Your Complete Guide to Writing Winning MBA Essays

To help you succeed in this task, we’ve compiled all of our best practices for writing your MBA Admissions essay to ensure you write essays that unlock your future.

1. Why Essays Matter

With admissions rates at elite MBAs like Stanford Graduate School of Business hovering around 6%, standing out from the crowd is one of the most important challenges you will face during your business school application journey.

Though there are many elements that make up a successful MBA application, one of the most important is your admissions essay.

Writing admissions essays that cut through the noise and help the admissions committee connect with you and your ideas means getting in to your target business schools.

1.1. The Role Essays Play in the Admissions Process

As anyone who has attended an MBA info session can tell you, the admissions process for elite business school is a holistic process that takes into account numerous factors about your profile.

In addition to your GMAT score, the admissions committee also takes into consideration your university grades, career progression, and letters of recommendation.

However, one of the most important elements of your application is your admissions essays, as these breathe life into your profile’s data points.

Though a great admissions essay cannot overcome a poor GMAT score and sub-par job performance, it is one of the greatest differentials among you and other highly-qualified candidates.

That’s because admissions essays offer context. Your CV may show where you’ve worked and for how long, but your essays show what inspired you to take this position, the valuable lessons you’ve learned, and how you intend to keep using these lessons to generate meaningful impact.

As such, essays are one of the most important parts of the application process and can be a major factor in determining if you’re invited to interview or dinged.

1.2. Make Sure You Stand Out

In today’s fast-paced world, a sort of “attention economy” has developed in which an ever-increasing stream of inputs is battling for our ever-decreasing attention spans.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a tool that would reliably cut through all the distraction?

Luckily, such a tool already exists. In fact, storytelling has been the key to hacking the brain’s circuitry since long before the first word was ever written down (even Harvard Business School agrees!)

In fact, the importance of storytelling has only become even more entrenched as research on the topic emerges, meaning stories remain one of the most efficient means we have to transmit information to others.

The power of storytelling even extends into a realm often thought to be “too serious” for stories: the business world.

Yet, with thought leaders reinforcing that stories are not only important but an essential tool for modern leaders (and the best TED talks being overwhelmingly story-driven), it’s clear that the ability to tell compelling stories is an advantage.

Harnessing this tool when writing your admissions essays goes a long way to giving you the edge you need to stand out — and when it comes to elite MBA admissions, it’s all about standing out!

2. Structuring Your Essay

One of the most essential elements to a compelling MBA admissions essay is your structure. Your structure is like your map: it helps your readers get flawlessly from A to B.

In terms of your essay, this means that structure helps your reader transition between what you said before, what you’re saying now, and what you will say next.

Without a solid, clear, and defining structure, your essay can be good, but won’t be excellent. Your stories may be fascinating – but only if your reader understands why they are reading about them in the first place. In other words, structure implicitly emphasizes relevance.

The tips below give you more insight into how to structure and write amazing application essays.

2.1. Reflect On Your Best Examples

Over your career, you’ve likely had a lot of wins — both big and small.

Though you’re hopefully nodding your head in agreement, when was the last time you really reflected on which of your achievements are your strongest?

Most of our clients are extremely ambitious, forward-looking people, however, writing your MBA essays requires keeping one eye on the future and the other on the past.

That’s why, before you start writing the first word of your first MBA essay, you should take the time to compile a list of your top stories.

What makes a good example?

In general, clients make the mistake of thinking that the only examples they can include in essays are those in which they helped establish one of Africa’s first private equity firms, created the world’s first mind-controlled jet pack, or developed a cure for cancer.

Though these are certainly all incredible achievements, your best example doesn’t necessarily have to be so big.

For example, while brainstorming his essay topics, a recent client was struggling with the fact that his corporate finance job felt to him like a lot of financial reports and Excel spreadsheets.

However, when we dug into the details, he told us that he’d led the process to help his company negotiate better terms with a foreign government to ensure they were able to continue offering affordable protein in that country.

Bingo!

Not only did this example show his ability to negotiate and communicate across cultures, he was also able to show how he generated meaningful results for his company and positively impacted people in an entire country.

That’s a pretty great example!

Go back and think of all the moments of your career you are proudest of.

Then, based on each essay question and each school’s values (If you’re having trouble understanding your dream school’s values, our team of admissions experts can help!), allocate your best examples. You’ll need a good theme, focus, and excellent story to turn these examples into winning MBA essays, but we’ll get more into that below! Here, just make sure the examples you choose truly answer the question.

2.2. Choose Your Theme Wisely

The first key, or element, of a compelling essay is a strong theme.

Your theme is the main message of your essay. Basic examples may be “teamwork is paramount” or “empowering others is what I value most”. Your choice of theme will depend on the essay question.

A theme is important for your MBA essay because it is what ties everything you say together. Instead of random stories that have no common thread, your theme is what allows you to use multiple stories to reinforce what you really want to say about yourself.

So how do you go about choosing the right theme?

Your theme expresses a value (ex: “community”, “giving back”, “innovation”) that you feel has defined you in some way. You can choose practically any value that you can relate back to your personal experiences. However, it is essential that you choose a value you truly believe in – faking it to sound good will be immediately obvious to any admissions board.

A good theme also relates back to the school and its values. The school’s values will give you an idea of who the school is looking for, and you should always take these into account when choosing your theme. Each school will have different, individual values.

The school’s values may be implicit or explicit – you may need to take a long look at their website, visit their campus, ponder their motto, or study their application materials to figure out what they are. (If you find yourself struggling to determine these, this is something that Ellin Lolis Consulting is glad to help you with.)

For example, when applying to the Stanford Graduate School of Business, their values include the following:

Global awareness, community-oriented, integrity, collaborative team leadership, passion, intellectual vitality, etc.

The theme of your Stanford essay should not, therefore, simply be “integrity” or “global awareness”. Instead, give the value a personal touch that says something about you: for example, you could go with “honesty above everything” or “the importance of an international team”. If you’ve chosen your theme well, it may even overlap with multiple values of your target school.

Keep in mind that your choice of theme must answer the essay question. While this might be easy in open-ended essays, some answers may require much deeper thought to determine your underlying values.

MBA ESSAY THEME: ROADBLOCKS AND SOLUTIONS

The most common problem pertaining to theme often comes down to this: too many or too few. Even if you’ve chosen the most awesome theme, encountering either one of these problems could make or break your MBA admissions essay.

How can you have too many themes? It may be hard to narrow down what you value most, or which of your target school’s values is the most important to you. If you can’t decide, you may end up trying to build in more than one.

You may begin your essay by exuberantly exclaiming the importance of teamwork while emphasizing how much your community means to you in your conclusion. This discrepancy will not only confuse your reader, it will lead to a weak message and a weak essay.

On the other hand, your theme must be explicitly clear. You cannot assume that your reader will simply understand your theme after reading your essay. You must state this for them multiple times.

Either option will cause your theme to feel unclear to your reader. Make sure you have a single theme (even if it might represent multiple values!) that you clearly stick with throughout the entire essay.

2.3. Hook your reader from the very first word

Quickly grabbing your audience’s attention is one of the most important, yet most challenging tasks when telling any story.

Let’s take a look at Nike’s “Breaking 2” commercial, named one of the 10 best ads of 2017.

The ad starts out with the phrase, “Breaking the two hour marathon barrier is impossible.”

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rjd1z8yawVw

Immediately, as we see the runner standing at the starting line, preparing to train in the early light before dawn, we immediately want to know if this solitary figure has what it takes to “do the impossible.”

This curiosity drives us forward and makes it so that we literally can’t take our eyes of the screen.

A good hook in your essay functions in much the same way: it sparks the reader’s interest and compels them to keep reading.

Let’s take two versions of the same essay for example.

Here, the author has gone right into the story, neglecting to write a hook:

I have always been fascinated by cosmology and astronomy, not only because they relate to the study of the universe, but because they are an exercise in thinking beyond limitations. I first encountered these concepts at a young age. After presenting a perfect report card to my parents at age seven, I was rewarded with a book on spacetime. Diving into the realm of the cosmos inspired me to think about reality in imaginative ways free from the constraints often imposed by society and connecting me to the great thinkers of the past who made groundbreaking discoveries that changed the world.

Did this leave you wanting more? Perhaps not.

However, in the final version of the story, the author hits us with:

What do Copernicus and Phil Knight have in common? I learned about Copernicus after receiving a book on astronomy from my parents that awakened my childhood passion for the cosmos. I first learned about Knight from his book, Shoe Dog, but became more familiar with him much later in life while working with Nike, a client in my portfolio. What both have in common, however, is that they were agents of change. They refused to accept the status quo and revolutionized society with simple yet groundbreaking ideas that changed humanity forever.

This version is much more compelling. Copernicus and Phil Knight seemingly have nothing in common, so figuring this small puzzle out moves the reader forward and ultimately ensures they become immersed in the story.

Though MBA essay word limits are notoriously small, using an interesting hook that is related to your example is a good investment, as it will ensure the admissions committee member perusing your essay keeps reading and, ultimately, calls you for an interview.

2.4. Utilize Strong Storytelling

Stories are the examples you use to underline your theme.

They should be based on your personal experiences and are the most tangible element of your MBA admissions essay. The choices here are endless, and may come from the workplace, school, or your personal life.

If you are having trouble coming up with ideas, this article in The Economist offers some good starting points. The most important thing is that your stories illustrate how they have contributed to the value that you’ve presented in your theme.

How to choose the best stories? Theme and story go hand in hand

The stories you choose need to relate to your theme. Your theme will relate to your stories. The two of these – and choosing them – go hand in hand.

You may first brainstorm inspiring stories from your past and then choose which theme aligns with them. Or you may want to start by contemplating your theme and then deciding where it has been exemplified in your past. Either method will work, as long as you use honest examples and really believe in your theme.

How many stories you tell in your MBA essay depends on your theme and the topic of the essay (and possibly your word count!). In some cases, you may need multiple stories while in others a single story will suffice.

Story: roadblocks and solutions

The main problem you see with stories in MBA essays is that they do not match the theme. If this is the case, you need to rethink your story – or your theme.

In contrast to your theme, you cannot have too much information here at this stage in your essay. Remember here that although the details about what happened, how you felt about it, or why an event was significant may be clear to you, it will not always be clear to your reader. Including sufficient information about context, your motivations, and what you learned is essential to make sure your message is clear.

This is where a second set of eyes is absolutely necessary. Our editors here at Ellin Lolis Consulting are good at spotting the details that may be implicit in your essay, but have not been stated clearly enough for all your readers.

Another common problem is not highlighting your role in the story. Even if the experience was a team effort – and even if teamwork is your theme – it is necessary to highlight the individual part you played. After all, the admissions board is focusing on you.

2.5. The STAR method is your secret storytelling weapon

STAR stands for Situation – Task – Action – Result.

The framework will help you write a clear, compelling answer that provides background, tells exactly what you did and ends with a big reveal.

Here’s how it works:

• Situation – Begin with setting the stage and presenting the complication or conflict of the story. For example: “My brand was losing market share to a new competitor” 

• Task – Identify your objective in light of the complication and summarize the task or project performed: “I decided to revise our strategy” 

• Action – Describe the action steps you took toward your goal: “I surveyed customers to learn what traits they valued and implemented product changes accordingly” 

• Results – Summarize the outcome and how you and/or your team made a difference: “We gained 20 additional market share.”

The STAR method makes it very easy for your reader not only to understand what took place, but to also see your role in all of it — important given the fact that it’s you and not your team or company that’s applying for an MBA.

Not convinced you should follow this method? Check out the two stories below. Which does a better job of clearly showing the applicant’s strengths and achievement?

My greatest achievement in life so far has come from my study effort. It was one of the best days of my life when I got the news I was chosen for a scholarship from the Brazilian government to start a project in University of Texas. From this episode I learned that the long run counts a lot because this scholarship didn’t depend on taking a test and having a great day on it. It was awarded to students who had an English proficiency diploma at a specific point in time and a great college record. In Texas, I was forced to become a more independent man and I had the chance to connect with so many people with so many different backgrounds that I can say my desire to explore the world started there.

Or this one?

The achievement I’m most proud of happened recently. At my company, it had been three years since we had raised investments for a new fund, so finding a new opportunity was critical. In mid-December, that great opportunity arose, however, we’d be battling against an unbelievably short deadline to get the project approved.

Normally, at this time of year, we’re still fully staffed, but given the stagnant market, only one manager and myself remained. In addition, the fund’s investment policy relied on a strategy that we’d never used. Finally, I’d never worked on the public offering of a fund before.

Nonetheless, I knew that if the partner and I worked diligently to support each other, we could land this deal. Our first move was to organize a meeting to align all parties involved. Then, we divided tasks, and I took over coordinating stakeholders, assigning tasks and managing deliverables. In the end, we successfully delivered everything on time.

This experience made me more comfortable in a leadership position, as managing diverse stakeholders under pressure helped me better analyze what each brought to the table and execute accordingly. Recently, I’ve even been able to help other teams coordinate new offers. Finally, the project was a great opportunity to learn new management skills from my superior. This reinforced for me how important it will be to learn additional management frameworks at INSEAD and prepare myself to be a leader in the Private Equity market.

Though the first essay includes a tremendous achievement, the lack of structure and details makes it difficult for us to understand exactly what happened.

The second essay clearly states the facts, and doesn’t forget that the S of STAR is one of the most important parts of any winning achievement essay.

In any good story, we need some sort of challenge for our protagonist to solve.

2.6. Conflict is Key

In life, we work hard to avoid conflict as much as possible, yet when it comes to stories, conflict is not only important, it is essential to captivating attention.

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geG8E_ocYDY

Would Breaking Bad have been as interesting if Walter White was already an established drug lord when the show started? Probably not. Watching him take the news of his cancer diagnosis and find an unusual way to drum up the money for treatment is just what makes the show so addictive.

Conflict and how our “hero” (in this case, you!) solves the challenge is at the core of any good story, so make sure you use the STAR method to clearly set up the conflict you needed to navigate and then show how you took steps to turn this roadblock into one of your standout moments.

Let’s take this essay for example. In an early version, the story was conflict-free.

Upon joining MBB after graduation, another experience inspired personal growth. While in abroad, I participated in recruiting processes for top consulting firms, and saw firsthand that MBB lagged behind in recruiting students pursuing dual degrees abroad. After joining, I created a dedicated process to recruit these top performers. Four months later, we had the first online connection event, which attracted more than 40 interested students. The program has since become an essential recruiting tool. I am proud to lead this internal team in contributing to MBB’s long-term success as we attract the talent we need to deliver high-impact results to clients.

Though this shows initiative on the applicant’s part, it is far less compelling than this version of events:

After graduating, I joined MBB, as it allowed me to channel my intellectual curiosity, explore various sectors and be an agent of change. While abroad, I participated in recruiting processes for other top consulting firms, and saw firsthand that MBB lagged behind in recruiting dual-degree students. After joining, I spoke with several partners about creating a program to solve this issue. The partners were hesitant, however, concerned they could not adequately evaluate candidates remotely. After demonstrating the implications of overlooking these high-potential candidates, I received permission to create a dedicated dual-degree recruiting process. Four months later, I had mobilized 10 colleagues, leading them in organizing BCG’s first online connection event. The program has since become an essential recruiting tool, bringing in more than 10% of our hires since inception.

Here, not only does she show initiative, she also shows she has an ability to clearly communicate and add value to her firm, even when the odds are stacked against her.

So, when writing your MBA application essays, make sure to give your stories some much-needed drama!

2.7. The Protagonist is YOU

In general, modesty is a good thing.

However, when writing your MBA application essays, too much modesty can be fatal, as the admissions committee has a short amount of time to decide if you make the cut or not.

As such, one of the mistakes you want to be sure to avoid while writing is forgetting that the protagonist of your essays is you!

Specifically for extremely collaborative schools (like Kellogg or INSEAD), we see clients writing entire essays that talk a lot about what the team did, but never once use the pronoun “I.”

Though you may think that never saying “I” is a good way to show you’re a team player, it actually makes it very difficult for the reader to understand your role in the events that happened.

This kind of ambiguity turns even the greatest leadership example into something lackluster, as there is no evidence to support the fact that you had anything to do with the results.

Not clarifying your role when answering a failure question is perhaps even worse. Failure questions are inherently designed to test your level of self-awareness and maturity, so not making your role in the failure clear gives the impression that you’re unable to accept responsibility for your actions.

For example, let’s take a look at part of a former client, Marck’s, first attempt at answering the INSEAD Essay “Describe a situation where you failed. How did these experiments impact your relationship with others? Comment on what you learned.”

“When I was in my senior year in university, I was selected to be part of a four-student team that represented our school at the USC Marshall International Case Competition in Los Angeles. The competition format gave a real business problem and 24 hours to formulate a solution. After my team received the problem and processed the information, I envisioned a solution that went beyond the objective question, offering not only the hypothetical solution, but also an implementation plan. All groups were from top universities and would probably present strong solutions, so this way I thought our solution would maybe stand out. My colleagues wouldn’t agree on this approach because they thought 24-hours was already a short time to develop a solution so adding the extra work of developing an implementation plan would seem impractical. We started our case but it was very frustrating for me to help with the work that I felt was not meant to win the competition.

Finally we delivered our presentation, which got an regular scoring, not enough to advance to the finals. I was very disappointed by this premature disqualification, especially because our group have prepared well for this competition, for nearly 2 months.”

Though it’s clear to see that things didn’t go according to plan, it’s not clear how Marck played a clear role in contributing to this failure. In this case, he had to change his example, but by focusing in and making himself the protagonist of the essay, he was able to come up with this, stronger essay that ultimately helped him land a spot at INSEAD:

“After ten rigorous interviews, I had finally obtained my first ever job: an internship in Credit Suisse’s asset management department. Throughout the interviews, I was confident and highly communicative, and after two months of work, I was eager for my first professional evaluation. However, while my manager was impressed with my confidence and communication during interviews, he admonished me for having “lost” both traits as an intern and threatened to fire me should I not change. Rather than explaining myself, I held back, deferring to the authority of my superiors.

As I reflected on this feedback, I realized my behavior might have been influenced by my Asian background. Raised to be respectful and humble in the face of authority, I failed to consider that this does not fit in a finance environment, where one needs to be assertive and unafraid of disagreement to make the best deals. I thought critically about how my approach must be adapted to different situations, and that traits that are highly valued in one culture may not be in others. With this in mind, I adopted a more assertive communication style, receiving excellent feedback in future evaluations. Most importantly, I learned that effective team members must be perceptive enough to understand cultural differences and flexible enough to adapt accordingly. “

2.8. Be Passionate

With so many elements to keep in mind, it can be easy to focus on the strategy of your story and forget the most important ingredient in your essay – passion!

This is hugely important to the whole essay and you should take some time to really think about what you want to convey to the admissions officers. Keep in mind that they already have all the facts about you – they know your grades, your work history, and probably most of your measurable achievements.

The goal is to make them love you.

Write about what you’re passionate about, whatever it is, because it will give the admissions team insight into who you really are. It’s something that your grades and work history can’t communicate, but your passion can.

Here’s another tip: don’t try to fabricate something that you’re passionate about because it sounds good.

There are enough application essays out there that talk about wanting to help people because the world has a lot of problems. You won’t stand out just because you write about a noble cause.

Bruce DelMonico, Assistant Dean for Admissions at Yale School of Management, says he is wary of personal statements that tell dramatic stories and stretch the truth. He does not look for students who have had exotic experiences, but for evidence of resilience, introspection, and initiative.

Use this space to get personal. Tell an anecdote about your life and be creative with your presentation. You can write about something you’re passionate about without describing your life story.

The key is simply to care about what you’re writing about, whether that’s coffee or running or your grandmother. Let your qualities shine through that topic – it will be much more memorable than talking about how you want to help people.

And remember, because your essay is one in thousands being read by a team of people who have seen it all before, being memorable is absolutely essential.

So, what are you passionate about? Be honest, be yourself, and don’t be afraid to let your personality shine!

3. How to Maximize Word Counts

Your MBA admissions essay will, in most cases, be limited to a specific number of words. If it is, it is extremely important that you do not exceed the limit. For some schools, you simply won’t be able to upload longer essays. For other, though there is no official penalty, failing to follow instructions may get your essay thrown out.

Remember, you are not telling the admissions board your life story, but rather concentrating on specific events.

As such, choosing the right approach and right number of examples to use based on the number of words the question gives you is essential.

For example, if you were writing a timely tweet to share your opinion, you’d take a very different approach then if crafting a cover letter that demonstrated why you’d be the perfect candidate for your dream job.

In short, the size of the essay greatly dictates the content and approach you’ll utilize, so we’ve put together a number of tips to help you write winning essays of all sizes.

3.1. Navigating Short Essays

Though candidates often stress about long essays, short essays can often be more challenging. As they are becoming increasingly common (Berkeley Haas and Michigan Ross, for example, hasn’t included an essay longer than 300 words in years), it’s important to make sure every word you include packs a punch!

In 250 words or less, you are challenged with the task of communicating to the admissions team how you stand out from the crowd and why you should be admitted into their program. Since you are competing with thousands of other applicants who have the exact same goal, this might seem like an overwhelming task.

Have no fear!

Here at Ellin Lolis Consulting, we are extremely skilled at helping potential MBA students reach their goals. Among other things, our knowledge of what makes a winning short essay has led to a 99% success rate of our clients being accepted into at least one of their target schools. These tips will help you similarly reach your goal!

Stay focused

In an essay of 250 words, this might be the most important advice to keep in mind.

The reason one anecdote or story is because that’s all you have room for. This essay is not meant to repeat the achievements the admissions people already know, nor is it a good place to squeeze in a summary of your life – or even a summary of one year! Choose one moment, one situation, one idea, and follow it all the way through.

A quick note before we get deeper into how to write with focus: make sure this one point answers the question being asked.

Some universities ask very open ended questions that give you all kinds of freedom when writing, but many use more specific prompts. Before you start writing, all throughout the process, and after you think you’re finished, make sure that you are clearly answering the question.

How to Stay Focused Tip #1

Staying focused means using one story to support your point.

Resist the temptation to rabbit trail because it gives you a chance to talk about something else you’re proud of. Your essay should follow one idea beginning to end so that you can flesh it out a bit and show some of that deep thinking we were talking about. Listing things like a resume will not do that for you.

How to Stay Focused Tip #2

Cut the fluff and write concisely.

There are several ways you can do this. The first is writing in the active voice, where the subject of the sentence performs the action, as opposed to the passive voice, where the subject receives the action. The Writing Centre at the University of Wisconsin-Madison gives these examples:

Active: The dog bit the man.

Passive: The man was bitten by the dog.

Active should be used whenever possible because it makes the sentence more clear and uses less words – the goal of any shortessay.

The second major way you can cut out fluff is by avoiding big, general statements that don’t contribute much to the paragraph. If you are wondering whether a sentence is “fluffy” or not, try reading the paragraph without that sentence and see if the section loses much meaning. If your point is still clear (or more clear) without that sentence, cut it.

3.2. 500 Word Essays – the Magic Number

One of the most common word limits in MBA application essays is 500 words.

Whether a goals essay, a leadership essay, or a personal essay, this word count gives you just enough room to include meaningful, well-detailed examples without inviting you to wax poetic about your entire life story.

So, considering how popular they are, what is the first step to writing a compelling MBA essay in 500 words?

Forget about your word count.

Go ahead – let’s even take it to extremes. Take your ideas about word count, crumple them up, and throw them in the recycling bin. Or hide them in with the dirty laundry, or wherever else you know you won’t look until you’re on the final draft of your essay. Did that? Good.

Although most essays will have a word limit, that is not where you should begin – and it is definitely not what you should focus on while trying to develop your MBA admissions essay. In fact, trimming word count is the very last thing you should do before you finalize your draft.

So, you might ask, if I shouldn’t focus on word count, what should I be thinking about?

There are three answers to this question: theme, story, and structure. But what are these exactly?

Your theme is like your topic. It is the main thing you want your readers to know and remember about you while reading your essay. Everything – and I mean absolutely everything – in your MBA essay should pertain and relate back to your theme.

Story is how you express your theme. An MBA essay can have one or multiple stories. Your stories are personal (as in, they really did happen to you!) anecdotes about your past that contribute to the person you are today. These must (underline must) relate back to your theme.

Structure is how you combine the two in a way that makes it easy for your reader to get from one idea to the next. A strong structure will reinforce the meaning of your essay.

All three of these elements are interrelated, and all are necessary for creating a truly compelling MBA admissions essay.

In 500 words, you should have ample space to fully explore your theme by telling an interesting, well-structured story.

500 word essays, however, are usually not long enough for multiple fully-explored examples (unless we’re dealing with a goals essay, more on this below), so make sure you have a clear mission for the essay before getting started.

3.3. Maintaining Focus in Long Essays

Though the predominant trend is for MBA admissions committees to reduce the number of words required for their application, a few programs still ask candidates (or, in the case of HBS, allow candidates) to write much longer essays, often 1000 words or longer.

How is a typical essay structured?

Although this will vary according to the topic of the essay, the basic outline is often similar, as pointed out by Karen Schweitzer. The outline of your MBA essay will usually have the following format:

• Introduction: present your theme and it’s larger contextual significance
• Story 1 and the lesson(s) you learned from it
• Story 2 and the lesson(s) you learned from it (if the essay prompt allows for more than one story)
• (Maybe more stories and lessons…)
• How your stories/theme relate to your target school (such as classes you intend to take, groups you want to participate in, or the unique things that school offers that will help you expand on these values)
• Conclusion: tie all of this back into your theme

Keep in mind that this is only a basic outline for an MBA admissions essay, and there are other formats that may work just as well. You may find a different format works better for your message. In that case – go for it!

No matter which format you choose, however, make sure your reader can clearly and easily understand and navigate the structure of your essay. With thousands of other essays to read, sending a confusing essay to “stand out” is likely to get your essay tossed aside.

What makes a good MBA essay structure? Sandwiches.

How do you ensure that your MBA essay is well-structured? Here, it is best to rely on the classic sandwich method.

The sandwich method ensures that each of your stories (the lettuce, meat, cheese, and other particularly yummy parts of your structural sandwich) is surrounded by an explicit emphasis on your theme (the bread that holds your structural sandwich together).

You are going to need a few structural sandwiches for a good essay. Not only should the essay itself be one big sandwich, but each paragraph – each story – needs to be one as well. In other words:

Sandwich #1: The essay as a whole

In your essay-structural-sandwich, your theme needs to surround your stories. The introduction of your essay should clearly present your theme and your conclusion needs to pick it back up.

Sandwiches #2-?: Each and every story

Each story needs an introduction sentence and a concluding sentence. Both of these sentences need to relate your story back to your theme.

The sandwich method is a way to ensure your reader stays on the same page as you. They make it explicitly clear why what you are saying is relevant to the larger picture and how you got there in the first place.

Hungry? Have an example sandwich

In spring 2017, we helped Axel from Argentina compose and refine his Stanford essays. In this essay, he chose to focus on the theme “being an agent of change”. Take a look at one of the stories he told to highlight this theme:

“Later, while volunteering in São Paulo’s favelas, I wanted to convey the power of change to children by showing them what I learned from the book on the cosmos. By connecting my hobby of space with my desire for change, I shared my knowledge of cosmology and mathematics and gained valuable lessons from people with backgrounds in education. In learning from each other’s strengths, we were able to complement the children’s formal education and inspired them to look at past science geniuses who defied conventions so that the students might also be inspired to challenge their social standing. This experience showed me that working to create change is as important as its positive effects.”

As you can see in bold, the relevance of this story to Axel’s theme is clear in both the introduction and conclusion of the paragraph.

Keeping your structure and theme in mind throughout your entire essay not only makes your essay more compelling, it’s also the lifeblood that ensures your reader stays interested enough in what you have to say to get through all 1000 words of your essay.

4. Common Types of MBA Essays and How to Approach Each Type

Here we’ll go more into depth into the most common types and how to best tell your story in each format below.

4.1. Goals Essays

It’s not always phrased the same way, but each school is asking for the same thing: your goals essay.

Your response must be a personal statement that describes much more than just your short and long term goals (though they are, of course, the key to the whole essay).

Crafting a compelling goals essay that lands you an interview means giving context to your goals and showing that you’ve thought through them enough to be specific and realistic. This means that your own vision of your future career path must be crystal clear, since no elite business school will admit candidates who do not state clear, well argued goals.

If you’re still not quite sure what you want to do post-MBA, you may want to consider career coaching before you start writing.

Assuming you have some rock solid goals in place, here are several tips that will help you turn your career plan into a winning essay!

An interview-worthy formula

Try to think of the MBA goals essay as a story, and the important components of the story are your past, present, and future, and how they all connect. Specifically, how they connect should look like this:

Past Experience + Present MBA = Future Professional Goals

Your story should flow well between these components, building upon each of them and creating a unified narrative. However, that narrative shouldn’t follow a ‘past, present, future’ sequence at all, since it’s difficult to explain why a particular program is perfect for you if you haven’t stated your goals yet.

Instead, go with a ‘past, future, present’ format. Organizing your essay in this way will provide clarity and a pleasing flow to the information.

Now let’s look at what each section should include:

Past experience

Whether the question asks for it or not, a little bit about your work history is important to include in this essay. It gives context to your goals, proof that you have relevant experience related to your goals, and sets up the argument for why you’re applying for that specific MBA – a crucial aspect to the goals essay.

If the question does ask about your career progress to date, keep in mind the information the admissions counselors already have. The goal here is not to list every achievement you’ve made (they probably see that on your resume), but to give brief, strong examples of an accomplished career, especially focusing on achievements that relate to your future goals.

For example, though you may have had a highly successful marketing internship, but have since forged a career in M&A, you may want to leave your marketing achievements out of your goals essay to focus on more relevant information.

Nonetheless, not everyone has a perfectly linear path where each step logically leads to the next. Your work history might look disjointed on paper, but the key is to emphasize growth and highlight your capabilities. All of this needs to add up to the next section: your future goals.

Future goals

Your essay revolves around your short and long term goals, which means you need to think through these two things more than anything else.

It is important that you explain the relationship between all the lessons you learned along your career journey and your future – how has your past prepared and inspired you for your future? Later, we’ll talk about some crucial things that need to come into play when describing your goals.

Present – the MBA

This is your chance to really sell yourself to the admissions committee – why is their school the very best for your specific needs?

You have shown the experience and knowledge you have, the goals that resulted, and now you need to prove that this program can give you everything you need to reach those goals.

This is no time to be vague. Specific classes, the school’s non-academic offerings, and school culture can all be referenced to support your argument that this program is the very best (or only) way to build the skills you need to reach your goals.

Standing out as a prime candidate to admissions counselors means writing a goals essay with clarity and purpose, showing that you are informed and visionary enough to see your goals through. If you follow the above format and tips, you will likely be on a path to achieving your next goal: landing an interview with your top choice MBA program.

4.2. Achievement Essays

Though a few programs do include questions about failures (most notably INSEAD and Columbia), most programs ask you about your best and brightest moments.

When writing your achievement essay, remember that you’re telling the story of the war through the eyes of a soldier — meaning your showing who you are as a professional with one, clear representative example.

This means sticking to one story.

You should also make sure you focus on demonstrating a specific set of strengths.

Though many achievements are open-ended enough for you to demonstrate 10 different skills MBAs highly value, including all 10 means you won’t have enough evidence to prove you truly possess these capabilities.

In any good essay, we need a reason to believe you have the skills and strengths you claim to possess. The only way to give your reader this evidence is to show rather than tell.

If you try to cram too much in, you simply won’t have the word count to fully justify all your strengths, resulting in a shallow, ineffective essay that will fall short of selling you to elite

Example MBA essay questions on achievements

So now that you’ve thought about your best achievements and know how to present them, what types of MBA essay questions can you actually expect to answer this way?

Though there are many schools that ask about your greatest hits, one of the schools that solicits an achievements essay most directly is INSEAD.

INSEAD’s Motivation Essay 2 asks you to “Describe the achievement of which you are most proud and explain why. In addition, describe a situation where you failed. How did these experiences impact your relationships with others? Comment on what you learned. (approximately 400 words)”

Considering that you’re tasked with presenting the achievement of which you are the proudest, you must be absolutely certain that you are choosing an example that shows the admissions committee your most relevant positive attributes.

Choosing a relatively recent example (unless you really have a show-stopper from earlier in your career) is also generally preferable.

Furthermore, since you’ll need to discuss one failure, one achievement and what you learned from both in just 400 words, it’s extremely important to stay focused on one achievement and use the STAR method to quickly yet efficiently guide the reader through your essay.

For more info on how to write INSEAD essays in a manner that secures your place in their highly-coveted 1-year MBA, check out our INSEAD essay analysis!

Unlike INSEAD’s direct question, these schools’ essays can be thought of achievements essays in disguise!

Though Harvard changes its essay prompt each year, the core directive year after year is to show the admissions committee who you are and what you can contribute to the HBS community by discussing your previous achievements.

Let’s take their 2017-2018 essay question, for example.

(SOURCE: Harvard Business School)

Though you may be tempted just to reiterate your CV, this essay works best when you choose a clear theme and present various related achievements in your life to prove your thesis.

For example, a recent client who came from an underprivileged background and beat the odds to land a top consulting job before moving to government centered his essay around dreaming big and turning these dreams into a reality.

He then told stories of how he was the first of his family to attend an elite university, how he partnered with the Chilean government to overhaul their healthcare programs, and finally, how he reshaped his state governor’s entire internal transportation strategy to free up resources and redirect them towards initiatives that benefited the needy.

In the end, he had presented a compelling case that captured the admissions committee’s attention.

Other examples of this type of open-ended achievements essay include Stanford’s notorious “What matters most to you and why?”

TOP TIP: For the HBS and Stanford essays mentioned above, you will need to break the “1-story” rule and will instead choose several complementary stories to highlight multiple accomplishments. All stories should be told using the STAR method and should reinforce your personal brand.

4.3. Reapplicant Essays

Perhaps you applied to business school last year but weren’t quite able to turn land a spot at your dream school.

That doesn’t mean you should give up on your business school dream! We have worked with numerous reapplicants who have secured spots at Harvard, Columbia, and other elite MBA programs only the second time around.

As a reapplicant, however, you need to be conscious of the fact that you have a unique challenge that first-time applicants do not. First and most importantly, you must reflect on why you were not admitted the first time around.

Though there are many factors that go into play, some of the most common reasons a candidate is dinged are: a low GMAT, a lack of clearly-defined goals, and a failure to demonstrate fit with his or her target school.

As such, throughout your application, you must focus on showing the admissions committee how you have grown and evolved as a person and professional since your last application.

One of the most appropriate places to do so is in your reapplicant essay.

Let’s take a look at Columbia Business School’s prompt for reapplicants (especially critical given the fact that this is the only essay CBS allows reapplicants to submit).

The question states:

The question is perfect in its clarity. Columbia wants you to get to the point, showing them how you have grown and what your short term and long term goals are.

Though not all business schools ask the question in exactly the same way, your task is the same: show them the “new and improved you.”

Keep reading for our top tips on how to write this essay (including past successful essay) in the next section.

What does a “good” optional essay include?

When writing your reapplicant essay, you should keep the world “delta” in mind.

Defined as the “an increment of a variable,” in your application, delta should be defined to mean the difference between old you and new you.

Though there are many ways to demonstrate “delta,” some of the most effective in a reapplicant essay include:

• A higher GMAT score
• Clarified or refined goals
• Additional leadership or managerial responsibilities at work
• Additional international experience
• New or additional community service experiences
• Any other changes or improvements that will enhance your ability to contribute to the diversity of an elite MBA classroom

Let’s take our client Pedro for example.

The year before putting the Ellin Lolis Advantage to work for him, he had submitted an application to Columbia Business School that, among its greatest flaws, did not state coherent goals. Though Pedro had built a strong finance career, he focused his post-MBA goals in his first application on launching an art gallery.

For the admissions committee, it was a bit too much of a jump, and Pedro was dinged without interview.

After coming to us and critically reviewing his application, we developed a new line of attack that leveraged his company’s desire to sponsor his MBA and then give him a leading role in expanding the company’s regional presence.

Furthermore, we focused on showing how he had sought to grow as a leader both at work and in the community to really reinforce the value he could bring to Columbia.

Here’s how he did that:

“Not being admitted to the Columbia MBA was a big failure for me, though I can now see it was important, as it helped me realize what passion to follow, where I needed to improve, and what I needed to do to accomplish these things. Thus, I took steps to come closer to reaching my goals.

After going through a process of self-reflection and talking to many people, including the president of BANK, I realized that the bank has many opportunities for development, and not just in Brazil. BANK’s expansion throughout Latin America will require home-grown talent that is able to implement our DNA in a way that is compatible with local cultures and business practices. I want to play an important role in this process in two different ways. By acting as a connector, I will establish relationships with local players and open new markets to Brazilian companies. By building the adequate organizational structure, I will help prepare and manage our future leaders in this task.

Having decided on my goals, I started working on my own development. Professionally, I improved my negotiation skills when helping clients avoid default in the current economic environment. Although I still don’t directly manage people, I formally took art in the bank’s institutional recruiting and coaching of interns. Additionally, I engaged in two external consulting projects to restructure the bank’s commercial department. These projects gave me greater insight into the areas of general management and organizational planning.

Although I decided not to pursue the arts as a career, it remains a strong passion of mine. Therefore, I have continued to run and improve my volunteer organization “Integrarte,” which takes underprivileged children to museums to increase their interaction with art. Recently, I have taken steps to add an arts education component to the initiative and have been developing a methodology to scale the project with NGOs using a feasible, low-cost model. I believe that combining business skills with an inner passion for arts can help me continue to share this passion with others.

Now that I am sure where I am going, the Columbia MBA is even more essential to enable me to thrive. I am looking forward to hearing Carlos Brito talk about the challenges of transforming a local company into a global giant. Also, attending classes such as “The Future of Financial Services” and “Napoleon’s Glance” will help me better understand the financial industry and improve my decision making skills for the future. Outside of the classroom, I am excited to participate in the Arts and Culture Club and am interested in organizing a trip to Inhotim in Brazil to explore the combination of arts and social empowerment.

Lastly, I also expanded my network of contacts, getting in touch with CBS alumni and current students, such as Gabriel Adde, a close friend of mine. This enabled me to get to know the school even better and has only reinforced that Columbia is the best possible fit for my post-MBA goals, as it is the only school that provides the combination of learning specific concepts of finance from top-level faculty and contact with people from all of the globe in a city where the cultural and professional possibilities are truly limitless.”

In your own reapplicant essay, you should similarly discuss how you have overcome any weak spots in your application and provide evidence that reinforces your strong interest in your target MBA program.

With those elements in place, you should be well on your way to reaching your long-awaited goal of attending an elite business school.

4.4. Optional Essays

In the past, the optional essay section was extremely open-ended, with questions like LBS’s 2015-2016 question “Is there any other information you believe the Admissions Committee should know about you and your application to London Business School? (this question is optional) (300 words).”

This type of question was perfect for applicants to highlight another skill, activity, or experience that they wanted to share with the admissions committee but didn’t quite manage to squeeze in anywhere else.

How times have changed!

Not only have essay questions become shorter in general, the optional essay has become almost standardized across business schools.

Take Kellogg’s optional essay from 2017, for example. The question asks “If needed, use this section to briefly describe any extenuating circumstances (e.g. unexplained gaps in work experience, choice of recommenders, inconsistent or questionable academic performance, etc.)”.

A nearly identical question is used for the optional essay prompt for most of the other top MBA programs.

The change in wording makes it clear that business schools do not want extra essays. They only want to hear about extenuating circumstances.

Considering the fact anything you write will add additional work for your reader and how important it is to follow instructions, truly reflect on whether or not your case needs explaining in an optional essay.

Good reasons to write optional essays include:

• A low GMAT score or poor academic performance
• Explaining your choice of recommenders
• Explaining any gaps or confusing jumps in your work experience
• Any relevant personal circumstances that have greatly influenced your application
• How you have grown as a candidate since reapplying only if the school you are applying to does not have a dedicated reapplicant essay.

Though it’s tempting to fill every box with information about why you are a great fit for your dream school, resist this temptation and make sure, first and foremost, that you follow instructions.

What does a “good” optional essay include?

In a word: brevity.

In some cases, the admissions officer reviewing your file has already read more than 1,000 words before getting to your optional essay.

This means that they don’t need to read a novel about why your boss is not writing one of your letters of recommendation.

In most cases, a simple explanation is more than enough to get the point across.

If you need to explain a shortcoming in your application — such as a low GMAT score — you also want to make sure to provide evidence that you are still well-suited to add value to your target school’s MBA program.

For example, despite building a challenging, high-performance career in the financial markets, this applicant’s Quant score on the GMAT exam was lower than ideal.

To show his score was not an accurate reflection of his abilities, he included this optional essay: “First, I would like to address my low GMAT quantitative score. Math has never been a problem for me. As such, I chose to pursue a career in the financial markets, a very quantitative industry. I have been improving my math skills, mainly in statistics and probability, for more than 10 years at university and in my career. I have also done professional courses in derivatives and risk management, and have passed though the first two stages of the CFA certification process. As a result, despite my low score, I strongly believe that I have the quantitative skills necessary to thrive in the Michigan MBA program.”

Though this is slightly on the long side for an optional essay, the candidate had ample evidence to present to offset his less-than-stellar performance. In the end, the essay was enough to earn him an admissions offer.

Finally, be careful where you draw attention.

If your Quant score on GMAT was 50 rather than an elusive, perfect 51, there is no need to explain this. More likely than not, the admissions committee member reading this optional essay will respond with an eye roll.

As such, think carefully about where your application and/or profile may be slightly below average for the school to which you are applying and address only these issues.

4.5. Video Essays

Though many applicants see video essays as a major headache, they have become increasingly popular, with more and more schools adopting the practice each year.

Considering the stress the video essays cause applicants, why do business schools seem to love the practice?

Niki da Silva, former Director of Admissions at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School (the school that started the whole video essay trend) said that the video essay allows the admissions team to screen for different skills and competencies in the admissions process.

That’s because the video format gives the admissions committee the chance to truly “meet” candidates — as well as identify red flags in applicants.

According to INSEAD’s admissions committee, “The video should be seen as a unique opportunity for you to share your passions, your motivations and who you truly are. The MBA Admissions Committee is interested in obtaining an authentic view of you as a person, to see how you think on your feet and how you convey your ideas.”

With that in mind, it’s extremely important to make sure you fully understand this component of the application.

How does the video essay work?

Though the specifics vary slightly from school to school, the general elements of the video essay are relatively similar.

In all cases, you will sign into an online platform (most often you will receive the link to access the platform via email after submitting your application).

After signing in, you will receive a set of questions (usually ranging from 2-4) on a variety of topics ranging from why you want to attend a particular school, to ice breaker questions, to standard interview-type questions.

For all schools, the timing mechanism will be slightly different, but you can expect to have between 20-60 seconds to prepare your answer and between 45-90 seconds to deliver your answers.

In all cases, you can not redo questions.

If you’d like to get a head start in preparing for your video essays, we’ve compiled a list of our top tips (including practice questions!) to ensure you perform at your very best.

5. Editing your Essays

How do you make sure your essays are as professional as they can be, that they reflect your personality, and that they are truly unique?

That’s where editing comes in.

But what is editing good for, anyway?

Why do you need to get your MBA admissions essays edited? You may be an excellent writer, or at least a creative and capable candidate. Do you really need to have your essay edited?

Yes. You do.

Anyone can write a good essay. But to write a great one, you need a bit of expertise and focused direction. That’s what editing can provide.

Editing an essay means taking an in-depth look at all of its aspects. This may range from simple grammar (especially if English isn’t your first language) to content itself and beyond towards storytelling techniques and organization. If you are curious, this article from the University of Leicester gives a detailed overview of the significance of editing.

You may be excellent at perfecting some of these aspects – and feel you may not need an editor – but crafting all of them together to create a truly persuasive essay takes expertise that the average applicant should take advantage of.

Think of your favorite book or that magazine article you read yesterday. The authors are both excellent writers, no doubt. Nevertheless, neither one would even think of putting their words to print before it has landed on the desk of an experienced editor. In fact, that author probably did this multiple times before anyone else even read the title.

The point is, all great writers need great editors. Your MBA admissions essay should be no exception.

What does a good editor do?

So, does a good editor just correct mistakes? Shouldn’t anyone fluent in English be able to do that with a quick read?

Of course not.

First of all, an editor does much more than just proofread your essay. Second of all, editing is not a ‘quick read’ kind of process. (If you want more information about the difference between editing and proofreading, the Writing Center of the University of North Carolina provides this comprehensive overview.)

Many types of editing are essential for a successful MBA admissions essay, so let’s take a closer look at them.

5.1. Strategic vs. Traditional Edits

Here at Ellin Lolis Consulting, we concentrate on two types of editing to make your essay the best it can be. We call these technical edits and strategic edits. But what are they, exactly?

Technical editing: The basic ingredients of an MBA essay

Technical editing is probably what comes to mind when you imagine someone else reading your MBA essay. It includes adapting elements like grammar, sentence structure, punctuation, spelling, word choice, and word count. However, executing these changes correctly – and comprehensively – is not always as straightforward as it may seem.

These type of corrections guarantee that your essay adheres to the standard use of the English language. On the one hand, technical editing ensures that your readers can understand what you are saying (and sometimes not even being 100% grammatically correct guarantees that!).

As pointed out in this clarifying article by Shana Lebowitz, grammar or punctuation mistakes can often lead to misunderstandings, or simply ambiguous statements – something you obviously want to avoid in your essay.

On the other hand, these adjustments are often what gives your essay that professional touch.

Although the admissions board is not judging you on your language skills, poor use of language could still contribute negatively to their perception of you. You wouldn’t want to give the admissions board the idea that you don’t pay attention to detail just because you use inconsistent capitalization. Not only are such oversights unnecessary, they are easy to avoid in the first place.

Think of technical editing as the basic ingredients to any MBA essay. They are an essential base for a successful recipe. If nothing else, you need to make sure your essay uses language correctly in order to spice it up later.

Strategic editing: the secret ingredient to an outstanding MBA essay

Strategic editing goes far beyond making sure your use of language is simply correct. Instead, it ensures that your use of language is effective. An effective use of language will be what makes your MBA essay stand out to the admissions board.

Strategic editing includes relevance, story shaping, clarity, and targeting the school. In other words, strategic editing focuses primarily on fine-tuning content.

That is not to say it is your editor’s job to come up with a relevant story for your essay. Instead, it is their job to tell you if the story you’ve chosen is appropriate in the first place and how much detail that story should go into.

Strategic editing is like the secret ingredient to your MBA essay recipe. These edits are the spices that will make your readers – the admissions board – remember your essay for being profound and unique.

5.2. Cutting Words

You may find yourself with an essay that is way too long. How can you go about shortening it?

Although this may seem like a challenge, it is one you can overcome. Our editors are very practiced at this, and are glad to help you if you get stuck.

For example, in a recent essay for UCLA Anderson School of Management, one of our clients found herself with an essay of nearly 900 words; the limit for the essay was 500. Using the following strategies, we were able to get her word count down to 486.

Strategy #1: Revisit your stories

The easiest way to reduce word count is to take another pass at each of your stories. Are there any parts that are repetitive? Is there anything that is not essential to the story? Tangents? Searching for these is a good way to drastically reduce your word count.

Strategy #2: Reduce “of” constructions

There are two ways to express possession in English. Take a look at the difference between these two sentences:

“I won the admiration of my supervisor” (7 words) vs. “I won my supervisor’s admiration” (5 words)

Simply by trading out the “of” phrase here and replacing it with the possessive noun phrase, you can make your sentences shorter.

Strategy #3: Reduce “I think/wish/believe…” phrases

Everything in your essay is authored by you, a fact that is obvious to your admissions board. Beginning sentences with “I think…” phrases are, therefore, unnecessary. Removing phrases like this not only reduces word count, it will also make your statements stronger. Take a look at the following example:

“I believe that Stanford Graduate School of Business will be the key to furthering my professional career.” (17 words)

Now take a look at the sentence with the “I think…” phrase removed:

“Stanford Graduate School of Business will be the key to furthering my professional career.” (14 words)

Strategy #4: Reduce passive voice

You are the center of your essay, so the action should always be focused on you. This means you should avoid being the object of the sentence and passive voice.

Take a look at this example:

“The project was completed by my team in November 2017.” (10 words)

Here, the project is the subject of the sentence and in focus, not your team. Instead, you could bring the focus back to you by phrasing it like this:

“My team completed the project in November 2017.” (8 words)

This is only one example of passive voice and how you can reduce it in your MBA admissions essay, but there are other passive constructions that you can watch for. If you want to learn more about how to avoid passive voice, the University of Toronto offers some insightful writing advice on the topic.

These tips will help reduce your word count while unlocking your MBA essay’s true potential. Not only will their application limit your essay to the most essential information, it will make sure your reader gets an authentic look at the person behind the words.

5.3. A Word on Feedback

Self-reflection of any type is challenging.

It can be a complex task to identify your profile’s strengths and then develop a surgically precise essay to demonstrate how these strengths demonstrate you’d be a great fit for your dream school.

For that reason, feedback on your essays can be a fantastic tool to ensure that your writing is well-structured and compelling.

However, it’s important to carefully consider who you approach for feedback.

Though friends and family members are surely some of your greatest supporters during your MBA process, they may not be the best editors for your application essays.

This is because they are unlikely to know what the school’s are really looking for in terms of values, achievements, and career plans. They can be helpful with more personal essays, like Stanford, and can be a good gauge of how authentic your essay is.

For more specific feedback on how your essay captures what a particular school offers, you may want to share your essay with alumni or current students from that program. They can often cue you in to new offerings that might not be widely publicized and can help you capture the essence of their alma maters.

A word of caution, however. Every person will have a slightly different view on what you should add or change, so make sure to limit the number of people you approach for feedback to ensure your essay doesn’t become a wandering road with no destination.

Finally, although editing may seem straightforward, it involves much more than just touching up grammar and straightening out stray sentences. Technical editing, although important, is not enough to really get your essay into shape.

Instead, it is the combination of technical editing with the more complex strategic editing that will make your MBA admissions essay truly stand out. Taking advantage of both of these is essential for creating an essay that your admissions board will remember.

Of course, there is nothing better than working with a professional. Here at Ellin Lolis Consulting, we have the experience to strategically edit your essay to make it as intriguing, unique, and professional as possible. Contact us today to help you get the ball rolling on your MBA admissions essay.

6. Make Sure your Story Shines

It’s no secret that elite MBAs receive applications from many more applicants than they can admit.

But did you know that Harvard estimates that 80% of it’s 10,000+ applicants are fully qualified to attend?

Considering these stats, it’s not just important that your achievements essays help you stand out from a large crowd of qualified professionals, it is essential that they do so.

Yet crafting the perfect essay is easier said than done.

That’s why many candidates turn to us to help put our 99% acceptance rate and personalized approach to work for them.

Not only can we help you develop a strong personal brand and identify the achievements that will best reinforce your brand, our expert team of editors can also ensure you’re able to turn ideas into essays that cut through the noise and help the admissions committee connect with you and your ideas.

As our client (and Berkeley Haas grad) Kelsey Pecherer said, “I was so impressed with Ellin Lolis Consulting’s eye for detail, and her ability to help me refine my points without losing my voice in the essays. They understand the specific characteristics that each top MBA program is looking for.”