts on tone in essays, today’s may be another one of those you want to mark with that little Favorites button at the bottom, so you can find it again in a week or so, when you’re panicking and beating your head against the desk and trying to figure out how to...

($) essay critique! Tuck short and long-term goals / why MBA / why Tuck

December 6, 2017 by EssaySnark - Discusses Dartmouth Tuck

About a month ago, this essay was submitted for consideration for a freebie blahg review by an Indian BSer who’s applying to Tuck (or possibly he already submitted in their November round? Not sure; if so, we got it much too late to turn it around that quickly 🙁 ). This BSer is in investment...