EssaySnark

Special Feature: A Journey with One BSer this Season!

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We’ve had the honor this season of being trusted to advise and support a number of reapplicants in their renewed attempts at getting into the schools that they are excited about. One such trying-again BSer we’ve known for several years now, and partly because of that long-term relationship and partly because we’ve gotten to know this person, and admire him, and know that he can share something others can benefit from, we extended an invitation for him to share his journey here on the blahg.

We also figured a new format might be a nice change of pace.

So, here is the first installment in our Future Success Story for the 2017 season!

Episode 1: What happened last year, and gearing up as a reapplicant

 

If any of you have questions for him, you’re invited to post in the comments.

We’re looking forward to following along with his journey through Round 1!

Disclaimer: The content produced for this series was provided as a contribution to the EssaySnark blahg in exchange for free EssaySnark consulting services. EssaySnark offered some ideas of what to present, however the BSer created this on his own. All opinion, advice, and ideas are his own (though obviously we believe he has good ones, or we wouldn’t have invited him to share!).

Success Story! “Why would the GSB care?”

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In Spring 2016 we got this very happy note from a BSer we’d been working with the prior December for Round 2 and, well, we’ll just let them tell you about it themselves.

Hi ES,

I am writing to share great news!

I was accepted into HBS, Stanford, and Wharton this week and I am still letting it sink in…Never in my wildest imagination that I’d imagine I’d get this far, especially given I was dinged at HBS and Stanford last year.

I wanted to thank you for your no-bs feedback on my GSB and HBS apps. For GSB, based on your feedback, I did toss away that whole original essay – it’s a monumental story for me personally, but you were spot on, why would the GSB care and invest in me as a person?? I recreated a whole new positioning and a theme that worked much better and tied my background together nicely. And it worked! You told me I never answered the question on what matters most to me, and again, I made it clear in my new essay in the new version and I was so glad that Derrick resonated with the piece since he actually wrote down in the offer letter on my deep sense of emotional solidarity (i.e. what matters most to me) will allow me to contribute, learn, and grow at the GSB. In short, I’m so glad I took your advice!

As for HBS, we already chatted briefly, I went with many more rounds of edits for the essay and my interviewer actually told me before I started the interview that she was really impressed by my story and can’t wait to ask more questions. I walked out of that room feeling I had a fabulous conversation with the interview board and am so excited when she called to congratulate me on the acceptance on Wednesday! Again, I couldn’t have made it without your feedback on my essays – I was trying too hard to make myself look impressive, when in the end it’s the non-professional stories that I truly enjoyed writing and sharing about.

Also, your Wharton guidebook was very helpful and I definitely leveraged it for my career goal essay.

All in all, I cannot express how thankful I am in getting to where I am today, and I am so glad that I was able to take your advice (very harsh for sure. 🙂 ) and just restart from scratch when I had 2 weeks left before deadline. Hell of a ride for sure, but I made it!

So THANK YOU ES!!

Cheers,
[Brave Supplicant]

 
Obviously we LOVE getting reports like that! This was a Round 2 candidate who was reapplying to these schools. If you’re reapplying, please don’t wait till Round 2! There are only a very few reasons why that would be more strategic – and if you do decide that Round 2 is better for some reason, please don’t wait till December to start working on things. Obviously this person pulled it off but it was a crazy time as they scrambled to get it all done in extreme pressure, and it’s unlikely you’ll be producing your best work under such circumstances.
 
So we’re posting this today to say yes, schools like Harvard and Stanford do accept reapplicants – and yes, you can expect to have to throw out your first ideas and start all over again as you wrestle with what to present!
 
If you’re thinking of getting started, then hopefully this is enough encouragement. We’re prepared and ready to support you!

Success Story! Beyond bschool to the next big thing!

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We’re always thrilled when a Brave Supplicant we know makes it into a school of their dreams.

We’re even more thrilled when they stay in touch with us as they actually go to bschool, and share news of their subsequent successes along the way.

We got a report from one such former BSer last fall and we’re happy to be able to share it with you today:

Hello Essay Snark,

Apologies for the severely delayed reply to both of your emails.

I am going to start working full-time at McKinsey.

It just seems so long ago when I first started reading your blog (about 3.5 years). MBA has been such a crazy wonderful journey… it has been truly a transformative journey. All the cliches happened to me and some more. I made some best friends, organised the largest conference at [this school] (Diversity Conference), chaired a few clubs not because I have to (like during undergrad) but because I was really passionate about leading those clubs… and finally, traveled to 6 continents while I was at [this school] (went to Antarctica earlier this year.. it was surreal).

Immersing oneself at an MBA school (especially at schools such as [this school]), is once in a lifetime opportunity that not many people can get. And you work towards helping aspiring kids like me get into that journey. Keep up the great work.. and thank you for helping me 3 years back!

I thought I ll leave you with a picture of my parents and me at graduation. My parents never went to school or college, so it was a special moment for them to come from a village in India and see their son get an Ivy League degree.

Regards,
[MBA graduate!!]

The graduation picture was a wonderful touch! Thank you, proud graduate, for sharing that!

It’s also pretty effing awesome to get a report of a BSer who took advantage of the opportunities, who dove in and made big contributions to their school, and who actually is doing the things that they said they would do when they wrote those essays.

We took the liberty of pulling out this graduate’s admissions essays that we reviewed for them, and were floored with what we read:

[Bschool’s] learning team model will provide me an incredible opportunity to share my ideas and perspectives with a diverse group of successful peers from different industries, functions and geographies. Having lived in India, Singapore, Germany and United Kingdom and having travelled to more than 35 countries, I will bring to [Bschool] a truly global perspective. I will play a significant role in ensuring my team member’s distinctive abilities come to the forefront, to create a tremendous learning experience for the group. At [Bschool], I will leverage my trekking experience in Swedish Lapland (200 km north of Arctic circle) to facilitate the Antarctica trip in 2015.

That’s just one example where they had told the adcom what they intended to do at bschool – and clearly, they meant it! Pretty cool stuff.

To this and all other former BSers who may wander back around these parts: Your successes are so exciting to hear about! Thank you for sharing the news and keeping EssaySnark inspired through your achievements in the world.

Success Story! With a different ending than you might expect!

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We got this super exciting update from a Round 1 BSer who’d been waitlisted at a Very Good School, and we just had to share it with you (with permission, of course). Enjoy and be inspired!

Hi EssaySnark!

I know I have been radio silent for the past few months, but I did want to touch base to give you an update. Just a refresher on who I am – I used your waitlist assist service in the fall after I got Further-Consideration-ed at HBS. I am a former management consultant and currently work as a [career in education, exact details redacted for privacy]. I had originally applied to the Harvard MBA/MPP joint degree program, so I applied to both HBS (R1) and HKS, and I had planned to apply to MIT Sloan in round 2.

First of all, your feedback – though hard to hear at times – was very helpful. I used your feedback on my resume to totally re-work my resume for the HKS app, and I used your comments on my essay to similarly improve the level of detail I gave in my HKS essays. I guess I am probably not the best judge of my own work, but I did feel that both my resume and essays were stronger for HKS in terms of detail about me and my accomplishments.

Second, the status update: In the end, I was not invited to interview (as you predicted). I was, however, admitted to HKS. After going through the application process, though, I began to re-evaluate my choice to apply to business school at this stage of my career and my choice to narrow my options to HBS and MIT (which, granted, was largely driven by location). I realized that 1) I am fairly young, so I don’t need to rush to business school right now – I could decide to apply again in two years, and I wouldn’t be too old to be admitted; 2) I had my heart set on HBS because my colleagues all went there and many of my peers attend, and if I’m being honest I was enamored by prestige, etc., but there are actually several schools I did not strongly consider that I think could be a better fit, such as Yale SOM and Berkeley Haas, and 3) going to business school certainly could help my career in education, but having classroom teaching experience is also something that I’ve seen can massively bolster the credibility of leaders in education, and that is something I’ve long considered doing.

As a result of this thought process, in the end I decided not to apply to MIT or to attend HKS. Instead, I applied (and was accepted to) Teach for America. I’ll now teach in a public school for at least 2 years starting in the Fall, after which I may still apply to business school.

All of this may seem a bit random, but I am very excited about the path that I am taking, and the HBS rejection might have turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Again, I appreciate your candid feedback, which I think was definitely crucial to the strength of my application to HKS (and for the resume I submitted to TFA). Look out for me again in 2-3 years!

Best,
[Brave Supplicant]

 
 
See? Toldja it was inspiring! We say it all the time and stories like this are proof: The MBA is not the be-all / end-all. There are lots of ways to get where you want to go. Sometimes it takes getting rejected (or even sometimes, getting accepted!) before your next steps become clear to you and you see what the right decision is.

Good luck to this BSer! We do hope that we hear from them again in a few years’ time — provided that the MBA is in fact the best next step for them then.

Success Story! Research and the right school targets bring results!

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Here’s one of those incredibly awesome emails that we receive from time to time – this one came in right around the Round 2 deadlines at the end of 2016:

Merry almost Christmas EssaySnark,

Thank you for the awesome Comprehensive Profile Review you did on me in August. It was extremely valuable to help me target my overall application and interviews.

So here’s the overall results for you, hopefully the data is useful and allows you to help others more effectively!

Applied: Berkeley Haas, Yale SOM, Michigan Ross, UCLA Anderson, UT Austin McCombs

Interview Invites: Michigan Ross, UCLA Anderson, UT Austin

Admission Offers! Michigan Ross, UCLA Anderson

I was a bit surprised at getting dinged by UT Austin, but since Ross was my #1 I’m not feeling too down about it.

Once again, thanks for the awesome analysis and helping me put my best foot forward.

(Posted with permission, of course.)

This particular BSer had first contacted us towards the end of August to request access to our Military MBA microsite, then ended up going for our Comprehensive Profile Review. (We offer discounted pricing for military, TFA/TFI, Peace Corps, etc., so hit us up if you’re one of those do-gooder types and we’ll fill you in on the details.) This BSer had a middling-to-average profile which, in this era of hypercompetitive admissions, makes us a little nervous, and we spelled that out in great detail in the write-up we produced for the profile review. However, this candidate also had some strong points of differentiation going on based on some facts of the background, plus he was aiming for Round 1. So we had hope.

Where we had the most hope of all was the very reasonable set of targets that he’d defined:

  1. Michigan Ross
  2. Yale SOM
  3. Berkeley Haas
  4. UCLA Anderson
  5. UNC Kenan-Flagler
  6. UT-Austin McCombs

That’s definitely a balanced list, and it’s great seeing a school like Ross at the very top. When we saw that, it immediately told us that this guy had done his homework and had chosen these schools for a reason. This is what that elusive ideal of “school fit” is all about: Figuring out which schools offer what you value most in your pursuit of this next big step in your life.

Here’s a sketch of the rationale that this BSer offered pre-application in choosing this list:

My choice of schools is based off of intersecting strengths between consulting and technology:

    Michigan – National recognition, strong inter-disciplinary approach, most hands-on curriculum I have seen so far. Great consulting strengths.
    Yale – Consulting strengths, unique curriculum, and new Dean is really pushing international perspectives along with technology.
    Berkeley – Heart of the Silicon Valley, academically rigorous, technology emphasis.
    UCLA – Regionally strong, collaborative culture, accessible faculty, unique entertainment opportunities.
    UT Austin – Coming up in a big way, great location for a booming economy and local tech industry, regionally strong, offer concentrations in information technology.

If you’re still hanging around Snarkville after having gone through a nearly-complete admissions season, then that list and those reasons may strike you as obvious. If you’ve been doing your own research, then you probably would read that and agree, and you even might think that most of those things are common knowledge. But we can assure you, that’s a very nicely edited list, with some good reasons being cited for each school. Many applicants apply blindly to schools all across the country without knowing even half as much about where they’re submitting to. If you’d read that list of targets and reasons before you’d started your entire application journey, would you know those things about those schools? Our point in emphasizing this is to give some kudos for putting in the effort to select appropriate schools – not just for the career interests that this BSer had defined for himself, but also being realistic about the challenges with the core stats of the profile. Again, this applicant had a good set of stats, but in this day and age, “good” is rarely going to be enough at the very best schools. He didn’t need us to tell him that in the Profile Review, because, again, he’d already done his own research.

In his own words, after he got that Profile Review back:

Good morning,

I just finished going through the profile review and damn, comprehensive isn’t a comprehensive enough word to describe it.

I’m definitely surprised at how quickly the competition is increasing, particularly for the GMAT. Up to a year ago I fell in some sweet spots for these schools and I’m already dragging at the low end now!

Some questions came to mind as I read through the review, more of a quick azimuth check on where I’m going from here. I’ll look through the blog first, and if I can’t find them would you mind 2-3 questions?

Thanks for a really cool service,
[Brave Supplicant]

(This BSer instantly endeared himself to us with that simple statement, “I’ll look through the blog first” — he likely has no idea how much we appreciated that! No need to tell this guy to RTFM. Thanks dude.)

The questions he had were asking about a couple other programs that we’d suggested to him in the Profile Review, and also some questions on whether he should write an optional essay about a specific point we identified on his profile.

After that, in late August, he went dark on us until November when he shared the news of three interview invitations, and then the happy update came a month later with the actual admits. This BSer went off on his own and pulled together the applications to those schools, and he clearly did something right, as you can see from those results!

Of course, the very best part is an admit to his first-choice school.

Well done, BSer! Thanks for letting us share this with the world, and congrats on your next big adventure!!

GO BLUE!

Success Story! “I only needed one R1 application to convert.”

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We got this email out of the blue about a week ago and asked permission to share it – because it was exciting for us, and we hope it may be inspiring for you, too.

Hello EssaySnark,
Not sure if this is the right email address, but I couldn’t find any other with a quick search on the website.

The first time I read about EssaySnark was on a GMATClub post. After going through a paragraph of the first blog itself, I knew that I must subscribe! That blog was https://essaysnark.com/2016/09/the-lemming-effect.

I read a lot of blogs in the one month of subscription I had, initially because I felt it’ll help me with the essays I was trying to write for my [bschool name] application, but mostly because the style of writing is just too interesting! The best thing about EssaySnark in my opinion is that it discusses everyone – all the schools, all kinds of applicants. This offers insights that one could use to differentiate oneself in the essays and the interviews.

I had used quite a few tips from the many blogs I read, and I think it helped, although one can never be sure how much.

I got the admission on 10th November and will start at [bschool name] next year. I totally agree with the point you’ve made in a few blogs about applicants going for too many schools (The maximum I have seen is 16 on a GMATClub profile). Luckily for me, I only needed one R1 application to convert.

Thank you for all the ‘Gyaan’! It’s a Hindi term for knowledge, but leaning more towards philosophy (due to its origin), which I find apt for the way EssaySnark blogs are written.

Best regards,
[Brave Supplicant]

 
 

It was so nice to get that note! Thanks for sending it, former BSer who’s now headed to a top bschool! And congrats!

Thanks also for teaching us a new word: Gyaan. We’re flattered by the honor that you bestow with that. We can also add it to ‘namaste’ and ‘saag paneer’ to increase our vocabulary of Indian terms! 😉
 
For any of you wondering what’s a good number of apps to be targeting, here’s the full ‘snarchive of all such topics. (Pro Tip: That little dropdown box that says Select Category at the top right panel of the home page will reveal all sorts of awesome treasures like that!)

 

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