authenticity

($) How to mention a personal or “convenience factor” reason for choosing a school

August 28, 2019 by EssaySnark

There are gobs of reasons why you might have fallen in love with School X. Unfortunately, School X has heard all of them before. Some admissions consultants even spoonfeed their clients on what to say as a reason. That means that there are gobs of applicants citing the same things all the time. Some schools...

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Two (of many) approaches to picking the right bschool for you

May 8, 2019 by EssaySnark Leave a Comment

[This advice applies whether you’re just starting out with your research on schools and only kicking the tires on all possible options, or you’re in the last throes of deciding between multiple schools.] Say you’re in finance, and you hate it. You’re good at your job, but you just feel like it’s not what […]

Questions to ponder courtesy of UVA Darden!

May 3, 2019 by EssaySnark - Discusses Darden Leave a Comment

Want to start thinking about your MBA app strategy without doing any heavy lifting? Here’s a great series of questions posted on the Darden admissions blog late last year . These are meant to illustrate how they look at candidates but they’re an excellent set of questions for you to sit down and consider right […]

($) “What can I do to improve my chances?” Volunteering edition

March 7, 2019 by EssaySnark

We started this blahg series on “What can I do to improve my chances?” by answering with “Not much.” And then we proceeded to talk about things you could do! All on the GMAT front, but still, that stuff was “something”, not “nothing.” So in the mode of that “something” answer, we’ll continue: What can...

You are being brainwashed and used.

March 4, 2019 by EssaySnark - Discusses Harvard Leave a Comment

This is admittedly an odd post to be publishing on a blahg selling services to help you get into business school, but there it is. Go watch this Exhibit A video: Transiting to a new industry by leveraging transferable skills Of course, that advice is 100% sound. It’s what we help applicants do in […]

($) “What do you do for fun?”

February 14, 2019 by EssaySnark

Based on the title of this post, you may think that EssaySnark is just being friendly. Oh no, ma cherie. We are talking about interviewing!!! There are so many basic questions that can so thoroughly trip up an unsuspecting (aka unprepared) BSer. Your interview, as you know, is your time to shine. As we’ve been...

Why do you need an MBA? No really: Why?

December 21, 2018 by EssaySnark

This comes up surprisingly often. Do you even know why you need an MBA? Almost all of the schools, in one form or another, ask questions in their applications about why you’re interested in going there. The best way to answer that, of course, is to talk about how you need such-and-such new skills or...

There is nothing wrong with you.

December 14, 2018 by EssaySnark Leave a Comment

You do not need to be fixed. You definitely do not need to be packaged or branded. You don’t need to be spun, or promoted, or polished up to a shine. (OK, maybe you need a shower, but…) The problem with this process of applying to business school is that it sends the signal that […]

($) 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. 🙁...

($) There is only one YOU applying to bschool.

November 6, 2018 by EssaySnark - Discusses LBS, Dartmouth Tuck, Yale SOM, INSEAD

Well that should be obvious. But apparently it’s not! And, we actually mean it in two ways: 1. There is only one YOU – so if you share who you are with the adcoms, they will see your individuality. This is the essence of the Strategy of Authenticity — which really shouldn’t be called a...