Essay Analysis 2017-18 PDF

Essay Analysis
1. Duke – Fuqua School of Business
2. Wharton School Of Business
3. Harvard Business School
4. Stanford Graduate School of Business
5. McDonough School of Business
6. Insead Business School
7. University of Virginia Darden School of Business
8. London Business School
9. Cornell University SC Johnson College of Business
10. The University of Chicago Booth School of Business
11. Cambridge University – Judge Business School
12. Tuck School of Business
13. UCLA Anderson School Of Management
14. USC Marshall School of Business
15. University Of Michigan’s Ross School Of Business

16. Tepper School Of Business
17. University Of Oxford Said Business School
18. MIT Sloan School Of Management
20. Texas McCombs
21. Goizueta Business School, Emory University
22. UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School
23. Yale School Of Management
24. Columbia Business School
25. Kellogg School Of Management

Duke – Fuqua School of Business Essay Analysis-2017-2018
In this Essay Analysis, I am going to show you what you need to do if you’re looking at
applying to the Duke Fuqua MBA program 2017-18.
Let us first understand what we can about this school, especially if you’re an
international applicant or if you’re applying from a country like India.
A lot of US B-Schools take their culture very seriously. If you go to the Duke website,
they talk about Team Fuqua. Team Fuqua is essentially about how collaborative they
are in spirit. This aspect is different from Harvard, or other larger college, which do
not pride themselves for their team spirit. Fuqua has a huge advantage when it comes
to demonstrating its pride of bonding. If you reach out to people who have been
alums, you will see that most of them are happy to help you.
We’ve had many students from CrackVerbal joining Fuqua. In fact, every year, we’ve
had one student who has gone to Fuqua.
The second big thing about the Fuqua program is the healthcare specialization; it is
hard to miss. Duke Fuqua School of Business is connected to the Duke University,
which has one of the best healthcare programs.
In terms of location, Duke is in North Carolina, where there is a research triangle.

Thus, if you’re looking for healthcare, Duke is the place to be. However, if healthcare
is not your cup of tea, don’t try to retrofit it inside your story or into your essays.
Thirdly, Duke is famous for the way the curriculum is structured. If you look at its
curriculum, in the first year, the program has a lot more electives, and the actual
courses are a lot shorter. It gives you the flexibility to choose a lot more electives.
By the time you complete the first year, you’re ready for your summer internship; you
have the right stories in your resume, and in the interview you can express your
interest by saying why you took these electives, and how you’re in a better position to
do well in the job.
In this respect, Duke Fuqua is different from other B-Schools where the first year is
rigid, and you have to go through a bunch of core courses. Most of the students who
apply to Duke from CrackVerbal India are looking at it as a top 10 B-School. Duke is
usually ranked somewhere in the 7 to10 range, depending on which ranking you look
at, be it US News, Business Week, or Bloomberg ranking.
By just looking at the data, the average age is probably slightly higher, but you really
don’t have to read too much into this. The important thing is the GMAT score.
The average GMAT score ranges from 640 to 670. In my experience, students who
apply to Duke have typically got in with a range of 710 to 740. You definitely need to
get into the right zone which is the lower 700s, if you’re looking at realistic chances.
Now, coming to something very important. Duke is said to have an Early Action
Round. The Early Action Round this year is by the 12th of September.
What is an Early Action Round for Duke?
One of the important things about Duke is the Early Action Round. So what really is
this Early Action Round?
A huge problem that many colleges whose ranking is in the 7th to 25th range face is
that many students are looking at applying to other similar schools as well.
The person who is applying to Duke is also applying to HAAS Berkeley and Darden.
The metric that Duke would look at is the yield percentage, that is, the number of
people to whom offers were made to how many really took up the offer. B-Schools
really work on that number, they really want a high yield percentage.
So what Duke has done is that it has this binding offer. If you apply to the Early Action
Round, you are really telling them that you’re going to join them, and you won’t
apply to any other school. If you are made this offer and you decide to take up this
offer, you will not apply to any other B-School. You can see how it makes sense for
Duke.
They have a pool of very competent people that they are admitting, and they know
that these people are going to join the program.
From the student’s perspective, how will this help?
It is better than applying in Round 1 or Round 2; you have an advantage and a

probability of getting a seat. Not many schools have this advantage of an Early Action
Round, but Duke has it. If Duke is the school you’re looking at, please go ahead and
take this offer.
Now let’s get to the meat of it, the application process.

2017-2018 Duke / Fuqua Deadlines
Early Action
Application Deadline: September 12, 2017
Interview Notification: September 26, 2017
Decision Notification: October 19, 2017
Deposit Due: December 8, 2017
Round One
Application Deadline: October 10, 2017
Interview Notification: November 9, 2017
Decision Notification: December 15, 2017
Deposit Due: February 14, 2018
Round Two
Application Deadline: January 3, 2018
Interview Notification: January 30, 2018
Decision Notification: March 15, 2018
Deposit Due: May 4, 2018 (Domestic) / April 26, 2018 (International)
Round Three
Application Deadline: March 20, 2018
Interview Notification: April 11, 2018
Decision Notification: May 1, 2018
Deposit Due: May 11, 2018 (Domestic and International)
2017-2018 Duke / Fuqua MBA Essay Questions
Required Short Answer Questions
Instructions: Answer all 3 of the following questions. For each question, respond in
500 characters only (the equivalent of about 100 words).
What are your short-term goals, post-MBA?

What are your long-term goals?
Life is full of uncertainties, and plans and circumstances can change. As a result,
navigating a career requires you to be adaptable. Should the short-term goals that
you provided above not materialize what alternative directions have you
considered?
First Required Essay

25 Random Things About Yourself
Instructions: Present your response in list form, numbered 1 to 25. Some points may
be only a few words, while others may be longer. Your complete list should not
exceed 2 pages.
The question that most of the students have is, “what do I write, and what are the
possible things I can write?” 25 things is a lot to write. This is not one of those essays
for which you can do an all-nighter to complete. It’s very important that you plan this
essay well. What you need to do is to create the following buckets:
The first bucket should include personal information about you – It could be the
place where you were born, something about your siblings, something about your
parents, or something about the city in which you grew up.
I will give you a couple of examples. Some students from CrackVerbal wrote about
both their parents being teachers, and how they got to understand early in life that
teaching is such a noble profession. Someone spoke about their name, mentioning
that the name is very interesting, and what it actually means in Sanskrit. It’s just a
random fact; you don’t need to have each and every fact saying why you need to get
into an MBA program. Don’t try to retrofit it. People have spoken about their
siblings; one student mentioned an interesting thing saying, “we are three brothers
but the eldest one is 10 years older to me, so it’s almost like he is my surrogate
father.” These are some of the interesting things you can write from a personal
aspect.
Then the second bucket could be hobbies, or even quirks that you have.
For example: “I like riding my bike late at night, I sometimes go on a 30 to 40 miles
trip. I see that it sometimes clears up my thinking. I just go out on the road without
really thinking too much, and by the time I am back I just have this moment of
clarity.”
You can also talk about a particular hobby that you picked up when you were in
school, maybe you are a trivia quizzer, and you like quizzing. Pick something which is
interesting that you did when you were in school or college. It could also be at your
work. One of my students had written this, “Whenever I look at a car registration
number, I look at the four digit number, and start mentally doing the math. I see
whether it is divisible by 4, and whether it is divisible by 6, or if there is any unique
combination that I can get out of the numbers” She also went on to say that this was
possibly one of the reasons why she played Sudoku.
The third bucket could be things that are in relation to work, slightly more
professional, maybe an NGO involvement that you have had, or something else at
work, maybe something that your colleagues call you. Write anything but try not to
make it into a bullet point that should go into your resume. That’s definitely a NO but
you can pick something interesting from your professional life. Here is an example:
One student had written how he figured out a solution in the company, and it got
them recognition and he actually had his name in the annual newsletter for the
company. He said, “that was my biggest achievement in life.” It could be about small
things that you did, with great outcomes you got out of them; something that really
excited you.
The last, fourth bucket could be something internal, something that is introspective,
something about you as a person.
For example, you could talk about things like:
What are the qualities that really define you

What are the adjectives people would use to describe you
For example, you could say “I am a person who would like to be constantly
challenged at work…” That’s probably one of the things you can write.
These are the buckets, or broad categories in which you could divide the 25 things. If
you really look at it, you just need about four or five in each of these buckets. Don’t
keep it for yourself, go and ask people. Maybe you can ask your friends and family,
“what are the things you think are unique about me?”, and you can then have a list
of 40 to 50 things, and slowly cut it down.
Again, this is not so much about them deciding whether you’re fit for an MBA but
they are really seeing, “is this person interesting?”, “Has he or she done enough
things in life? Have they done enough introspection themselves?”
That’s what this essay is really looking for. “Would I want to meet this person for a
face -to-face interview? Would I want the person to be part of our school for the next
two years?” keep that as the focus of this essay.
Second Required Essay
Instructions: Your response should be no more than 2 pages in length.
Fuqua prides itself on cultivating a culture of engagement. Our students enjoy a

wide range of student-led organizations that provide opportunities for leadership
development and personal fulfilment, as well as an outlet for contributing to
society. Our student-led government, clubs, centers, and events are an integral part
of the student culture and are vital to providing you with a range of experiential
learning and individual development experiences.
Based on your understanding of the Fuqua culture, how do you see yourself
engaging in and contributing to our community, outside of the classroom?
As I have said, it’s a huge part of Team Fuqua. They want people who are not here to
just take…. but rather give …. They want to know what you can contribute. The best
way to approach this is to probably pick three or four things that you can contribute.
The mistake which most of the students typically do in this essay is that they go to
the Fuqua website and pick a laundry list of 500 things and then just write one line
for each. Please don’t do that. Pick three or four things that are central. For example,
you’re in technology, so you need to pick something that you’re going to do in
technology. You can say you want to be in the technology club. Tell them what you
can contribute and what you can take from the club, and it should be personal. Write
three to four points, each one having about 250 to 300 words. You need to have an
opening and an ending. It will take at least two pages. Pick only 3 to 4 things, and not
100 things.
Optional Essay
If you feel there are circumstances of which the Admissions Committee should be
aware, please explain them in an optional essay (such as unexplained gaps in work,
choice of recommenders, inconsistent or questionable academic performance).
Students ask, “should I write the optional essay?” Write the optional essays when
you feel that there is something really important for you to say. The common
mistakes I have seen students making over this essay is that they just feel like there is
one thing that they want to say, and they just try to fit in an accomplishment, which
really doesn’t make any sense. Here are some of the things that you could possibly
add.
• If you have had an academic break,

• if you have had a break in your employment,
• if you want to explain a poor integrated reasoning score in your GMAT.
• If you want to talk about something, for example, “I have my own network and I
would like to let you know that though I believe in career advancement and
placements help me, I would also like to rely on my network. ”
Write anything which can explain and improve your candidature.
Wharton School Of Business Essay Analysis 2017 – 2018
In this Essay Analysis I am going to discuss the Wharton MBA program. If you’re
looking at applying to Wharton, you’ve come to the right place.
Let’s first look at the Wharton MBA program and what differentiates it. As we all know,
it’s an Ivy League school. It’s part of the three schools, considered to be the elite trio –
Harvard, Stanford and Wharton.
What I think truly differentiates Wharton is that though it is known as a finance school,
more importantly, it has a certain quantitative rigor to it. There is a lot of focus on
quantitative skills, analytical skills and a lot of rigorous thinking. If you’re a person who
likes that, Wharton is the place for you. Can you apply to the financial industry? Sure!
Can you apply to consulting? That’s also possible! I don’t think you should look at
Wharton as a pure finance school. I know it’s known for finance but the quantitative
focus is a larger bet.
Second, among all the top schools, Wharton has the most diverse profile. It has the
highest percentage of international students among the top schools, and that provides
you with rich classroom experience and outside classroom experience. It is not just the
country they represent but also the functions. In that way, Wharton is truly global.
Third, you probably have to pick the flexible curriculum. There is a fixed core course
but you have the flexibility right in your first year to pick a lot of electives. This is great
for people who feel they don’t want to have the rigidity of a course where they are
told what they have to study. Once you’re done with the basics – statistics, accounts
and economics and all of the required courses, you can pick and choose what you want
to do. I think that’s another big draw for people applying to Wharton.
2017-2018 Wharton Deadlines
Round 1
Interview Invitation: October 31, 2017
Decision Release: December 14, 2017
Round 2
Interview Invitation: February 8, 2018
Decision Release: March 30, 2018
Round 3
Interview Invitation: April 12, 2018
Decision Release: May 10, 2018
Now coming specifically to the deadlines, again, no surprises here
2017-2018 Wharton Essay Questions
Now, let’s look at the specific questions that Wharton has. It has two essays
Essay 1 (Required)
What do you hope to gain professionally from the Wharton MBA? (500
words)
Now, if you think about it, it’s very specific, and a classic career goals essay, which
you cannot answer by just saying what you will get from a Wharton MBA. You have
to first say what it is that you need from a Wharton MBA, and in order to say that,
you also need to say what it is that you’ve done so far.
It kind of goes back to the same three step process. Tell them what it is that you
have done so far, what it is that you see ahead of you and hope to do in your future.
Now that you have said what it is that you hope to do, tell them what you need to
reach that goal. Once you say what you need in order to reach there, in the last part
you need to say how specifically Wharton can help bridge that gap.
S500 words gives you enough space to write a pretty detailed and descriptive essay.
In the first part, tell them what you’ve done, where you are in this career juncture,
and what you see ahead; this would include your short term and long term goals.
In the second part, say what you hope to do to equip yourself to achieve those short
term and long term career goals?
In the third part, describe how specifically a Wharton MBA will help you achieve
your goals. Use the standard 150 + 150 + 150 words for the three parts and maybe
50 words for the beginning and ending.
Essay 2 (Required)
Teamwork is at the core of the Wharton MBA experience with each student
contributing unique elements to our collaborative culture. How will you contribute
to the Wharton community? (400 words)
Interacting with people from Wharton has given me insight into what Wharton is
like. On our panel, we have Aruna who is an MBA from Wharton. Some of my former
colleagues are from Wharton, and we have had students going to Wharton. One
thing that say when we talk about the Wharton MBA program is the fact that most
of the student activities are student run. This means that you volunteer to go talk to
an alum to get him on campus. Don’t expect the college to do this for you. From that
perspective, what they really want to know is, what it is that you will contribute to
the Wharton community.
400 words is a lot of space. I would perhaps pick two or three specific things that I
bring to the table. For these two or three things, you need to talk about both, what
you can give, and how you will benefit, or what you will gain.
Let us say that your interest is in science. Now, what does an MBA student really
require from science? But you could say that you have an interest in astronomy and
you would like to show your classmates how astronomy can be interesting. You can
maybe say that when you look at the star filled sky in Philadelphia, you could show
them certain constellations. It’s about what you can contribute to the community.
What I gave you is just a small example. It could be a sport; maybe you practice yoga.
You could say that you like to practice yoga and it helps you calm your mind. In an
MBA, people get overwhelmed with a lot of things that are thrown at them. You can
say that at such times you could probably take a yoga class. Maybe every morning,
you could conduct yoga classes.
It could be anything, but you need to say what it is that you can give to the
community, but remember that teamwork is a two way street. You can also say what
you would benefit from it. What would you benefit from teaching astronomy to
others? Maybe it’s a personal passion that you have. Maybe teaching yoga would
allow you the opportunity to practice yoga.
Whatever you write, pick two or three things. 150 to 200 words to explain each of
these would give you enough space to elaborate. Otherwise, you talk about 10
things, and it will look like a checklist that you’re ticking off. It would be like you went
to the Wharton website, looked at all these things and wrote "I want to be a part of
the Consulting club”, or “I’ll be part of the Cricket club”. Don’t do that, just stick to
two or three ways in which you can contribute.
Essay for Re-applicants
Explain how you have reflected on the previous decision about your application, and
discuss any updates to your candidacy (.g., changes in your professional life,
additional coursework, extracurricular/volunteer engagements). (250 words).
You also have the option to write an essay, say, if you have had gaps in your education,
or your experience, or there is something else that you think could not fit anywhere
else in the application essay. In this case, you utilize this space, but one piece of
advice that I always give to the student is, “Do not try to retrofit something that could
not find a place anywhere else, just because you have another 250 words to write.”
I hope this Essay Analysis was useful to you. If you’re applying to Wharton, and if you
would like to know more about how we can help you with your application, just go
ahead, and click the link below.
Harvard Business School Essay Analysis 2017 – 2018
Welcome to this Essay Analysis in which I’m going to talk about the Harvard Business
School MBA program, and its application essay. Firstly, with Harvard Business School,
brand credentials are really gold plated. When you think of an MBA, Harvard is the
name that comes to your mind. That’s the top selling point for Harvard Business
School. In terms of global reach, whichever country you go to, it really gives you the
passport of having an alumni network, and having credentials that people will take
seriously. The name recognition is a huge thing.
The second thing is the case study method. Harvard really invented this thing, where
they said, “We don’t want to teach you by theory, we don’t want to teach you by
putting a ppt but we will actually give you a scenario so that students themselves
participate”. Everyday, you don’t just walk into class and try to hack it and try to wing
it by speaking something. You have to conduct your research the previous evening
before you walk into the class. You need to have all your points noted down. You need
to make sure that you’re able to present a very cogent argument either for or against
the study that is mentioned over there. Remember, if you’re thinking that class
participation is going to be easy, you’re wrong. Remember that you’re going to be
surrounded by peers who are probably as rabidly competitive as you are. Everybody
there wants to make sure that he/she gets their points across. It’s not very easy.
From our students who’ve been to Harvard, we have learned that there is one more
thing that is special about Harvard. They have seen that public speaking and
confidence level really shoot up in the two years. You are really confident of
expressing your thoughts, of dealing with objections, and of putting your points in a
way that can be received better by the other person. You learn all of this at the
Harvard Business School.
Next, you’re on the Harvard University campus, and you have various other
departments at Harvard. Thus, in terms of infrastructure, the diversity of the student
population, and in terms of taking courses/electives in other departments, I think
there’s a tremendous opportunity here. You’re in Boston, you’re just across the road
from MIT. It’s really a great place, and though it gets a little cold in the winter, it’s a
great place to be.
Harvard Business School MBA Deadlines
Round 1 – Sept 6, 2017
Round 2 – Jan 3, 2018
Round 3 – April 2, 2018
So let’s look at the deadlines.
Most of the students come and ask, “what does it really take to get into Harvard?”.
Harvard is looking for significant impact that you’ve made, either in your education,
or in your experiences, or maybe even in your extra-curricular activities. You cannot
be an average guy. You cannot be a mediocre guy; you cannot just have good grades
and average experience. To give an example, let’s say you did your engineering with
a score of 70%, and then went to work for a large IT company. You’ve worked there
for four years and you did routine stuff and maybe a little more here and there but
pretty much stuck to that. You have also participated in a little bit of an NGO activity
or a hobby that you’ve pursued. You’re average.
Unfortunately, if you’re looking at Harvard, you need to have something that pops
out of the paper. Something that makes people say, “Wow!”. People are not looking
at a hundred things. One of our students, Raviraj, got into Harvard. was from IIT
Bombay, with a 750 GMAT. All of the things were in place, but what really made a
difference was that he started a company while he was still in his fourth year at
college. It got picked by a lot of media houses. In fact, he was featured in 27 different
publications. He was also featured in Business World, Business Week and on Young
Turks on CNBC. He made a huge impact. Now, here is the funny part, his company
did not do well and they actually folded in. But the bigger thing is the experience
that he had. There was something he did that was very significant. Something that
had a huge impact. For that reason, he was able to put in a strong candidature at
Harvard.
Let’s now get into the actual essays that you have.
Harvard Business School MBA Essays 2017 – 2018
Essay 1
As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we

consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School MBA program? (No word
limit)
There is no word limit and it goes on to say, “Don’t over think, over craft or
overwrite. Just answer the question in clear language and that those of us who don’t
know your world can understand”.
So don’t give me a lot of jargon and don’t expect me to understand a lot. I already
have your resume, I already have your recommendation letters, I have your
undergrad transcripts, I have your entire work experience, I have all your
achievements, I have your GMAT scores with me, I have your Quant and verbal split.
I have everything about you. I know all of this and now tell me something else about
you. Now if you think about this at a very fundamental level, what Harvard is really
looking at is that one story that inspires you. That one thing that gives me the “Why”
about you. “What’ I already know but the “Why” I need know. Who’s the person
behind all these achievements? What is the real inspiration behind what you do in
life?
I will give you an example of a student who had applied to Harvard. He essentially
had an entrepreneurial venture in the social space. He was into micro-financing and
microcredit. He spoke about how he grew up in a family where his father and
grandfather were farmers, and he saw the hardships that they went through. While
growing up, he realized something as simple as taking loans. Farmers are usually
affected by the vagaries of the weather. Sometimes, the monsoons are good, and
sometimes they are bad. Invariably, they went to the local money-lender who used
to arm-twist them and make them pay through their nose. That’s why he said that
growing up and looking at these experiences, he realized that this was something he
wanted to set right. He did not know how to do it, but education was the answer. He
said, “I went to college not knowing what I would do to fix the scenario but I worked
hard and got educated here, and went on to do my Bachelors in St. Stephen’s
College in Delhi.” He then went on to get his Master’s. He also said, “When I went
back and contributed, I felt in some sense that I am vindicating my parents, my
grandfather, and my ancestors because this is something that they faced.”
Talk about something that is very close to you. Something that is personal to you,
something that talks about impact because everything in Harvard is about impact.
Are you a person who can make a strong impact in the world? It could be through
anything, it could be through technology also. If you’re a technology person and you
think Harvard is your calling, how will technology have an impact on the world? You
need to understand that for Harvard, you can no longer talk about the small things.
You need to talk about the larger vision. This essay also has the scope of what you
want to do because that’s not mentioned anywhere. You need to talk about your
experiences, your background and how you will change the world. I know it’s not
easy but that’s how this essay has been designed. It requires you to think and
brainstorm. It also requires you to talk to your friends and family, and really put in
that core message. Once you have the core message you want to convey, you can
blow up the other parts and figure out how to say what. ‘Why” is the core of this
essay.
If you’re applying to Harvard, and would like to connect with us, go ahead and click
the link below. We can help you draft your essays and can help you brainstorm.
Stanford Graduate School of Business Essay Analysis 2017 – 2018
If you’re looking at applying for the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB)
program this year, I can tell you what you need to know about the Stanford program,
and how to address the very tricky essays for 2017-18.
Well, first let’s look at the Stanford program. Arguably, it competes with Harvard as
one of the top B-Schools in the world. Stanford has a class with very high GMAT scores,
and a very diverse peer set.
Now let’s look at Stanford’s real USPs. The first is, Stanford has just 400 students and if
you want to compare it with Harvard which has about 900, Stanford takes pride in the
fact that it has a small class so there is a lot of bonhomie among the students. There is
more connection and personal touch, which dovetails to a personalized program.
Starting from the first year itself, you can pick the electives. Stanford allows the
students to tailor their courses. This aspect, and the small class size makes the
program more personal than let’s say Harvard. But there is another thing about
Stanford that is very unique. Stanford is in the heart of Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley, as
we know, is the birthplace of most of the significant technology players – Google,
Yahoo, and Apple. If you think about it, it fosters this sense of entrepreneurship. It’s a
very cultural thing in Stanford, where you’re enamoured by all these entrepreneurs
around you. You get inspired by them, and you want to start something on your own.
So, if you’re an entrepreneur in the technology space, the bay area is where you need
to go; Silicon Valley is where you should be. What other place than Stanford for this?
Stanford MBA Deadlines – 2017-2018
Round 1
Notification Date: December 14, 2017
Round 2
Notification Date: March 29, 2018
Round 3
Application Deadline: April 4, 2018
Notification Date: Mid-May 2018
Let’s get into the essays if you have not already done so. You may have already
realized that the biggest challenge is the first essay.
2017-2018 Stanford GSB Essay Questions
Essay A: What matters most to you, and why? (750 words)
For this essay, we would like you to:

Do some deep self-examination, so you can genuinely illustrate who you are and how
you came to be the person you are.
Share the insights, experiences, and lessons that shaped your perspectives, rather
than focusing merely on what you’ve done or accomplished.
Write from the heart, and illustrate how a person, situation, or event has influenced
you.
Focus on the “why” rather than the “what.”
This essay has been there for several years, and we’ve helped many students from
CrackVerbal in writing this essay. So one thing I usually say about this essay is that you
need to pick that one grain, that one single thing. I will give you some a couple of
examples, which will help you understand the thinking process.
One of our students from CrackVerbal who was in IT wrote about how he had gone to
Nigeria and was actually mugged by armed robbers who kept a gun to his head. He had
a providential escape; he was an inch away from being dead as such people are often
high on drugs. He said that it was the point when he realized what matters. This was
not Stanford asking him a question but a question he asked himself. He said, “I was
away from my family. What would have happened if I died? Would people really
remember me for the money that I earned, or the stuff that I have?” He realized that
what mattered to him the most was the people around him. “People” could be family,
friends, or the community. He then quit his job, came back to India, and started
something in the area of social entrepreneurship. He wanted to give back to society
because he felt that the biggest legacy he could have was what he could give back to
society, not what he could take from society. That’s the kind of story that gets you
thinking, right? What is that one thing! In this case, what mattered most to him was
the impact he could create.
There is another story of a student who had written about how he actually he had
worked in various sectors, and he then picked entrepreneurship. He said why being an
entrepreneur meant so much to him. Here again, it is about impact. How he was able
to give back, and in this case, it was not “not for profit”; it was a “for profit”
organization, but he said that the biggest jumps that happened in the history of human
civilization happened because someone somewhere decided to do things differently.
There was some innovation that was happening; not invention but innovation, there is
a difference. Someone said they are not going to do something in this way, but were
going to do it in a different way. That’s when progress really happened for mankind.
What really mattered to him was innovation; doing things differently. He said he was
not someone who was happy with status quo.
When you have 750 words, it’s a lot. You need to take multiple stories and thread them
to an underlying theme. You could have a story of when you were growing up, a story
of what happened in college, a story of what happened at work, but all of this must be
woven into the underlying theme. It’s very important that you bring in your personal
aspect. Don’t make it look like a resume. Don’t make it look like some bullet points
you’re reading through. It should be personal; it should be about you. It should make
them want to meet you because you sound interesting; make them wonder what else
they can learn from you. That’s the kind of impact you need to have!
Essay B:
Why Stanford? (400 words, or 450 words if applying to both the MBA and MSx
programs)
Enlighten us on how earning your MBA at Stanford will enable you to realize your
ambitions.
Explain your decision to pursue graduate education in management.
Explain the distinctive opportunities you will pursue at Stanford.
If you are applying to both the MBA and MSx programs, use Essay B to address your
interest in both programs.
If you think about this essay, it cannot be answered by going through the laundry list of
things Stanford is known for. In fact, that’s the biggest trap people fall into when they
try to address this essay. They go to the Stanford website and say, “oh, it’s in Silicon
Valley’. How does that matter to you? Then people write that Stanford has a great
network, but you need to write how the network matters to you. You need to connect
“why Stanford” to your personal cause; what is it that you want to do, and how you
think that Stanford will enable you in that mission, in that journey. Unless and until
you make that connection, it’s a waste of your time.
Here’s a litmus test. For every sentence that you write, ask yourself, “Is this a sentence
only I could have written?” because it has to be unique to you as it ties back to the
requirements you have from a B-School. If it is going to be a sentence that anyone
could have written, it’s probably not going to be worth the real estate of your
application essay.
We’ve discussed the two essays; there is also an optional essay. As I say for most
optional essays, make sure that the optional essay covers something that addresses
something that is deficient; it could be a gap in your employment, or a gap in your
education. It should be something that you think is important information for them to
know. The mistakes which students make in optional essays is that they try to retrofit a
story. It’s like, “I have this bunch of stories that I want to tell a B-School. I have gone
through five of them; there are these two orphan stories and I don’t know what to do”.
Then you see an optional essay, and you say, “Wow! Here is the time for me to plug it
in.” Don’t do that. You will do more disservice to your application by writing things that
are random than by not writing anything at all. Keep that in mind, and wish you all the
best for your Stanford MBA application. If you think you want an another pair of eyes
to look at your application, if you want someone who is been there and done that to
vet your stories, someone who comes from maybe an Indian perspective or way of
looking at it, someone with an Ivy league MBA. If you think that would help, let us
know, using the link below.
Welcome to this Essay Analysis in which I am going to talk about Georgetown
University, McDonough School of Business. If you’re looking at applying to this school
in 2017-2018, you have come to the right place.
First, let’s talk about the college itself. McDonough is part of Georgetown University,
which is one of the oldest universities, and is located in Washington DC; most
politicians’ children have actually gone to this university. It has a very good alum
network, and that is a huge plus point. Another plus point is that being in Washington
DC, the university is part of a large city. Hence, its location is great!
Now, apart from the great alum network and the location, what differentiates this
program is the international focus and global experience. For example, in the second
year, they have the Global Experience program as part of the MBA curriculum where
students are given practical consulting projects in numerous international locations.
That is one example of the kind of international focus they have. In fact, if you look at
the whole curriculum, it has a lot of focus on international business. This is because
Georgetown University itself has the School of Foreign Services. This is definitely one
top reason for you to apply.
2017-2018 Georgetown McDonough Deadlines

Round One
Deposit Due: February 15, 2018
Round Two
Notification Date: March 25, 2018
Deposit Due: May 1, 2018
Round Three
Notification Date: May 15, 2018
Deposit Due: June 1, 2018
Round Four
Application Deadline: May 1, 2018
Notification Date: June 1, 2018
Deposit Due: June 7, 2018
2017-2018 Georgetown MBA Essay Questions
Essay 1:
Describe a defining moment when you were challenged and exceeded expectations.
(The moment can be a professional or personal one. If personal, then please also
include how it had an impact on your professional development) (500 words or
fewer)
This is a classic essay where you’re talking about that one moment in your life, or that
one thing that you did which possibly defines you. 500 words is a lot of space for you
to craft out a good essay. Pick something where you felt that more than the impact it
caused others you learned a lot from the experience. You want to pick something
through which you had an impact on others, but remember that the question says,
“Describe a defining moment when you were challenged and exceeded
expectations.” Now think about it. Expectations can be very low, you may have
overcome the expectations, you might have done well above them. Here, you have to
tell them more than what you did; say what it did for you!
After you pick the story, you can use the standard START framework. You talk about
the SITUATION – When did this happen? What was the background? What do you
think would give gravity to the whole story? Consider all this while describing the
situation. The second thing to cover is the TASK. What were you supposed to
do? What was expected of you when you walked into the situation?. Third,
the ACTION. What was the action that you did? What did you eventually do? Did you
go and look at the scenario and think something can be done? What action did you
take? Fourth, the RESULT. What was the result? Remember that you’re talking about
the “Defining moment when you were challenged and exceeded expectations.” The
last factor is the personal TAKEAWAYS. This is very important. What were the
takeaways? You have to cover the situation, task, action, result, and takeaways; I
would probably spend a lot more on the takeaways. What did I learn about myself?
Did it help me in other areas of my life? If it did, how did it help me? The B-School is
trying to understand you as a person; that’s what the really want to know. Who are
you? Is this the person they would like to see in their class?. You need to bring a
personal aspect to the story. More than the occasion, I would say what you learnt
should be the larger, overarching thing.
Video Essay:
The required video essay is an opportunity for you to bring life to your application.
Please introduce yourself to your future Georgetown MBA cohort in a one minute
video. The Admission Commission would like you to appear in person during part of
your video and we strongly encourage you to speak outside of the experiences we
can read on your resume. Use this video as an opportunity to bring life into your
application.
Don’t repeat the things on your resume. However, you need to introduce yourself to
your cohort, which is your team. What is it that you’re going to say in one minute,
which is not already in your resume? You should pick just two or three things you
want to share about yourself because 60 seconds will be done very quickly. Share
certain things that are personal to you. Maybe you want to say “My name is…”,
followed by an adjective, then go on to describe what that adjective means in your
context. Talk about your hobbies. Say how you would like to share that hobby with
your classmates. You’re bringing your personality into this. What they really want to
know is, “if I look at you, are you a paper tiger? Or are you a person that I would like
to talk to? Are you a person that I would like to interact with? How good is your
communication? Are you able to maintain eye contact? What is your body language?
You don’t need any fancy equipment. One thing people ask me is, “Do I need to get it
professionally shot?” These days, with the kind of phones we have, all you need is to
keep the phone at a particular place and shoot the video.
•Make sure that the source of light is not behind you but is on your face or even
above you.
•You need to be confident, you need to use your hands. You need to be yourself.
•You can take as many retakes as you want. Maybe you’re going to first get
comfortable talking and then take the final version.
•You can have it directed. Maybe your friend who holds the camera, who gives an
unbiased opinion about the video, could also help you.
Optional Essay 1:
If you are not currently employed full-time, use this essay to provide information
about your current activities. (250 words or fewer)
If you’re utilizing this essay, remember it is not about having a full-time job as long as
you can show them that you are creatively engaged in any activity, and utilizing your
time well. Maybe you are taking some online courses. You have 250 words and you
can tell them anything else in your application that has not been covered. Ensure
that you talk about something that is relevant. Don’t try to fit in some story because
it did not find a place elsewhere. Talk about what you would probably do in your
future, maybe there is some course that you are planning to do next year, or any
other passion that you would like to pursue. Maybe you want to learn to play guitar
before you join the B-School.
Don’t just write another story, like, “At work, I was given an opportunity to do this
and ….”. Don’t do this
Optional Essay 2:
Please provide any information you would like to add to your application that you
have not otherwise included. (500 words or fewer)
Re-Applicant Essay:
How have you strengthened your candidacy since your last application? We are
particularly interested in hearing about how you have grown professionally and
personally. (500 words or fewer)
So that’s pretty much what we have. If you’re applying to Georgetown McDonough,

please go ahead and click the link below. We’ve had a lot of students who went there
in the past, and we can share our experience of what it takes to really get in. So.
Insead Business School Essay Analysis 2017 – 2018
Welcome to this Essay Analysis in which I will discuss the INSEAD Business School,
which has campuses in France and Singapore. If you’re looking at applying to INSEAD
this year, you have come to the right place.
First, let’s look at the program. What works for INSEAD is the one-year program. It’s
actually crunched and more like 10-11 months rather than a year. It offers accelerated
learning and if you’re looking for a one-year program, this is definitely one of the top
three one-year programs in the world today.
Secondly, INSEAD is truly international. Although most of the US B-Schools have

diversity, with 30 to 40% of their class coming in from outside of the US, theirs are
predominantly an American programs. It’s the same thing if you look at Europe.
However, if you look at INSEAD, the kind of diversity that you have, the kind of
geographies that you have with about 40 to 50 different nationalities every year in the
program, you see a program that is truly international. I think that’s a huge plus.
One more thing that probably works well for INSEAD is the fact that it has dual
campuses (France and Singapore). It is possible for you to take advantage of the
exchange opportunity; you can do some courses in the other campus. Thus, you can get
a mix of both.
I think one thing you need to look at when applying to INSEAD is the fact that because
it’s such an international program, they require you to have some amount of
international background. Make sure you go to the website and read their admission
criteria. The criteria are:
• Ability to contribute
• Academic capacity
• Leadership Potential
• International motivation (adaptability and flexibility in multi-cultural
environments)”. Unless you have experience working very closely with people from
different cultures and different geographies in your home country, this is going to be a
little tough. You need to have some amount of international exposure. Just keep that in
mind while you’re applying for the INSEAD program.
2017-2018 INSEAD Business School MBA Deadlines
INSEAD has two intakes
September 2018 Intake
Round 1 – Sept 20, 2017
Round 2 – Nov 29, 2017
Round 3 – Jan 24, 2018
Round 4 – Mar 7, 2018
You also have the option of the January Intake, that’s the beauty of it. The flexibility is
that you can join by September or you can join in January. If you’re looking at January
2019, the deadlines are:
January 2019 Intake
Round 1 – Mar 14, 2018
Round 2 – May 2, 2018
Round 3 – Jun 20, 2018
Round 4 – Aug 1, 2018

Insead Business School Essay Analysis 2017 – 2018
You have four job essays and three motivational essays. We have had students getting
into INSEAD almost every year for the last many years, and one thing I can tell you is
that for all the other schools one week or 10 days is doable but for INSEAD, it takes a
lot more.You need to factor in more time for your application. Now, let’s look at the
Job essays.
Job Essay #1
Briefly summarise your current (or most recent) job, including the nature of work,
major responsibilities, and where relevant, employees under your supervision, size
of the budget, clients/products and results achieved. (short answer)
You need to have a short answer. Now, the deal with this is that it is a crunch or a
summary of your overall career progression. Don’t try to copy paste your CV over
here. Try to be slightly more human in your approach. Try to describe it in a way that a
layman can understand because many of these essays are going to be looked at by
people who may not be in your industry. See, for the resume that you send to
prospective employers, you assume that since they are in the same industry, same
domain, they understand a lot of jargon.
For example, don’t write “Ten Thousand LOC”, instead, write “Ten Thousand lines of
code”. You need to make sure that you explain in simple terms.
A key thing is that the question also talks about the “…results achieved.” You need to
be able to quantify what you did, it’s not just what you did. Just don’t go to the
company’s portal and look at the job description for your particular title and
copy/paste and say “I developed…I designed….I managed”. You should talk about
what the result was. There is a very simple framework that you could use: Situation,
Action, and Result. You could talk about the background of the project given to you,
what you did in the project, and what the result of the project was. You could easily
break it up into three parts.
Job Essay #2
What would be your next step in terms of position if you were to remain in the same
company? (short answer)
Obviously, they are not just looking at the title so don’t say that “I am a manager and
I’ll become a senior manager.” You need to also explain what the senior management
role would. entail Perhaps you need to quantify it. For example, if you’re currently
handling ten accounts, as a senior manager, you would probably be responsible for 50
accounts, so you need to basically quantify the role.
Job Essay #3
Please give a full description of your career since graduating from university.
Describe your career path with the rationale behind your choices. (short answer)
Don’t try to keep this in the resume format. When you graduated, what were the
options you had? Why did you pick your first employer, was there a reason for you to
do that? After that, why did you pick the second employer? What was the learning
that you had with the first employer? What was the learning that you had with the
second employer? You need to gradually take them through the journey of your life.
Again, try to be brief. Don’t try to elaborate too much. Don’t try to dramatize it. In fact,
this is not an essay where you should bring quotes and emotions and all that into the
play. To some extent, keep it dry. That’s what your third job essay is going to be like.
One key thing is, “Describe your career path with the rationale behind your choices.”
You’re not just telling them what you did but also “why you did” “what you did.”
Job Essay #4
Discuss your short and long-term career aspirations with or without an MBA from
INSEAD. (short answer)
Here, the deal is that they are not looking at why you want to do an MBA. So tell
them, “what is it that you want to do eventually in life?” If you’re not applying, this is
still what you want to do. For example, “I want to be a Product Manager. As a Product
Manager, I feel that I am going to be responsible for the life-cycle of a product. I feel I
will be able to affect and influence the way users deal with the particular problems
faced.” That is what they want to hear from you. You can dream about your long-term.
It may not be as concrete as your short term but you could say that you eventually
want be in a role where you start your company where technology is going to directly
affect in a particular area that you are passionate about. You can have slight leeway in
not being very specific but don’t try to pick a bizarre thing. One mistake that people
make is that they are good at writing short-term goals but when it comes to the long-
term goal, they say something like “I want to be an entrepreneur.’ You want to be “an
entrepreneur” is too vague. You need to be slightly more specific. Tie it to your
motivation, your passion.
Now, let’ discuss the optional job essays.

Optional Essay
If you are currently not working or if you plan to leave your current employer more
than 2 months before the programme starts, please explain your activities and
occupations between leaving your job and the start of the programme.
First, if you’re currently unemployed, it’s okay. You don’t need to sweat it but you need
to show them how you are constructively utilizing your time. You cannot say, “I quit
my job, and I am preparing for the GMAT and applying to INSEAD.” Instead, you can
say, “I am taking these courses and I am making sure that I am investing in myself so
that I can develop further professionally”, or you can talk about your personal reasons
for which you have taken a sabbatical. Whatever the reason be, write it. Make sure
that you’re not telling them you’re sitting at home and binge-watching Netflix, and
goofing off.
Also if you have plans to quit to do something meaningful to you. Well, one of my
students who went to INSEAD this year, went and took his pilot license because that
was his dream since childhood. He wanted to be a pilot. So he said, “I am going to take
this opportunity and spend 2 to 3 months getting my pilot license.” Now, that’s
something that is not related to an MBA. People don’t try to see how you’re putting all
these dots in this perfect linear curve which is leading towards your goal. It’s okay to
do things that appeal to your passion even if it doesn’t link directly to your MBA goals
but if it is, please mention it here.
Motivational Essays
Motivation Essay #1
Give a candid description of yourself (who are you as a person), stressing the
personal characteristics you feel to be your strengths and weaknesses and the main
factors which have influenced your personal development, giving examples when
necessary (approximately 500 words).
This is a slightly complex essay. Let’s go through it one by one. You need to talk about
two or three life incidents, hobbies, things that have happened to you, and things you
did but out these two or three things that you’re going to talk about, you need to be
able to cull out the strengths and weaknesses that you’ve discovered in yourself. The
strengths and weaknesses cannot be isolated and your stories cannot be different.
They have to be merged together.
Let me give you an example. One of my students spoke about how she grew up in a
joint family and she said, “Growing up in a joint family, the one thing that I realised
was that I always had to share my things and initially, it was very tough because as a
kid I would want everything I would get. Every time my parents would get something,
they would get five of it because there were five other kids growing up in the same
family.” Then she spoke about how that deeply influenced who she was today and
how she spun it as positive. Now, going ahead, she spoke about a particular thing that
she gained from her father. Her father was someone who believed that you have to go
all out and give it your best, and at some point she became slightly high strung. It was
always like you had to go for the kill. You always want 100%; it’s not that you’re
expecting this from just yourself but it’s something that you’re expecting from others
as well. Once she started working, she realised that sometimes you “Let perfection not
be the enemy of getting things done.” She realized that there were constraints that
she had to work around and not everything goes according to plan but as humans we
need to know how to deliver the maximum. Not 10/10 but even if she got 8/10, she
learned to be fine with it. This was a potential weakness. She said, “I still go back to
the urge of perfection but now I have perhaps come to terms with this fact.”
You talk about a couple of strengths, you talk about a weakness or two, and then you
kind of weave your stories into it. At the end of the essay, what does INSEAD really
want to know? It wants to know who you are as a person. What are the gifts? What
are the gaps? One mistake that people make in the weakness part is that they kind of
mask the weakness by saying that it is a strength. For example, in the earlier example,
she said, “Perfection is my weakness and it’s not something that I am proud of.”
However, people say, “Oh, I am a perfectionist but you know what? Sometimes I have
to deal with these people who don’t understand who I am.” Or here is another
example of incorrect weakness, “I work so hard. I am a hard worker and I don’t know
when to stop. I work for 16 hours a day.”In this example, they try to showcase that as a
weakness. A weakness has to be slightly more genuine.
That’s pretty much the first essay we have. As I have said, you need to tie it up
together. 500 words, two strengths, and one weakness, 150 words to develop each
story. That’s 450 words, then the starting and finish will be 50 words. 500 words will
nicely cover it all.
Motivation Essay #2
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).
Very clearly, 200 words for success, 200 words for failure. In the 200 words for success,
talk about why you are proud of it. It does not have to be something that is earth-
shattering but something that you personally relate to well. Maybe it’s a small thing
that you did at work that completely changed your perspective towards leadership. It
states “Explain why.” why are you proud? It’s not just the “What’ but also the “Why”.
The second part, “….Where you failed…” Here,what people do is, they say, “I failed but
then eventually, I succeeded.” No, it has to be failed. There is really no escape, you
failed and it was a spectacular failure. You learned, you fell flat on your face but you
know what? You got up. You bounced back. You learned so much about life. In fact, as I
have mentioned earlier, in Australia, there is an elite air force where they ask this
question, “Have you failed?”, and if respondents say, “I have not failed”, they are
actually not considered for the elite corps. The reason is, if you haven’t failed in your
life you don’t know what failure is and B-School can be a tough place. They want
people with very high EQ. That’s a huge part of the whole B-School experience, which
is why the second essay is about your failure.
It’s not so much about what happened, it’s okay if you have made mistakes because
everyone makes mistake but what really matters is, “What did you learn? How did
that impact your relationship with others?” You also need to talk about how this
success and failure have changed you as a person. If you haven’t thought about it, it’s
a good time to think about it now. As I said, EQ is a quality that INSEAD looks for in
their applicants.
Motivation Essay #3
Describe all types of extra-professional activities in which you have been or are still
involved for a significant amount of time (clubs, sports, music, arts, politics, etc).
How are you enriched by these activities? (approximately 300 words)
One of the things that INSEAD or any other B-School looks for is leadership qualities.
So now, what do you mean by leadership? Leadership Is when a person says, “My life
is not just going to work, coming back home, watching TV, and going to sleep. I am
passionate about certain things”, and a leader will typically have one more thing he is
going to pursue on the side. You need to pick what it is and quantify it but more than
the ‘What’, again I will tell you, it’s about the “Why”. Why is that cause so dear to you?
Why did you not pick something else? Why did you pick that sport?Why do you jam
with your band every weekend? What about music inspires you? What can other
people learn from you? 300 words is plenty of space to elaborate on that part.
Optional Motivation Essay
Is there anything else that was not covered in your application that you would like
to share with the Admissions Committee? (approximately 300 words)
This is the usual optional essay. If you have any gaps in your education or work
experience, the optional essay is the place to address it, or if you feel that there is
something that the Admission Committee needs to know, you can write about it.
Make sure that this is not something that you’re trying to retrofit, like a story which
does not fit anywhere else. Don’t do that. You’re better off not writing this essay than
writing something for the sake of it.
I know there is a lot for the INSEAD essays. If you’re applying this year and you think
there is any way in which we can work together and we can help, please let us know
by clicking the link below.
University of Virginia Darden School of Business Essay Analysis
2017 – 2018
Welcome to this Essay Analysis, where I am going to discuss the Darden MBA
program, and Darden’s application essays 2017-18.
If you were to look at what Darden is known for, what its USP is, it has to be the case
based method. In fact, if you look at the website and talk to their alumni, (we have
students from CrackVerbal who went to Darden), We have Mansha, who got into the
program last year, and you can see her interview here. That’s the one thing that
differentiates Darden from the other B-Schools – the case based method, which you
realize, is a derivative of what Harvard does. Apart from the case based method, the
specialty of Darden is that it a small, close-knit community and it is away from major
towns, unlike New York, Columbia, Harvard, and Boston. It’s a relatively small town.
Darden has a ritual called first coffee, for example. After the first class, the entire
Darden community comes together and for half an hour to forty minutes, have coffee;
they interact. The reason why I am pointing out this ritual is that it gives the sense of
its culture; it involves a smaller community where the students bond with each other.
This translates into a stronger and deeper network, even if the network is small.
That’s pretty much what I would are the unique, salient features that set Darden
apart from other schools.
2017-2018 UVA Darden MBA Deadlines
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
2017-2018 UVA Darden Essay Topic
“When preparing for class at Darden, students formulate an opinion on

each case before meeting with their learning teams and class sections.
When encountering different views and perspectives from their own,
opinions frequently shift. Tell us about a time when your opinion
evolved through discussions with others.” (500 words maximum)
You need to understand fundamentally what Darden is looking for in this. B-schools
are moving away from the very traditional questions such as “why Darden?”. This is
because they know that everyone has access to the internet. Now with access to the
internet, everything is out there. So I can live a very vicarious life, with the internet. I
can follow whom I want on social media, and get a lot of information. Hence, they
want to understand the applicant from the softer perspective. “Let me try to
understand how he would be if he were to come into the class.” That’s the whole
idea. What Darden is really looking for is how you would react if you’re sitting in the
classroom for a case study.
It is very important that you have to give a background to this. You cannot start and
directly talk about what happened, and why you changed your opinion. You’re
already given a setting and I am assuming if you’re at work, you could give a
background about the project, what this person was, was the person a colleague?,
was he your subordinate?, what kind of a relationship you shared, and what the
gravity of this project was. If it was on the personal side, was he your friend or
relative?, how close were you to this person?, etc. You need to provide the
background so people understand the dynamics involved. We have 500 words, and
that is enough to work on the background part.
Then you come with the actual difference of opinion. What did you believe or what
was the differing opinion you had? Then you talk about why you realized there was
merit to the other point of view. So, you need to give your point, the other point, and
why you felt that the other point had merit.
Finally, you can conclude by saying how you as a person have changed because of
this new perspective that you had in life. All of us go through this one ah ha moment
when we realize that there is something else to the way we did things, and how our
perspective changed.
I can give you an example of one story that one of our students from CrackVerbal had
written. This student said that in the way she worked, she believed in efficiency. She
had a very clear checklist of how things should be and she would just work on
optimizing the list when it came to work. but then she had a colleague and what she
noticed about the colleague is that the colleague would always question, and say,
“why can’t we do it differently this time? We have always done it this way; why can’t
we do it differently this time? Let’s have a different approach to it.” Initially, this
student had this inertia, some resistance, and she would say “this is how we have
always done things, and we know it works”, and the other person would say, “how do
you know that this isn’t the better way to do things?” That clicked! She slowly started
accepting that instead of just optimizing and improving the efficiency, sometimes it
makes sense to be completely disruptive. If you think about it, most innovations
happen when we are disruptive.
I remember Steve Jobs once said that if he had asked customers what they wanted,
they would have said, “a faster floppy disk”.
The student learned that there are multiple approaches to doing things, and one has
to constantly innovate and experiment. Now, this was an example. Whatever your
story be, you need to make sure that you’re able to showcase how it helped you in
life. So this short essay of 500 words is easy and manageable but picking the right
story is going to be the key to cracking this one.
If you need any feedback, or if you need us to have a look at your application essay
and give our opinions, just click the link below.
London Business School Essay Analysis 2017 – 2018
Welcome to this Essay Analysis in which I am going to be talking about the London
Business School MBA program. If you’re looking at applying to the program this, 2017-
2018, you have come to the right place.
Let’s look at the program. What are the highlights of the London Business School
program?
First, if you have been to their website you see a lot about the fact that it is in London,
similar to what Columbia does because it’s in New York. London Business school – the
name itself has the location of the B-School. You really are in the financial capital of
the world, and location plays a huge role. The reason why geography plays a huge role
is because when a recruiter comes to a particular college, he is going to come to the
college to which he has easy access. Most of the top companies will have their
headquarters in London. For that reason, London Business School is a top choice in
terms of location.
Second, although London Business School is in the UK, it doesn’t necessarily mean
that only UK folks come in. You have a lot of people coming in from Europe, a huge
representation from Asia, and people coming in from the US and Canada. It has a nice
international mix and there is a lot more international diversity here than you would
find in US programs.
The third highlight is the flexible scheduling the London Business School offers. You
have the 15-month option, 18 month option, and the 21-month option. You can even
arrange your schedule so that you can pursue a second internship. This flexibility of
scheduling and flexibility in the course are a huge draw for this B-School. You might
want to look at their website for more details.
The next aspect is the experiential learning. This is something that a lot of schools are
talking about these days. This school talks about organizational audit and global
business experience, both of which are required of all students. Experiential learning
gives the students a way in which they can apply classroom knowledge in real world
scenarios. Schools are now focusing on practical knowledge rather than just
theoretical knowledge. If you are a person who believes that you like to apply what
you learn, London Business School would be a great place for you.You would have a
simulated real life environment. You’re not actually taking the same risks, but you get
to explore what you would do in real life.
Another important point is that because of its financial connection with the city of
London, London Business School has a lot of people getting into the financial sector.
Having said all of this, one thing I would like to bring to your attention is that if you’re
an international applicant, an Indian who is applying to London Business School, you
also need to be aware of the economy right now, with the impact of Brexit. One of my
students was placed in a tech company and the tech company was not able to get her
a visa that year. They actually got her back to India, got her a visa for the office in
Switzerland, and from Switzerland, she was moved to London. What I am trying to tell
you is that if you’re smart, if you’re good, and if the company wants to hire you, they
will. Large companies will figure out a way to work around the process
London Business School Deadlines 2017-2018
Round 1
Deadline: September 15, 2017
Interview Notification: October 5, 2017
Decision Notification: November 22, 2017
Round 2
Deadline: January 3, 2018
Interview Notification: February 1, 2018
Round 3
Deadline: March 2, 2018
Interview Notification: April 5, 2018
Round 4
Deadline: April 20, 2018
Interview Notification: May 10, 2018
Decision Notification: June 19, 2018
2017-2018 LBS Essays
Required Essay
What are your post-MBA goals and how will your prior experience and the London
Business School program contribute towards these? (500 words)
You have your post-MBA program goals, your prior experience, and then you have
the London Business School MBA Program. How will all three of these fit? You have
500 words, and here is what you would do. Break it down into three parts. In the first
part, you need to talk about your prior experience, that’s how the flow would go. You
need to talk about what you have done so far in your life. Bring it to a stage where
you say, “this is what I have done, and this what I have come to realize. When I
started my career, I didn’t know what I wanted but now after my career of 4 to 5
years, I have realized that I want to get to the next level.”This is where you need to
talk about your post-MBA career goals. Be specific. Try to say what kind of industry,
what kind of job role you’re looking at.
You have spoken about your background, you have spoken about what it is that you
want to do after your MBA, and then you talk about what it is that you need in order
to get there. You might want to talk about what roles that would entail, and what
you need to equip yourself with. That becomes the second paragraph.
Then in your third paragraph, you need to say what you will gain from London
Business School that will help you meet these requirements. It’s very important that
you tie London Business School back to the requirements:
1.Who you are
2.What you want to do, and what you need
3.How London Business School will help you get there
Sounds simple? You have 150 words for each of the three parts. A strong start and a
strong finish – maybe another 50 words. So all put together, 500 words.
Optional Essay
Is there any other information you believe the Admission Committee should know
about you and your application to London Business School?
In this essay, you need to make sure you’re writing about either a gap in your
academic life or your professional life, or it could be something that you plan to do
but did not find any place to talk about it in the application. Don’t use this space to
retrofit another story. One mistake that students make is, “ By the way, since you’ve
given me this opportunity for an additional essay, let me tell you about the one time
when I did this great project”. Don’t say something like that.
I hope this was useful. If you’re applying to London Business School this year, just go
down, and click on the link below. We would love to help you, and work with you in
your application process.
Cornell University SC Johnson College of Business Essay Analysis
2017 – 2018
If you’re applying to the Johnson School of Business at Cornell, you have come to the
right place. In this Essay Analysis, I am going to take you through the details about the
program as well as analyse the MBA application essays for 2017-2018 so that you
know how to approach the essays.
First, let’s look at the program itself. Cornell is an Ivy League school, it’s one of those
large universities with a very good brand name. In the Johnson MBA program, if you
look at the class size, it’s a lot smaller than many of the large programs. In that sense,
you have a large university set-up but you have a very small program size. If you’re
looking at an MBA program where you get to be a part of a university infrastructure
yet have the bonding, connection and bonhomie of a small class size, Cornell is the
program you should be looking at. That’s one important point.
The second point is, in terms of location, it’s really beautiful. It can get cold but it’s a
very beautiful location. It’s about three to four hours from Downtown New York –
Manhattan. It’s probably a bus drive away. In terms of location, it’s a lot of better than
some of the schools in the Mid-west which are in the middle of nowhere. In that
sense, though it is not a Columbia to be right there in Downtown, it’s still accessible.
2017-2018 SC Johnson School Of Business MBA Deadlines
October Round
Initial Notification: November 15, 2017
Deposit & Official Transcript Deadline: January 10, 2018
November Round
Application Deadline: November 15, 2017
Initial Notification: January 10, 2018
Deposit & Official Transcript Deadline: March 1, 2018
January Round
Initial Notification: March 15, 2018
Deposit & Official Transcript Deadline: April 23, 2018
April Round
Initial Notification: May 1, 2018
Deposit & Official Transcript Deadline: June 1, 2018
SC Johnson School Of Business Essay Analysis 2017 – 2018
The first essay is the goal statement. What Johnson has done here is very interesting.
What they have done is, they realised a lot of people don’t know how to write a goals
essay. Maybe they haven’t watched my videos or haven’t read my Essay Analysiss.
While writing, people just meander, and they go all over the place. The point is, they
are not specific. The school, as I have said in my other videos as well, requires you to
be very specific with regard to your goals. What is it that you really want to do? If you
see, it explicitly states, “if invited to interview, you will have the opportunity to
elaborate further and should be prepared to connect your prior experience with your
future aspirations.” They are actually mentioning in a way that they don’t expect you
to say “Why”. Let’s keep out the “Why” part. Let us just focus on the “What” part. In
most career goal essays, the “Why” part is also required to tie your past experience to
why you want to do whatever you plan to do. In this case, you don’t need to worry.
Here is what it reads:
Goals Statement
A statement of your goals will begin a conversation that will last throughout
admissions process and guide your steps during the MBA program and experience. To
the best of your understanding today, please share your short and long-term goals by
completing the following sentences:
Immediately post-MBA, my goal is to work as a(n) ____[Role]____ at
___[Company]___within___[Industry]___.
Targeted Job Role:
Target Job Company:
Industry:
In 5 – 10 years post-MBA, my goal is to work as a(n) ____[Role]____ at
___[Company]___within___[Industry]___.
Targeted Job Role:
Target Job Company:
Industry:
Example of Completed Statement:
Short Term Goal: Immediately post-MBA my goal is to work as a(n) Consultant at

Accenture within Media and Technology.
Long-Term Goal: In 5-10 years post-MBA my goal is to work as a(n) Founder and
President within Nonprofit.
You have the role, company and the industry. Which one? Pick any that you want.
You need to pick your targeted goal, targeted job company and the industry that you
want to work in. The same thing gets repeated in your long-term goal. They even
specify how long a long-term should be, 5-10 years.
Now, a couple things here. First, your best friend is LinkedIn. Make sure that you go
to LinkedIn, and research about people who have graduated, and people with
experiences similar to yours. So don’t look at someone who probably went to an Ivy
League in the US, born and brought up in the US and is working on Wall Street. You
need to make sure it is your background, be it in tech, be it in finance, whatever is
your background, that background. Try to see if you can get people who are not
Americans but Indians or anyone else who doesn’t have a PR status in the US. Now
that you found the person you need, find out what it is that they are doing. Look at
people who are now at one-year or two –years after they have graduated. That will
give you a good sense. It will give you a good sense of the kind of companies that are
recruiting and the kind of typical roles that you would get.
Now, if you want to ask, I would say “Employability” plays a huge role. You don’t
want to put something that is so weird that not many people can get that job. That
cannot be held against you but they are going to look at it and say, “Is this guy going
to get this job? And if not, he is probably in the wrong place.” Pick something, for
example, I know that some of the largest recruiters like Amazon recruit heavily from
most schools, including Cornell. You have the top consulting firms. You have the top
tech firms like Microsoft and Google. So try to pick an employer who has employed
people with your kind of a background and look at the title and role they have. What
do they join as? Do they join as Poduct Managers? Then you talk about the
companies and the roles, which go hand-in-hand, and then the sector. Is it e-
commerce? Is it technology? Is it finance? Is it consulting? “I want to be an associate
at Mckinsey working in the consulting sector”, or something like, “I want to be a
Product Manager working at Google in the tech space.” You have to be very clear.
Now coming to the 5-10 years which is your long-term goal. In this part, there are
two things you could do. The one thing you could do is that you could think of a
career path that is a progression along this. For example, if you’re a consultant, you
want to talk about being an engagement manager or maybe a partner. If you’re going
to be a Product Manager, let’s say you want to be the Vice President of Products of a
start-up. So that’s one path. Now the second path that you can take in the longer
term is something that is allied to what you have done but is completely different.
For example, you can talk about entrepreneurship. You could say, “I did consulting (or
a tech role). I was a Product Manager in Google for five years, and in five years down
the line, I want to be a founder or a co-founder, or a CEO or maybe even a CTO at a
tech company. At my own company perhaps, and work in the high-tech sector, work
in the healthcare sector.” Whatever sector interests you. You could play that card as
well.
Going back to what I said before, make connections on LinkedIn. It is also very
important for the next essay. I am going to be talking about that but if you haven’t
really created your LinkedIn profile, please do so today. My LinkedIn profile is down
below (LINK). If you want to connect with me, I’ll be more than glad to connect with
you.
Essay 2#
Background
The second essay is the impact essay. Now, the essay clearly states “Whether doing
the program or following graduation, our students and alumni share the desire to
positively impact the organizations and communities that they serve”. Remember, I
told you about the experiential learning. This kind of ties with that part. “To help you
explore your potential for impact, we encourage you to engage with our students,
alumni, faculty and professional staff”. Very important, when they say “We encourage
you.” It goes on to say, “You can choose to connect with them via e-mail or a phone or
in-a person during one of our campus or off campus events”. If you’re not from the US,
perhaps it’s not applicable to you. “As you seek their input and insight, please be
respectful of their time and prepare a few discussion points or questions in advance.”
Why they have given this background is very important because the actual essay
question is going to follow.
Impact Essay
At Cornell, we value students who create impact. Please indicate the opportunities for
the impact that you’ve identified through engagement with our community and
describe how what you learned has influenced your decision to apply to Johnson. (500
words)
Many people, the moment they see this essay, just blindly carpet bomb all the people
on LinkedIn who are from Cornell. It really pains me because I have a lot of my alumni
students who are current Cornell students who come and tell me, “ We mostly get
messages like, Hey, can you please look into my profile and tell me if I got a good
chance.” You just blew your chance, you just blew the opportunity to have a
meaningful engagement with someone. Nobody can say if you can get into a B-
School. Even I cannot say that. Remember, the probability is above 0% and below
100%. Nobody can say that 100% you’re going to get in, and nobody can say you have
0% chance of getting in. Somewhere, it is a probability, it could be 30%, 50% or 60%.
What you should do is to be respectful; you should understand that they are busy
and they have a hundred other things to do. Do your research and look at the profile
to see if there are any common connections. That’s one thing you can do. See if there
is any common connection through whom you can get introduced. See if you could
approach them, talk about some similarities in your past. Be very specific in what you
want to ask. You have a background in “XYZ”, now give them a summary. What is it
that you want to ask them about? It’s very important that you do so. Now that you
have connected with them, it’s very important that you put that in your essay. Now
that you’ve connected with them, you know what the story is.
It’s important for you to pick two or three opportunities. Remember, these are
opportunities while you’re at Cornell, or maybe life beyond. Things that a
Cornell/Johnson MBA can equip you with. As I mentioned earlier, we spoke about the
investment fund. Do you want to be part of it? Just don’t say it because everybody is
saying it. What is it in your background that you can bring to the table? Have you
done investments before? Are you good at quantitative modeling? Is there anything
else that you can bring to the table? Talk about how you could create an impact, and
also say what you will gain from this experience. It has to be what I will give and what
I will get.
Pick two or three opportunities for impact, and you need to say, “Why is that a
reason for you to apply to the Johnson program?”. It’s very important that you tie it.
It should read in such a way that someone says, “Wow! This guy has done his
research; he has spoken with people. He is very clear, these are three opportunities
that he has identified, and this is how he going to contribute, this is what he going to
learn, which is why Cornell/Johnson is the number 1 choice for him. They have kind
of twisted the “Why Johnson MBA essay” in a slightly different way but that’s really
what it is. As I have said earlier, that’s because they value student contribution so
much.
Table of Contents
This is the table of contents essay. They say “This is your opportunity to present
yourself as an individual. We encourage you to think about your proudest
accomplishments, moments of adversity that have been overcome, interesting
personal highlights, that will help us to get to know you as a person and potential
community member”. hey really want to know about your life. They want to know
the highs and lows and not the boring resume. They want to know something
interesting, something that pops out, something that makes them feel, “I want to
meet that person.” That’s the goal. After reading it, they should say, “Wow! I want to
meet this person, I want this person in my class.” Are you able to articulate yourself
that way? Let’s look at the specific prompt.
Table of Contents Essay
You are the author of your Life Story. Please create the table of contents for the book
in the space provided or upload it as an attachment. We value creativity and
authenticity and encourage you to approach this essay with your unique style.
Alternative submission formats may include a slide presentation, links to pre-existing
media (personal website, digital portfolio, YouTube, etc.), as well as visually enhanced
written submissions.
Maximum file size is 5 MB. If you choose to submit a written Table of Contents,
please limit your submission to 500 words or fewer. Multimedia submissions should
be under 5 minutes.
First of all, what I want you to do is, sit down, chronologically write down all of the
things that you have done in your life. Maybe something interesting about the place
you were born. Maybe you can talk about that, maybe that’s a story. What about
your education? Is there anything interesting? Don’t tell me what degree you have.
That, I already know from your resume. Talk about something interesting. Did you
learn anything about yourself? Maybe you met your childhood sweetheart and you
got married to her. Maybe that’s the most interesting thing about your education.
You can also think of a great story about your life, which can be put here. It’s very
introspective. What about work? Where did you work? What was your biggest
challenge? What did you accomplish? Now, remember each of them very clearly,
remember that it’s table of contents and not the content.
What actually happened? They will get to know the details of it later. At this point,
they want to know, “What was the life event?” Once you have listed out all of your
life events, just write it down. As I have said, it’s not just professional but also
personal. When you were born, when you got married, or when you had a kid.
Whatever it is, just write it down. You could also write about adversity, for example,
you had a major accident, you were in hospital for three weeks and that taught you
something. Put it over there.
Once you have put all of that down, I would say the “How” is actually of lower
importance. If you’re a creative person, you would figure out a good way to express
this but if nothing else, make sure that each of these points kind of stands out. For
example, let’s say that one of things you want to talk about is about when you got an
opportunity to face an audience and you had stage fright all of your life and it took a
lot of grit and determination to face an audience. Can you put a YouTube link? Yeah,
even it’s a small hand held mobile camera that someone took, like a shot, or maybe
you have your own personal blog and you wanted to express yourself. Make sure you
link it here.
Essentially, you need to keep it very concise. Don’t try to elaborate things. They are
not wanting to know “Why”. Just because it is 500 words, don’t exploit it and write
paragraphs. It should be one heading followed by a small blurb. The heading can be
very interesting. For example, the heading could be, let’s say you want to talk about
the time you got laid off and you started hunting for a job and you realized that you
don’t want to go back to the job you were doing earlier and you wanted to do
something new. Now that’s a lot of things. The heading could be “Second innings”
and you could say, “After an unsuccessful attempt at my first innings of the….I started
my second innings doing…..” Just one sentence. Just a small blurb.
So, you would have:

<Title> <Blurb>
<Title> <Blurb>
<Title> <Blurb>
<Title> <Blurb> …..
Maybe five or six. I am imagining you’re somewhere under 30, or just about 30. I
don’t think your life can have 15 to 20 chapters. That’s perhaps what I would do.
Don’t worry about the “How” part. You could figure out a way to be creative, maybe
express it differently, or put it in the form of a chart, but I wouldn’t bother too much
about that.
Optional Essay
This essay is required for applicants seeking re-admission and should call attention to
the steps taken to strengthen one’s candidacy. Candidates may also use the optional
essay to call attention to items needing clarification or to address any gaps in
experience.
My advice always for the optional essay is to write about a huge gap in your
experience or your education or something that couldn’t be written anywhere else.
Don’t try to retrofit a story just because it didn’t find a place elsewhere.
There is also this Roy H.Park Leadership Fellows Program essay. This is available only
to a US citizen who is applying for a two-year MBA program. If you find it in your
application form and you’re an international applicant, I am sorry, it’s not for you. I
just wanted to let you know.
If you’re applying to the Cornell Johnson MBA program, I would be interested to

know how your application is going. Are there any questions? Are you stuck at any
point? Is there a way in which we can work together? Please let me know by clicking
this link below.
The University of Chicago Booth School of Business Essay
Analysis 2017 – 2018
In this Essay Analysis, I will look at the Chicago Booth MBA program, its application
essay, and how you tackle it.
One of the advantages of the Chicago Booth program is that the university that Booth
is associated with boasts of six noble laureates since 1982. The program has a very
strong finance focus, and to add to it, it is in Chicago, which is a huge hub for the
financial sector, in that area. Approximately 40 % of the Booth graduates go back into
the financial sector.
Chicago Booth’s website talks about the flexibility they offer in the program, You have
professors teaching both the weekend and evening MBA. Hence, you can take the
course in the evenings or weekends, apart from your full-time MBA. There is good
flexibility in the program, it is good for Finance, and Chicago being the Finance hub
make for great points you can put into your essay for “why Chicago Booth?”
2017-2018 Chicago Booth Deadlines
Round 1
Application deadline: September 21, 2017
Decision released: December 7, 2017
Round 2
Application deadline: January 3, 2018
Decision released: March 15, 2018
Round 3
Application deadline: April 3, 2018
Decision released: May 17, 2018
One thing that Chicago Booth has done traditionally has been essays, This time, it’s a
set of six pictures; each of these pictures captures what they call a Booth moment.
The whole idea is that a B-School can mean different things to different people. The
one thing I usually tell my students and applicants is that the reason the B-Schools
want to understand why you want to choose a particular school is because they want
to understand your goals. Think about this scenario. You’re walking down an orchard
and there are food bearing trees on both sides; you can pluck as many fruits as you
want provided you know what you’re going to make at the end of the journey. If you
want to make a fruit salad, you need to know what fruits you need to pick.
A lot of times people don’t know what they want to do at the end of two years. The
B-School experience can be overwhelming because there is so much to do. For
example, if you go to the library, every single issue of Harvard Business Review since
it started would be available to you. There are so many business plan competitions,
There are so many great professors coming and teaching you these great courses
that really get you excited; the ones that give you goosebumps and make you think,
“Wow! I really want to learn this!”. However, if you don’t have a goal, you could get
lost, so Booth is really trying to see what it is that you hope to get from the Booth
MBA experience.
Let’s do it! I will go through all the six visuals, and give you a background of what
you could express for each of the visuals.
2016-2017 U. Chicago Booth Essay Topics:
Essay:
View this collection of shared Booth moments. Choose the moment that best
resonates with you and tells us why.
that you think strategically about how to best allocate the space.
Presentation/Essay Guidelines:
Choose the format that works for you. Want to illustrate your response visually?
Submit a slide presentation. Like to express yourself with words? Write a traditional
essay. Use the format that you feel best captures your response, the Admissions
Committee has no preference.
Determine your own length. There is no prescribed minimum or maximum length.

We trust that you will use your best judgment in determining how long your
submission should be, but we recommend that you think strategically about how to
best allocate the space.
Technical Guidelines:
File Size: Maximum file size is 16 MB.
Accepted Upload Formats: Acceptable formats are PDF, Word, and PowerPoint. We
strongly recommend converting your piece to a PDF file prior to submitting.
Multimedia Restrictions: We will be viewing your submission electronically and in full

color, but all submissions will be converted to PDF files, so animation, video, music, etc.
will not translate over.
Six visuals
Visual 1 – Person walking down an art gallery.
The first visual you see here is a person walking down an art gallery. The key is given:
one of the nearly 500 conceptually challenging pieces which inspire conversation and
push people to think differently.
The whole idea is not about the art but looking at the piece of art from a broader
perspective. How do we interpret
Art? We interpret it in different ways. If you are a person who likes to think differently,
Chicago Booth gives you an opportunity to think differently. That should be your
theme. If this painting resonates with you, you need to talk about something in your
background where you were inspired to think differently, and then say what you did
in that situation.
Visual 2
Let’s take the second one, two Boothies (that’s what they call the graduates of the
Booth School) remain grounded even when standing 1353 feet above the city streets
of Chicago. This one is talking about how you essentially are a team player. If you feel
that this resonates with you, you could take this topic.
For example, Many of us have gone through the motion where we have succeeded
because of someone else. You can probably pick stories that say how you succeeded
because of somebody else, or you have been part of someone else’s success, and how
sharing the bonhomie is what really makes you tick.
Visual 3
This visual is about a fun-filled Spring Break in Central America, where you see a
group of Boothies with sharks. The whole idea is whether you are a person who does
not see an MBA as purely an educational journey but rather a journey to do things
that you have perhaps never done before, and perhaps will not get the opportunity to
do when you go back to your corporate life after you finish your MBA program.
Visual 4
This visual talks about diversity. It is about a student snapping a photo of friends at a
school-wide celebration organized by multiple student groups in recognition of the
support and diversity within the Booth community. If you look at it in terms of Indian,
or even an Asian perspective, there are a lot of opportunities where people have seen
diversity. emember diversity could mean anything: it could be economic diversity,
social diversity, or it could be just diversity of thoughts. Again the whole idea here is
you’re looking at MBA as a whole journey to actually explore diversity. When you’re
confronted with different thoughts, different viewpoints, is when we are really
challenged, and we grow.
Visual 5
This is a visual of a student taking notes during an afternoon class. The unique
perspectives and individual insights of each student play a vital role in Booth’s
classroom experience.
Let’s be honest, though there is a lot of fun and frolic, one of the reasons you want an
MBA is for the in-depth knowledge that they wish to gain. After working for a few
years, you’ve now realized what you don’t know. You now want to learn more. How
will the Booth experience help you realize this goal? That is the way this visual
resonates with you.
Visual 6
This is an image of the central pulse of Booth, which is the Harper Center, the atrium
where “it all” happens. This is the place where lasting friendships form, ideas take
place, and Booth comes to life! In other words, you’re talking about the Booth
network; what does the brand equity of Chicago Booth mean to you. Is that why
you’re pursuing an MBA? To just have access to this enormous network of highly
talented and gifted people.
Whatever the case be, there is nothing like one image is better than the other. I have
had students come and ask me, “which one do you think is the one that will increase
my chances?” It doesn’t work that way. You need to pick one that really resonates
with you because not just in the essay but also in the interview, you need to be
talking, and you need to have one consistent image of you coming across, and that
will happen only when you’re true to yourself.
It doesn’t matter which one you pick. How do you express yourself? Do you want to
write an essay? Sure? Do you want to create a slide show? Sure. If you want to create
just a graphic? That is also fine. We had one student, who for something similar to
this, created a collage of all his life moments. He used text and arrows to show each
of his life moments, and how that defined who he was.
There was another student who created a graph which goes almost like a stock
exchange graph, and he had pointed to the high point in his life, and when the arrow
went down, he said it represented that he flunked in his fourth year, so his stock price
went down.
You need to express yourself freely. You need to be creative but at the same time
don’t worry too much. People are worried whether text would work, or whether they
should create a presentation. Pick the medium that you’re comfortable with. Booth
also stipulates that your file can be a maximum of 16 MB, so make sure that you
convert it into pdf.
If you feel that you need to have a discussion with someone, or if you want to have a
brainstorming session on what to write and how to write, we at CrackVerbal would be
glad to help you.
Cambridge University – Judge Business School Essay Analysis
2017 – 2018
Welcome to this Essay Analysis in which we’ll discuss the Judge Business School at
Cambridge, UK. If you’re applying to Judge this year, 2017-18, you have come to the
right place.
Let’s first look at the program. The first thing that sets Cambridge and Judge apart is
that though the B-School is relatively new, have this connection to this university, it’s
a tradition! Cambridge is over 800 years old. Just imagine! That’s a lot of history. This
is where Sir Isaac Newton actually held Chair. This is the place where the whole
university system started. These are things that very few schools can boast of!
The second aspect is, If you’re looking for a one year program then yes, Judge has
a great one year program. There are very few one-year programs. Typically, you have
two-year programs but the UK usually has a one year program, and of course,
Cambridge is one of the best. A one year program entails accelerated learning, so if
your opportunity cost is high, this might be the place for you.
The third thing is the fact that you’re in an English speaking country if you’ve decided
to go to the UK. The economy and Brexit apart, it’s an English speaking country, and
it is culturally very similar. From an Indian perspective it makes a lot of sense to go to
UK rather than to a place like France and Spain where language can be a huge
constraint for you. Also, back home in India, and in many the other Asian countries,
Cambridge has a brand value. You’re going to be Cambridge educated for rest of your
life.
The last aspect, about the program itself is their curriculum. If you look at the
website, they talk about their unique curriculum where they say it’s not just going to
be about learning within the classroom but also through all the other activities that
you do outside the class, be it Business Plan competitions , conferences that you will
attend, or exchange programs, and so on. In fact, this is true for typical European
MBA programs as opposed to US MBA programs. US MBAs have a very quantitative
rigour, while in a European MBA, UK MBA, it’s a lot about the experience and the
ideas to transform you in that one year.
2017-2018 Cambridge Judge MBA Deadlines
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5
Application Deadline: May 4, 2018
2017-2018 Cambridge/Judge Essay Questions
There are three main essays that the Cambridge MBA application
requires.
Essay 1: Please provide a personal statement.

This is similar to a Statement of Purpose, which you may have heard of when you
were in college. It must not exceed 500 words, and must address the following
questions:
• What are your short term and long term career objectives and what
skills/characteristics do you already have that will help you achieve them?
• What actions will you take before and during the MBA to contribute to your career
outcome?
• If you are unsure of your post-MBA career path, how will the MBA equip you for the
future?
Essay 2: What did you learn from your most spectacular failure? (up to 200 words)
Essay 3: Describe a situation where you had to work jointly with others to achieve a
common goal. What did you learn from the experience? (up to 200 words)
Essay 1
Personal Statement
This is similar to a Statement of Purpose, which you may have heard of when you were
in college. Let’s look at each of the questions.
What are your short term and long term career objectives and what
skills/characteristics do you already have that will help you achieve them?
What is the function, what industry, what geography, and what are the potential
employers and f titles you can potentially get? You must be very specific, especially for
the short term goal. For the long term goal, maybe it’s okay if you’re not so specific;
you can talk about personal aspirations, something that is more of a passion. You have
a little leeway to talk about other things. However, whatever you say, it has to be
aligned with what you have done. Which is why the second part asks “ What
skills/characteristics do you already have that will help you achieve them?” This tells
them that you’re the best equipped to reach those goals. So it’s very important for you
to make that connect.
What actions will you take before and during the MBA to contribute to your career
outcome?
Here, they ask for very specific things that you’re going to be doing. So again here,
there are looking at whether you have the required focus. Have you already planned
on what you’re going to be doing in Cambridge? Maybe you want to work in Europe, in
which case you’re probably learning another language. One of our students who went
to Cambridge actually learned German. In India, we have Max Mueller Bhavan; he
learned German from there. The whole idea was to say that he was already equipping
himself for a career in the UK.
Another student who wanted to get into the financial world, and had a CA ICWA
finance background, ended up taking a CFA. He took CFA level 1 and 2. Why? Because
you’re already equipping, you’re not putting everything on an MBA degree and saying
that you’re banking on this MBA degree to get a job. This is before you get an MBA.
Then, within the MBA program, what is it that you would like to do at Judge. There is a
plethora of options; what is it that you’re specifically looking at doing? Articulate this
well.
If you are unsure of your post-MBA career path, how will the MBA equip you for the
future?
In this case, my suggestion would be to not tread the unsure path. You need to tell
them you’re very sure about this but you could possibly talk about a Plan B. Plan A
could be to get into consulting, but your Plan B could be to get into operations within
a company. The reason behind providing Plan B is to make the school comfortable
that this is a person who knows that sometimes the best of our plans don’t work out
and we need to have a back-up in place. They wouldn’t want someone coming and
saying, “I am putting all my eggs in this one basket called Cambridge MBA.”
How would you structure these 500 words?
My suggestion would be to first talk about your background. Who are you? Where is
it that you come from? What do you possess? Based on this, where do you want to
go? What are your short term and long term ambitions? Then talk about what you
are going to do to bridge the gap. This could beat the MBA program or outside of it.
So I would probably put around 150 words for each of the three parts and then 50
words for the starting and the finishing. Make sure that you have a strong start, and a
strong finish. All put together, this essay should be about 500 words. Again, this is a
very classic career goals essay.
Essay 2
What did you learn from your most spectacular failure? (up to 200 words)
The term “spectacular failure’, if you search for it, you realize it’s a management term
that is sometimes used to say, “it’s a huge failure but it’s a failure from which I
learned something.” I have heard that in Australia they have elite fighter pilots, and
one of the questions that they ask them is “Have you failed at any point of your life?”
and if they have not failed, they are actually NOT considered for the program. Guess
why? Because they feel that if they have not handled failure, they will not know how
to handle failure in the future. It is not a shame to admit failure. A lot of us wonder
how we can tell someone that we failed. Well, trust me! Everyone fails in their life at
some point or the other.
What is important here?
How did you bounce back? What did you learn? How does that make you a better
person? How are you able to apply this learning to all your future endeavors ? That is
what they are looking at! Don’t worry! Whatever your failure, don’t try to mask a
success by talking about failures. Some of the mistakes students make is that they
start writing “Oh, my project was in the doldrums. We had this….and we’ve been
making losses…but…” and they eventually talk about how they eventually became
successful. Don’t do that. If it’s a failure, just say you cut your losses and moved
on.You could pick a personal or professional incident; it could be something you
learned from a relationship, or maybe something that you learned at work. Just
describe the failure, and what you learnt.
Essay 3
Describe a situation where you had to work jointly with others to achieve a
common goal. What did you learn from the experience? (up to 200 words)
A lot of your MBA experiences is going to be about teamwork. Most of the events,
conferences and competitions are all student run. Hence, they are looking for
someone who can gel well with others. Here, I would probably first talk about the
differences, the diversities in the team. It is very easy to gel well with people who
have very similar experiences but if you worked in a team where people have
different backgrounds, different experiences, different exposure, you need to say
how you were able to build a consensus. The idea is not to say that you wielded a
stick and told them that this was how you wanted it, but say whether you were you
willing to let go of something, did you negotiate on something. So they would like to
know more about this.After you have done this, say how you became a better person
as result of that. How do you take this forward?.
I will give you an example of what someone had written about team-work. He said
“One of my biggest problems was dealing with another team member. The problem
was that whenever I asked him for anything, he would always say he couldn’t do it,
and he would never go out of his way to help me. He is a negative guy.” Then he
wrote that was one instance when the team member actually came to him and said
“Hey, you know, I feel that you’re struggling at this point. Would you like me to help
you?” and he helped him in that particular case. The writer of the essay then asked
the team member why he always said he wouldn’t do something when he was clearly
helping now. The team member answered, “Whenever I help someone, I would like
to do a 100%. I don’t want to extend my help and then make you feel that I am here
and I am not able to work on my promise.” That is the mindset he got to know. It’s
always about learning something. That’s the whole idea behind an MBA experience.
That’s what this essay is about.
So this is pretty much what we have for the Cambridge MBA Program. If you’re
looking at applying to Judge we would love to see if we can work together on it. Why
don’t you just go ahead, and click on this link below!
Tuck School of Business Essay Analysis 2017 – 2018
Welcome to this Essay Analysis in which we will look at the Tuck MBA program at
Dartmouth, walk through the essays, and discuss what is unique about the program.
Firstly, Dartmouth is one of the Ivy League schools in the US. So Tuck has rich
reputation in that sense, but if you ask what is really unique about the program, it is
the community spirit that you see in Tuck. It’s a small class, and it is not next to a large
city. In that sense, it’s “tucked” away. Due to this bonding you have in two years, you
form a deeper network with the alum, and your classmates. That can be seen as an
advantage.
In the US, the culture of colleges plays a huge role. If you’re okay being in a big city,
maybe Columbia is what you should be looking at, but if you would like the warmth,
the small class size and the bonding, Tuck is the place you should be. This should
reflect in your application essay where you say why this particular style resonates best
with you.
Another important factor is that they don’t have a Ph.D. program so the entire focus in
on the MBA program. All the professors are 100% devoted to taking classes for the
MBA program.
If you look at the Tuck program, they speak about General Management. It’s known for
leadership and general management. That’s a very strong theme that comes with the
program and if you see “The Center for Leadership” at Tuck, you will see that they
have various concentrations where the largest department by far is Strategy and
Management. Therefore, if you’re looking at general management, and developing
your leadership skills, Tuck should be the place for you.
Dartmouth / Tuck MBA Deadlines 2017-2018
Early Action Round

Applications Due: October 4, 2017
Applicant-initiated Interview Complete: October 31, 2017
Admissions Decision: December 15, 2017
November Round
Applications Due: November 1, 2017
Applicant-initiated Interview Complete: November 10, 2017
Admissions Decision: February 9, 2018
January Round
Applications Due: January 3, 2018
Applicant-initiated Interview Complete: January 31, 2018
Admissions Decision: March 10, 2018
April Round
Applications Due: April 4, 2018
Applicant-initiated Interview Complete: April 4, 2018
Admissions Decision: May 11, 2018
First Round Consortium

Applications Due: October 15, 2017
Applicant-initiated Interview Complete: October 31, 2017
Admissions Decision: December 15, 2017
Second Round Consortium

Applications Due: January 5, 2018
Applicant-initiated Interview Complete: January 31, 2018
Admissions Decision: May 9, 2018
Let’s look at the application deadlines. You have the early action round which is
similar to Duke. If you apply for an early action round, and you’re made an offer, it’s a
binding offer, which means that you will not apply to any other schools. You need to
be very clear whether Tuck is one of your top choices. If it is your top choice, please
apply to the early action round.
It’s either the early action round, the November intake, or the January intake. Do not
look at the April intake, especially if you’re an international applicant. Now, students
say “between early action round and the first round, am I at a disadvantage with the
first round becoming the second round?”. Not necessarily, but if Tuck is not your top
school of choice and you end up applying in the early action round, what may happen
is that you get an offer but you’re waiting for the other schools. You may not be able
to take up the offer. That’s why you have to be a little careful.
Tuck School Of Business MBA Essay Analysis 2017-2018
Essay 1
What are your short and long-term goals? Why is an MBA a critical next step toward
achieving those goals? Why are you interested in Tuck specifically? (500 words)
Three questions, 500 words. Here is how you break it down. First, you need to be
talking about your career so far. It’s not a rehash of your resume but a quick synopsis
of your career progression to date. You can tell them, “This is where I started…this
has been my journey…but at this juncture in my life… this is what I see ahead.”
Something you couldn’t have seen three years ago. What is the clarity you have about
your life and career? That becomes your short-term goal. Once you have your short-
term goal, you have to be specific about the function, industry, and geography. All of
it has to be very specific. One mistake that people make when writing the short-term
goal essay is that they are vague. Don’t be vague.
However, in the long term goals, you can be vague. When I say “vague”, I don’t mean
that you put some generic statement like, “I want to be an entrepreneur 20 years
down the line.” No! Five to ten years down the line is long enough, and you can say,
“five to ten years down the line, this is what I hope to do with my life.” If you want to
pursue entrepreneurship, you should be talking about the areas in which you’re going
to start your own venture. There is some leeway to be generic and at the same time,
you need to have something that ties your past experience, your MBA, and your
short-term goal into your long-term goal. That pretty much would be your second
paragraph. In the first paragraph, you write a synopsis of what you did, in the second
paragraph, your goals and in the third paragraph, you say that if you’re here and this
is your goal, this is your bridge. What is stopping you from getting there? That really
is the reason you want to do an MBA. You want to look at the specific thing that you
want to learn from the B-School. Is it knowledge? Is it different perspectives? Is it
brand equity and the network? Whatever your requirements are from an MBA
school, you list that in the third part.
In the final part, for each of the characteristics that you have mentioned you require
from a B-School, say how Tuck is uniquely positioned to meet those requirements. My
suggestion is take up the opportunity to connect with Tuck alum from the website;
they call them the Tuckies. Make sure that you connect with some Tuckies, people
from your background, and try to understand more about the school, try to
understand the culture and the community spirit at Tuck.
That pretty much is going to be your 500 words. You have four paragraphs, roughly
about 120 words for each of the paragraphs, and of course you can use your
judgment, maybe 80 words in one paragraph and 150 in another. That doesn’t matter.
According to me, 500 words is more than enough for you to articulate clearly. Just
one point here. For the question,“Why are you interested in Tuck specifically?”, please
refrain from making general statements. Don’t say something like “World-class
infrastructure” or ‘Globally renowned faculty”. Every top school has it, so you need be
very specific.
Essay 2
Tuck’s mission is to educate wise leaders to better the world of business. Wisdom
encompasses the essential aptitudes of confident humility, about what one does
and does not know; empathy, towards the diverse ideas and experiences of others;
and judgment, about when and how to take risks for the better.
With Tuck’s mission in mind, and with a focus on confident humility, tell us about a
time you:
received tough feedback,
experienced failure, or
disappointed yourself or others.
How did you respond, and what did you learn about yourself as a result? (500
words)
Now what this essay is really asking you is to help them understand you as a person.
In Australian Elite Corps, they have this as a question, “Have you experienced
failure?”, and if you respond with a “no”, you are not considered suitable. Why?
Because they feel that people who have gone through failure understand life better.
They know what it takes to bounce back. What this essay is really looking at is
sometime when you did something that you’re not proud of. It could be a failure.
Again, there is a trap over here, a lot of students make this mistake. They don’t really
reveal the failure, they don’t reveal when they disappointed others. They will say
something like, “Oh, this was a failure but eventually, it was a success”. No, it has to
be a failure! It has to be a point where you fell flat on your face, where there were no
options left. All you have to do is pick the broken pieces and move on. What is more
important is not what happened to you, instead, it is how your response was. Did it
really affect your sense of judgment? Maybe you stopped trusting your judgment,
and then it took some time for you to regain confidence. Perhaps you also realized
that sometimes it’s not possible for us to control the outcome, we can just control
the decision.
That’s probably the learning you had, or probably the learning that you had was that
it is important for you to trust others. Whatever the learning be, you need to make
sure that you devote a significant portion of this essay to that learning. It’s not about
the failure part. It’s about what you learned from it. How were you able to grow as a
person? It’s very important. Again 500 words, plenty of words for you talk about this
aspect.
Optional Essay
Please provide any additional insight or information that you have not
addressed elsewhere and may be helpful in reviewing your application
(e.g., unusual choice of evaluators, weaknesses in academic
performance, unexplained job gaps or changes, etc.). Complete this
question only if you feel your candidacy is not fully represented by this
application.
For optional essays, talk about either a gap in your education or employment, or say
something that really could not be said anywhere else. Something that you probably
planned to do and that might affect your MBA candidature, but don’t try to retrofit
stories that you picked to tell the Admission Committee that you were not able to tell
anywhere else. That’s not what optional essays are meant for, and in fact, you do a
bigger disservice to yourself by mentioning something you shouldn’t be talking
about.
That’s all we have for the Tuck MBA application process. If you’re applying to Tuck
this year, just go down and click the link below. We’ve had students who went to
Tuck so we understand the program well, and we would love to share our knowledge
with you. We could work together.
UCLA Anderson School Of Management Essay Analysis 2017-
2018
In this Essay Analysis, we will discuss what you need to do if you are applying to the
Anderson School of Business at UCLA for their MBA program. If you look at the UCLA
Anderson Program, one thing that strongly resonates with the students is the
location. As they say about the restaurant business; the same thing goes for MBA
schools as well, location location location. You are talking about LA, which is pretty
much California. In terms of the economy, and more than the economy, when
compared to most other states in the US, California comes close to India. Not only in
terms of the weather, but also with the people being inclusive. You will never feel out
of place when you go to a place like LA because it is very diverse.
Apart from the location, if you look at the program, the strength is relatively small
with 360 students, and the faculty to student ratio is very low. This gives you more of
an intimate feel as opposed to what you would find in larger schools.
The other important factor to look into is the career orientation at UCLA. The UCLA
program is deeply focused on preparing students for their desired careers. You will
see that in terms of the first year course, the way it is arranged, the 20-week
experiential project, all of this is aligned to be more career-focused. This is very
important to help you get a job, especially when you are going on an F1 (Student)
visa.
The last part is the entrepreneurial focus; Anderson has a huge network of
entrepreneurs, and the mindset of the B-School is to participate in -School
competitions and the start-up movement. If you’re interested in entertainment and
media, LA is the place to be, and Anderson itself focuses highly on media and
entertainment.
2017-2018 UCLA Anderson Deadlines
Round 1
Deadline: Oct. 6, 2017
Decision Release Date: Dec. 15, 2017
Round 2
Deadline: Jan. 5, 2018
Decision Release Date: March 29, 2018
Round 3
Deadline: April 12, 2018
Decision Release Date: May 24, 2018
Again, There are a lot of applicants from India. If you ask which three schools in the
US receive the maximum applications from Indians, UCLA is one of them. A lot of
people from the tech sector apply to the US, and most of them have similar stories.
So it’s very important that you use the essay to differentiate yourself. 750 words is a
lot of space, and there is a lot of scope.
UCLA Anderson Essay Question 2017-2018
First-Time Applicants (Required Essay):
We believe that the best results are achieved when you share success, think
fearlessly and drive change. With this in mind, what are your goals at UCLA
Anderson and in your short-term and long-term career? (750 words maximum)
Remember, “best results are achieved when you“
• Success
• Think fearlessly
• Drive change
Now, why are these three things important? you look at the Anderson website, you
can find that this is the motto, the mantra that they have as a school. They are just
trying to see if students applying to the B-School resonate with this mantra. You
have 750 words – hence, there are very clearly, three parts to this essay. You can
write 250 words for each part.
In the first part, you have to talk about your journey. What is it that you have done
so far in your life? Please do not regurgitate your resume; that’s not the intent.
They already have your resume and application with them. In about 250 to 300
words, try to tell your story. Write not just your story, but your successes and
failures too. Write on how you these three qualities resonate with you, and how
you have been able to taste them. Instead of just saying that these three qualities
perfectly resonate with you, say why they resonate with you. You need to describe
the “why”. It’s very important for you to spend a good 250 to 300 words talking
about your journey, talking about why these three factors have been instrumental
in your life.
Now for the second part: you have done so much in your life. At this career
juncture, what is it that you see when you look forward? What is that post you
aspire for? That position you look forward to? What is the industry that you want
to work in, and where do you see yourself? It’s very important that your short term
goal is crisp. You need to communicate the function, industry, the geography, the
kind of companies you are going to look for, and the possible titles. It’s a lot of R&D
on your part. You need to have a very fixed short time goal.
However, you can be a little lenient in your long term goal. You can be a little flexible.
Don’t be very vague, for example, don’t just say you want to be an entrepreneur, and
leave it like that. It should be something more finite but you can keep your long term
slightly more relaxed. Make it five to ten years. Nobody is looking at 20 years, and
you can keep your short term as two to three years, which is immediately after you
graduate. When you’ve finished articulating your long term and short term goals, you
can start with the third part of your essay.
The third part should be about what you feel you require in these roles that you do
not possess currently, and that you will get from the UCLA/Anderson experience. This
now becomes the delta; the first part is about where you are, the second part is
about where you want to go, and the third part is the bridge because it is how
Anderson is going to help you get where you want to be. One thing I always say is
that whenever a school asks you “why this school?”, do not make generic
statements. Students typically say, “It’s LA”, and “It’s California”, or they write about
the school infrastructure, which the school already knows! How does it matter to
you?. You need to tell them how these facts about the Anderson School will benefit
you.
You need to also add how you can contribute to the UCLA Anderson experience. You
talk about what you can get, and about what you can give.
With 750 words, although you have space to be a little creative, once you start
writing, you could realize that 750 words can get tight, especially when you have just
one essay.
If you would like CrackVerbal to help you in any way in your MBA journey, please go
ahead, and let us know in the link below.
Optional Essay:
The following essay is optional. No preference is given in the evaluation process to

applicants who submit an optional essay. Please note that we only accept written
essays.
Are there any extenuating circumstances in your profile about which the
Admissions Committee should be aware? Please use your best judgment.
(250 words maximum)
Re-Applicant Essay:
Reapplicants who applied for the MBA program starting in 2016 or 2017 are required
to complete the following essay:
Please describe your career progress since you last applied and ways in which you
have enhanced your candidacy. Include updates on short-term and long-term career
goals, as well as your continued interest in UCLA Anderson. (750 words maximum)
Good luck!
USC Marshall School of Business Essay Analysis 2017 – 2018
Welcome to this Essay Analysis in which we will discuss the USC Marshall MBA
program. They have two programs, the one-year IBEAR program, and the two year
program. The former is a one-year accelerated international MBA for mid-career
professionals. The average age of students doing this program is 33; it’s meant for
people who want a quick accelerated one year program.
However, the main program we’re looking at is the two-year degree, which is their
flagship program. A couple of things about the USC Marshall program that you need to
know up-front if you’re applying this year. The first is that Marshall has a focus on
global outlook. They use their location on the Pacific rim. They have the “Pacific RIm
Education” program, which is their prime program, and requires international travel of
all students. This is something that differentiates it from other schools.
Apart from the global perspective, because it’s in California, the location makes a huge
difference. Southern California has great weather. It is as India as you can get in terms
of weather, culture, and people. It’s one of the best places to be in the US. Because of
the location, you have a tech focus, and an entrepreneurial focus. You find a lot of tech
companies in the LA area, in Southern California. There are a lot of opportunities to
work for exciting new start-ups. I think that’s a huge draw for the USC Marshall
Program.
The third important factor is the emphasis on team-work. They believe that since
classes are often small, the student body as a whole allows each student to receive a
great deal of individual attention. The students participate in a lot of programs that are
conducted on campus. A student has to work with other students, so teamwork is a
huge focus at USC Marshall.
2017-2018 USC Marshall MBA Deadlines
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Decision Notification: June 15, 2018
Round 5
Rolling Admissions*
2017-2018 USC Marshall Essay Questions
Essay 1
What is your specific, immediate short-term career goal upon completion of your
MBA? Please include an intended position, function, and industry in your response.
(100 words)
With 100 words, you don’t have a lot of leeway to talk about things. If you remember,
in the usual career goals essays, we talk about how you go from where you are and
how an MBA will help you. No such options here. We have to be very specific. What
do you want to do after your MBA? Tell them the role, and give an example of the
kind of companies you want to work for. “I want to work for the Retail Leadership
Program at Amazon.” Maybe that’s your dream. You probably want to talk about what
you would do in that role. You have 100 words so you can probably have a little
leeway to explain in a sentence, “In such a role I would be doing….”
Remember that you have 100 words; keep it tight and steer clear of things that are
generic. Don’t say something like, “I want to be in a general management position” or
“I want to be in strategic position.” Be very clear. “Associate Consultant at McKinsey
working in their LA office” – you have to very specific. Now that was the easy part. If
you know what to do, writing it is easy. (100 words)
Essay 2
Please respond to ONLY ONE of the following essay topics. (500 words)
1. Please describe the contributions you expect to make to your classmates outside of
the classroom during your time at USC.
2. You have been asked to design a course to be taught at the Marshall School of
Business. Please provide a title and description for the course.
3. What has been the most interesting day or moment in your life and why?
4. You have been hired by the Marshall MBA Admissions Committee to create an essay
question for next year’s application. Please state the question and answer it.
Option 1#
A B-School experience is not so much about what you learn in the classroom. It’s a lot
about what you learn outside the classroom. What we are really looking at is, “what is
it that you would do with your classmates?” You can talk about extracurricular
activities. If you have a passion, let’s say, cycling, you need to say how you will bring
that passion to Southern California, to the USC campus. Talk about how you would
encourage your classmates to follow your passion and help them perhaps take their
mind off studies. You can also talk about anything that differentiates you. I would
suggest that you pick two or three traits. Although it is 500 words, you need to flesh
out the details. You need to say what it is that you have done, and then you need to
talk about how you will contribute. It’s going to take 100 to 150 words. You could
probably talk about three specific things that you can contribute. Try to steer clear of
professional things.
Option 2#
Not just the title and the description, but I am assuming you would want to say why
you want to pick the course. Why do you think it’s important? First, please make sure
that it’s not the course that is already offered by the school.
I am going to give you a very general guideline of what to write. Talk about something
which is futuristic. Talk about something that would probably be required in this
changing world. For example; “How to manage millennials” Now, if you don’t know
what a millennial is, go ahead and Google it. Managers are getting worried about how
they can manage these guys who grew up in the last 20 years with the internet on
their fingertips. Maybe you would want to talk about something futuristic like that.
Options 3#
You need to say what is the most interesting day was, but more importantly, you need
to say why. For example, a student once wrote, not for this essay, but for something
similar, “My most important day was the day I got married, not so much for the fact
that I got married.” It’s a very Indian custom that the parents of both the boy and the
girl need to meet and agree. In this student’s case, something went wrong. The
parents were not on talking terms, and the boy and girl decided to get married with
the help of their friends. He went and negotiated with the girl’s father and with his
own parents, and somehow got them all together.
He said, “More than me getting married, my family is very important to me,and that is
why this day is important.” Now, the idea is not to just talk about the event. That
would be shallow. You need to say why it’s so important. In this case, his family was
important and he also said, “This gave me the confidence that I have this inner
strength. “When the times are weak and dark, I am able to take this inner strength,
and push myself to achieve what I want to do”. This should be something else that
they can know about you.
Option 4#
Here is what I would do. I would pick this if none of the first three resonates with me.
Let’s say there is no specific day in my life I can remember. It happens, right? If you
don’t have anything to say, leave it. Let’s look at , Option 2#, the contributions. I really
don’t have three contributions that I can make. You leave that one too, and let us say
there is no specific course that comes to my mind. What else do you think that
Marshall would like to know about me?
What you can do is, you could spin it a little bit and could talk a little about why it is
important for you and Marshall. For example, you could say “One essay that I would
like Marshall to talk about is, “Your biggest failure, the most spectacular failure. The
reason I would like to know this is because in my life, I learned from my failures.” You
can go ahead and talk about your failures and what you have learned. You can also say
“More than the successes in life, it is the failures that teach people things that make
them who they are.”
That could be an interesting spin of you putting your story while underscoring the fact
that this is an important aspect that you wish to see in your classmates.
Optional Essay
Please provide any additional information that will enhance our understanding of your
candidacy for the program. (250 words)
As always, you can talk about your educational gaps, experience gaps, or something
that you think is necessary for the admission committee to know and they would not
know through the application form. It could be stuff that you plan to do in the future,
let’s say you plan to take a course in 2018.
What you should not do is retrofit stories that could not find their way elsewhere.
Don’t do that.
I hope this Essay Analysis was useful. I wish you all the best for your application to the
USC Marshall Program. I know it’s a little tough; I know it’s the first time you are
probably writing essays. If you think there is any way in which we could work together,
just click the link below, and we could get in touch.
University Of Michigan’s Ross School Of Business Essay Analysis
2017 – 2018
Welcome to this Essay Analysis in which I will discuss the Ross MBA program at the
University of Michigan. If you’re looking at applying to Ross this year, 2017-2018, you
have come to the right place. In this Essay Analysis, i will analyze the MBA application
essays, which by the way, if you haven’t noticed, has changed.
Firstly, let’s look at the program. Based on our discussions with students who went to
Ross, we understand that a specialty at Ross is their MAP ( Multidisciplinary Action
Project). With MAP, what happens is that you actually do consulting as part of a team.
This is real field work; you’re solving real problems. You won’t be just looking at the
MBA as a way to gain knowledge but also to actually apply the knowledge you’ve
gained. I recommend that you to go to their website, and read more about MAP.
The University of Michigan is one of the largest public universities You have around
40,000+ students, undergraduates and postgraduates from various disciplines. You
will get access to that network, to various departments, and you can take electives
from some other departments. That’s a huge advantage as opposed to many MBA
schools that are standalone business schools.
The third important factor is the focus on operations and manufacturing. You have the
Tauber Institute of Global Operations. If you’re looking for operations, you’re
definitely in the right place. Although Detroit isn’t doing well in terms of being a
manufacturing hub, in terms of operations, logistics, and supply chain, Ross is the
place to be. It is definitely one of the top schools when it comes to specialization in
operations.
Michigan / Ross MBA Deadlines for 2017-2018
Round 1
Application Due: October 2, 2017
Decision Released: December 15, 2017
Round 2
Application Due: January 2, 2018
Decision Released: March 15, 2018
Round 3
Application Due: March 19, 2018
Decision Released: May 11, 2018
Ross School Of Business MBA Essay Analysis 2017-2018
Short Answer Questions
GROUP 1
• I want people to know that I:

• I turned an idea into action when I:
• I made a difference when I:
GROUP 2
• I showed my resilience when I:

• I was humbled when:
• I am out of my comfort zone when:
GROUP 3
• I was aware that I am different when:
• I find it challenging when people:
• A valuable thing I have taught someone:
In each of these groups, you have to pick one prompt and write your answer in less
than 100 words. Now, if you have started writing application essays, you know that
fewer than 100 words can actually be very, very tough. As Mark Twain said once, “If I
had more time I would have written you a shorter letter.” Writing fewer words is a lot
harder than writing more.
Let’s look at each of these groups and analyze them.

GROUP 1

So now you need to complete the prompt. If you look at all of these prompts, it’s
about you they want to know. Is any advantage of picking one response over the
other? Absolutely not! Don’t even try to game this by saying “this response is better
than the other.” This is going to completely be your personal choice.

Well, I don’t know when I made a difference. Maybe I haven’t thought about it, so I
don’t have to pick that. I am just giving an example here. If you have no idea about it,
you don’t have to pick it.

I
have a lot of ideas, but have I really turned them into actions? Maybe yes? Or Maybe
not? Ican’t think of many

Now I would like to say something about myself, right? This is probably easy, and
there is something that i really want to say. I would probably pick this prompt. Now,
Icould use this same justification for the second or third prompt. I am not saying the
first is better than the others but that’s really the thinking process you need to have.
What is unique to you? What is personal to you? Which of the following prompts best
resonates with you? That’s what you need to look at.
GROUP 2
• I showed my resilience when:
Tell them something that you bounced back from. Some failure that you faced. Some
dejection, some frustration. Tell them how you were able to work on it.
• I was humbled when:
When I got to know something that is larger than me.
• I am out of my comfort zone when:
Tell them something that they would want to know about you as a person. With 100
words as the limit, you can write only three or four sentences, so talk about the
“What” and don’t forget to spend time explaining the “Why”. People do not
understand just the “What” so you need to tell them “Why”.
For example, “I was in my comfort zone when…My manager assigned me to lead a

team of people who came from diverse backgrounds with different function
expertise and I had to show them the path to what was really required in this
project.” Well, great! You know what? I didn’t learn anything about you. You need to
tell me why it was a challenge. That is the point I am interested to know about. So
what should you do? You need to keep it simple and say “When I was asked to lead a
multi disciplinary project with people from various geographies because I had only
dealt with people who think in a similar manner as I, and I had to put myself in other
people’s shoes. I had to show empathy. The moment you start speaking more about
you, the Admissions Committee comes to know who you really are.
GROUP 3
• I was aware that I am different when:
What makes you different ? It could be anything. It could be your way of thinking or
maybe it’s something else. What is it that makes you different? Tell them.
• I find it challenging when people:
What is it that people do that you find yourself being challenged?
• A valuable thing I have taught someone:
As I said, more than the story, focus on the “Why”. In 100 words, you can probably
devote 20 words to the ‘What” and the remaining 70 to 80 words can be devoted to
the “Why”. You can focus on the “Why” more, so that they get to know about you.
When they read it , it must make them say “This is the person I would like to meet”.
Career Goal Essay
Please share your short-term and long-term career goals. What skills/strengths do
you have that will be relevant to your career goals? How will Ross prepare you for
your goals? (300 words)
300 words can be challenging because there is lot to cover over here. This is how I
would structure this essay.
First, talk about your career so far.Give a quick synopsis. Give them a summary and
don’t tell them too much.but show them progression.
“This how I was when I graduated, this is who I am today.”
Next, tell them what you see for yourself. What are your short term goals? Talk
about your function, industry, geography, companies you would like to work for, job
functions you would have in these companies. Whatever it is, be very specific when
it comes to short term goals. The huge mistake that people make is that they keep it
very general. They say, “I want to get into a general management function. I want to
be in a strategic role in a company.” No. You need to be more specific in what you
say.
You do have some leeway when you talk about your long term goals. You can afford
to say, “This is what I plan to do. This is what I intend to do.” You have a lot of leeway
here because long term goal is 5 to 10 years. There is a little room for you to be
creative here. However, you still need to have something that ties back to your
education, experience, MBA, short term goals and all of it in your long term goals. So
don’t make a blanket statement like, “ I want to be an entrepreneur.”, or something
crazy like, “I want to save the world”, or “I want to save whales.” Whatever you say, it
should make sense, so be carefull in what you say. It cannot be a flight of fancy.
Then comes the third part. How are you going to bridge the gap ? This is where you
are, and this is what you need to do. What is the delta? What is the bridge? The
bridge has to be the MBA. Tell them what it is that you need in order to bridge the
gap. Do you need knowledge ? Do you need to be a different person? Does your
perspective have to undergo a change? Do you need the network ? Do you need the
brand equity of the school Tell them all of your requirements.You need to tell them
specifically hat in the Ross program will help you address this delta.
So that becomes your third part. Overall, there are three parts.
1. Your journey so far

2. Short term and long term goals
3. How an Ross MBA can help you in this goal.
For the first part, you can look at 60 to 70 words, for the second part, you can utilize
another 120 words. With this, you’re left with 100 words for the third part. 300
words can be a little tight. So it’s important that you work this well. Work on the
language to cut down the extra words so you can get your message out in 300 words.
Optional Essay
Talk about gaps in your employment, talk about gaps in your education and you can
also talk about something like,a low GMAT score. Something that you think they
should know. Don’t try to retrofit a story just because you’re not able to place it
elsewhere. You do yourself a big disservice. Don’t say things that they don’t need to
know. That’s the thumb rule i have for all the optional essays.
So yeah, we have covered a lot for the Ross MBA Program. If you’re applying to Ross,
we can help you; we’ve had many students who applied to Ross in the previous
years. We would like to see if we could work together. Please go ahead and click the
link below, and drop in your comments. I will be more than happy to respond to each
one them personally.
Tepper School Of Business Essay Analysis 2017 – 2018
Applying to Tepper School of Business as an Indian applicant
If you’re looking to apply for an MBA program at Tepper School of Business, Carnegie
Mellon University, you’re in the right place.
In this Essay Analysis, I am going to discuss the program, essay questions and how you
can frame your responses to those questions.
Tepper is one of the top schools where most of the Indians apply. When I say Indians,
I am talking about the technology folks!
If you’re a technology geek and you’re looking at Tepper, I have good news and bad
news for you.
The good news is that you have come to the right place; we can help you! Carnegie
Mellon has always been on the leading edge of technology. The CMU Tepper MBA
program itself is well known for its management science education. It has very good
placements for technology professionals.
The bad news is that there are so many people from Indian IT applying for this
program; you need to make sure that your application is kind of different. The GMAT
scores have been shooting through the roof, so you need to have an above average
GMAT score when applying to Tepper.
2017-2018 CMU Tepper MBA Deadlines
The four stages of applications, referred to as rounds, are as follows:
:
Round 1
Application deadline: October 4, 2017

Decision notification: December 13, 2017
First Deposit and Re Vera Release: February 15, 2018
Second Deposit: May 6, 2018
Round 2

Decision notification: March 14, 2018
First Deposit and Re Vera Release: April 16, 2018
Second Deposit: May 6, 2018
Round 3
Application deadline: March 9, 2018

Decision notification: May 9, 2018
Deposit Deadline and Re Vera Release: May 21, 2018
Round 4 (For part-time only)

Decision notification: May 23, 2018
Deposit Deadline: May 30, 2018
As an international applicant from India, don’t even think of R3 because you need to
keep some buffer time for the processing of your visa, and to get your MBA funds
sanctioned.
Let’s dig into the actual essays you need to write for Tepper.
Required Essay 1:
Imagine that you meet up with a member of the admission committee at an airport
while on a layover. You have an opportunity to make a memorable impression. Use
this essay to introduce yourself. Include any information that you believe is
important for the committee member to know about you both professionally and
personally. (Maximum 300-350 words, 12-point font, double-spaced)
This essay is not about your academics, profession, or any data point which is
already covered in your application. If you log in to the Tepper portal you will find
that the application form is extensive. There is a lot of information that is collected
about you.
This is what Tepper is trying to say they want to know about you. Make sure you tell
them the following:
1. Tell them why you are interesting

2. Tell them why they need to choose you
3. Tell them why they need to have you in their program for two years
Remember “memorable impression” is something that is unique. 300 – 350 words is

a huge constraint; you realize you hardly have two paragraphs before the essay is
over.
One thing you need to be aware of is, do not say something that most people would
say. To understand this better, let’s take an example of a person called Amit who is
applying to Tepper.
Amit has been working in technology for the last five years. He has scored 740 in his
GMAT. He has solved a fairly high number of complex problems for his clients.
Imagine that this is the guy you’re going to compete with.
Now, you decide what it is that you want to say about yourself.
Try to pick one theme.
For Example:
One of our students from CrackVerbal who applied to Tepper tackled this essay
saying he is a problem solver. He called himself a problem solver and defined
problem solving as ‘innovation with frugality’. He also said that there is a term for it
in India, “Jugaad”. He told them that right from his school to his college the problems
that really excited him were the problems that came with constraints. The problems
which made him say “I can do this but I cannot do that” or ” We have to solve this
but we do not have the bandwidth for it”.
He told them what he can do to solve a problem under these constraints. He realized
that a start up was the place for him, and not the large companies. He clearly
mentioned that this is who he is, and he cannot fit in large companies because this
problem solving with frugality comes only in an early stage startup.
The funny part is that he has worked in large companies. Working in large companies
told him what it is that he didn’t want to do.
Another student from our CrackVerbal wrote about her passion for teaching. She said
that at school she was the person who would go around helping friends the day
before an exam. She helped everyone around her who needed help in understanding
concepts. This continued even until college; in her dorm room, the entire class would
assemble the day before the exam, and she would teach them what they could
expect in the next day’s test.
She also told them how she took this teaching to her workplace. To her, teaching was
her way of giving back what she learned from her teachers. She never planned to
make a career as a teacher but did it out of sheer passion, and the joy it gave her. In
a way, she saw this as an opportunity to give back to society.
So, say something more about yourself which is not on your resume. You really need
to pick that one thing, that one adjective that defines you, and then blow it up. Make
sure that you put it in a way that is interesting.
They need to see your interesting part. Make them want to meet the problem solver,
the teacher – your interesting part.
A big mistake people do is that they write 100 things such as, I am dedicated, I am
hardworking, I am sincere, etc. You say ten things about yourself, and they will forget
about you. Tell them one thing, and make it memorable. This is what an elevator
pitch is about.
Optional Essay
Use this essay to convey important information that you may not have been able to
convey otherwise. This may include unexplained resume gaps, context for
recommender selection, etc.
If you are a re-applicant, explain how your candidacy has strengthened since your
last application.
There is no set word limit for this essay. The guidelines you need to follow for this
essay are:
Write something that they don’t know about you. It could be a gap in your career or
education, or it could also be something that you think is important for them to know.
I hope this Essay Analysis was helpful. We have worked with many students who have
gone to Tepper. We also understand this space well. If you feel we could help in
anyway, please click the link below.
University Of Oxford Said Business School Essay Analysis 2017 –
2018
Welcome to this Essay Analysis in which we’re going to discuss the Said MBA
program at Oxford. If you’re looking at applying to Said Business School, here are a
couple of things you need to know. Firstly, at this business school, similar to
Cambridge, you have this huge connection to the Oxford University system. In fact,
if you go to the Said Business School website, you will see a lot about Oxford and
you might ask, “why is there such a big deal about Oxford?” It’s because you’re not
just looking at the business school which is relatively new but are also getting
access to a university that is 700-800 years old. In fact, one of the students who had
gone to Oxford said, “One of the first things you do when you join the college, is go
on a parade where you walk through the streets of Oxford, wearing black robes and
hats, and eventually go to the amphitheatre and the chancellor of Oxford actually
addresses the students, believe it or not, in Latin. There is a lot of tradition, a lot of
pride. You are Oxford educated! Nobody is going to say what you did there but it’s
the university with brand equity.
Second, it’s a great one-year program. If you’re looking at accelerated learning, one-
year is a relatively lower opportunity cost. I would definitely pick Oxford as one of
the top 5 to 10 schools in the world that I would apply to if I am looking at a one-
year program.
The third thing is that Said Business School also prides itself for having a practical
approach to an MBA. It’s not just academics. During the one-year, there are also
lots of assignments; there is exposure to real world problems. That’s the other
important part of the education. If you look at most European MBAs, they are more
qualitative in their experience. They want to make you grow as a person. They want
you to have a growth mind-set. While a lot of US schools have more quantitative
rigor. If this is the kind of school you want to experience and you want to create a
better version of yourself, Oxford Said should be the top school for you.
These are some of the aspects you need to be looking at for “Why Oxford?”.
Now let’s look at the application deadlines.

2017 – 2018 Said Business School Deadlines
Round 1 – Sep 29, 2017

Round 2 – Jan 5, 2018
Round 3 – Mar 16, 2018
Round 4 – May 11, 2018
Said Business School MBA Essay Analysis 2017-2018
Essay 1
Consider a statistic or trend that shocks you. Why is it important to you and how
could it be changed for the better? (Maximum 500 words)
The first thing is to note, “something that shocks you”, and not “something that
surprises you.” What would shock me? Something would shock me because I have my
own personal guideline. I have my own sense of ‘what is right and what is wrong”.
So very clearly it’s in conflict. Maybe it is a poverty figure, maybe it is about how
people are consuming more calories. You have all this soda and fast food by which
people are getting obese, even in a country like India. It could be anything, so
first, what is the statistic or trend and why is it important to you? There has to be a
personal connect.
One mistake that people make in this essay is that they talk about something like
poverty and they say, “Oh! I am so moved by this statistic.” However, what have you
done about it? The question states, “why is it important to you, and how could it be
changed for the better?” These are the two questions that you should actually focus
on. How does it matter to you?
For example, one of our students wrote about geriatric problems. When people grow
old, they tend to have mental illness like dementia. He was shocked that in a place
like India, there is not a lot of respect given to people with such issues. If a person
goes to a psychiatrist, people just say that he has gone mad. It’s very insensitive in
India. So he said, “I was very shocked…”, and he also quoted statistics about people
growing old in India without proper geriatric care, especially for mental illness. He
said he had personal experience with his grandfather. He said, “I grew up in a
household where I saw him, and it pained me.” There is a personal connection to it.
“How could it be changed for the better?”. He had a couple of plans and suggestions.
Also, after his grandfather passed away, he had done a few things. He worked for an
NGO which took care of old age homes and shelters. That’s what you have to do with
500 words. You have to cover the following points:
• Statistics, and ‘why it shocks you.’ This is very important. Don’t assume that the
reader will know why it’s shocking. You need to tell them why it’s shocking, based on
the personal parameter you have.
• Why is it important to you? You could have picked any other cause, that’s why you
need to tell them why you picked this cause. Say something which has a personal
thread to it.
• What is it that can be done to make it better? – You should have already started
doing something about the issue, and it should not be like you’re going to wait for 15
years and do nothing about it, and then one day you hope to change it. You can talk
about tiny baby steps you have already taken in doing so.
500 words, that’s plenty of space for you to write. Don’t worry, saying “will this will
improve my candidacy for the MBA program?” They are just looking for smart and
interesting people. They want to see whether this guy has something interesting to
say; is he passionate about a cause? One leadership trait is being passionate about
something. You pick any leader and you’ll see that he or she has this one particular
thing that they feel passionate about, and they have actually done something in that
area. That’s what they are really looking at.
Essay 2
Is there anything not covered in the application form which you would like the
Admissions Committee to know about you? (Maximum 250 words)
For this essay, pick either:
1. Something that is a gap. For example, a gap in education, a gap in experience, or

some anomaly in your GMAT score that you would like to explain.
2. Something that you plan to do but perhaps it’s too early to put the information
into your essays. For example, you have a year to join the school, so you can say
something like, ‘I would like to let you know that I plan to get my B Level certification
in German. That’s something in the future but you think it’s important for the
Admission Committee to know.
Either of these two pieces of information can fit into the 250-word essay.
That’s pretty much what we have for the Oxford Said MBA program, and if you’re
applying to the program this year, please let us know if we could work together on
this, by clicking the link below.
MIT Sloan School Of Management Essay Analysis 2017 – 2018
Welcome to this Essay Analysis in which we will look at the MIT Sloan School of
Management. If you are looking at applying to MIT this year, you have come to the
right place.
Let’s first look at the MIT Sloan MBA program. The first thing you think of when you
look at MIT, is Technology. You think of the focus MIT has on technology and
engineering. You might think that MBA is isolated, but it’s not. You need to
understand that it’s a university system. You can actually take courses in the
technology programs that the other departments have. Even if you’re pursuing an
MBA, you can still take an elective from other departments, and being on the MIT
campus, you have a different way of looking at things. MIT is obviously a big place for
a technology focus.
Second, MIT Sloan is one of the few programs which has a very condensed core. You
just have the first semester where you are required to take the core courses, and the
rest of it can be based on electives. You can pick and choose whatever you like. Very
few schools have this flexibility so it’s a big plus point.
Third, in terms of international flavour, MIT Sloan has the maximum number of
international students for any top MBA program.That’s again a huge plus if you’re
looking at diversity among US MBA programs.
Finally, maybe because of the technology focus, MIT also has a strong focus on
entrepreneurship. In fact, it is said that if all the companies out of MIT were to form a
country, it would have the fifth largest GDP in the world. That’s the kind of history of
entrepreneurship that you have in one single place. This is definitely a huge place for
people who come from a tech background. If MIT is something that you have been
dreaming of, you should be looking at the MBA program.
MIT Sloan 2017-2018 MBA Deadlines
Round 1
Round 2
Decision Notification: April 3, 2018
Round 3
MIT / Sloan Essay Topic Analysis 2017-2018
Cover Letter
MIT Sloan seeks students whose personal characteristics demonstrate that they will
make the most of the incredible opportunities at MIT, both academic and non-
academic. We are on a quest to find those whose presence will enhance the
experience of other students. We seek thoughtful leaders with exceptional
intellectual abilities and the drive and determination to put their stamp on the
world. We welcome people who are independent, authentic, and fearlessly creative
— true doers. We want people who can redefine solutions to conventional problems,
and strive to preempt unconventional dilemmas with cutting-edge ideas. We
demand integrity and respect passion.
Taking the above into consideration, please submit a cover letter seeking a place in
the MIT Sloan MBA Program. Your letter should conform to a standard business
correspondence, include one or more examples that illustrate why you meet the
desired criteria above, and be addressed to Mr. Rod Garcia, Senior Director of
Admissions (300 words or fewer, excluding address and salutation).
You can see that there are a lot of questions asked. Don’t get lost. Just read it a
couple of times, make sure you get a sense of what it is. Remember that you need to
write in 300 words or fewer, excluding address and salutation.
You need to be writing a cover letter seeking a place in the MIT Sloan MBA program,
taking into consideration “Your letter should conform to a standard business
correspondence, include one or more examples that illustrate why you meet the
desired criteria above, and be addressed to Mr. Rod Garcia, Senior Director of
Admissions”. Now, first of all, what do you mean by “Standard Business
Correspondence”?. Well, you need to first address the letter to Mr. Rod Garcia, Senior
Director of Admissions, MIT, and then you need to write the content of the letter.
What is the difference between writing a letter as opposed to writing an essay? You
are writing to a person, so make sure that your 300 words exclude the addresses and
salutations. The actual meat of it is you talking about something more than one can
get from your resume. Think about it. They have your resume, they have your
application form, your recommenders and to top it, they also have your GMAT scores
and undergraduate transcripts. They have everything about your working experiences
so do not repeat what they already have. Pick the one or two things about you that
they don’t know. Perhaps you’re an innovative thinker, maybe you are a problem
solver. Maybe you believe in problem solving under frugality (or in India, as they say,
“juggaad”). What have you done? Maybe it’s a small motor pump that you took out
from the engine and used for something completely different. Showcase through
examples. One thing about MBA applications is, always give examples. First list down
four to five traits that you think define you well. You can talk about innovation, risk-
taking, leadership, team working, for example. Whatever you want to pick, pick and
list out. You have 300 words. You can pick two things, and convey them in 300 words.
Make sure you flesh out all the details, and tell them why you are unique. Tell them
what it is that you hope to get through the MBA program, and what you are going to
learn from the program. It’s really important that you pick those two things.
Now that you have told them who you are, talk about why MIT Sloan particularly
excites you because you are this person. What at MIT excites you? Why do you think
it gels so well with who you are as a person? For example, if you spoke about
innovation, you can have come to the “Mecca of Innovation”, but you have to be very
specific. Mention the academics and non-academics pursuits that you want to get out
of the program. You may not really be able to get it all out because you have the 300
word limit. You may not be able to write about your post-MBA goals, and be specific,
but you can mention “This is who I am, this is what I am going to get from the MIT
program.” Then allude to your post-MBA career without getting into the depth of it.
That is how 300 words should be structured. You can be creative in the way you want
to express yourself but make sure you’re going to pick one or two important aspects.
One mistake that people do is that they talk about ten different things. It just loses the
focus of the message. Don’t do that, two should be the maximum.
Video Prompt
Please introduce yourself to your future classmates via a brief video statement.
You will need to use an internet-connected computer, with a webcam and
microphone. As part of the application review, the Admission Committee will
evaluate your response to see how you express yourself and to assess fit with the
MIT Sloan culture. The simple, open-ended question is designed to help us get to
know you better.
Instructions:
• Please make sure you are using a working Internet connection not wireless or
shared wireless connection. If your Internet is not a strong signal you will not be
able to upload. Please also make sure you have the most up to date browser.
• You will need to use an internet-connected computer with a webcam and

microphone.
• We suggest using Google Chrome* or Firefox as your browser.
• If using Google Chrome – please click the camera icon in your browser to allow
the site to access your microphone. If you are having issues with your microphone
please re-start your computer for Google Chrome to access your microphone.
• Once the video statement question is viewed you will have 60 seconds to
prepare, and then 60 seconds to record your answer.
• You will only have one attempt to record your response.

Now, you’re introducing yourself. What you wrote in the cover letter is very
different. You’re not going to introduce yourself to your classmates by saying “I am
an innovator, I am a problem solver.” Instead, you need to talk about something
about you, perhaps something more personal. Maybe you can talk about what you
expect from the MBA program. Remember that you have only 60 seconds, and 60
seconds is very less. If you have a very long South Indian name, maybe 60 seconds
gets consumed over there. You have to be very prudent in what you say. Be casual.
You just need a simple camera phone and it’s all sorted. Today’s phones come with
very good picture quality and video quality. Now you need to make sure that you
keep the camera in front of you. Keep it very simple, and nothing fancy. Make sure
that the lighting is bright. That is an another mistake that people make. Don’t keep
the light source behind you. You would look like Gautam Buddha. The light source
should be in front of you so that your face looks clean. Also, make sure that your
surrounding is clutter free. Make sure that the voice is being captured very clearly;
again, your phone microphone will do its work so don’t really sweat too much on
that.
When you’re speaking, take as many retakes as possible. Keep saying the same
thing, do it for like 20 to 25 times in front of the mirror before you come in front of
the camera.
Initially, when you start, you will become very conscious. Do you know how I know
this? Well, I have done this, and I have been in your shoes. I know you get very
conscious when you see the camera. Sometimes, you know capturing that moment
is for posterity, and you feel a bit stressed, but here is the thing, if you keep doing
this multiple times, you will get the hang of it.
What is it that I should speak?
• Speak about yourself. Be casual.

• Talk about your interest
• You can even include a quirk
• You can say what you love doing
For example, “I love gaming and I challenge all you counter-strike aficionados to
come challenge me for a game.”
Something of that sort; make yourself sound interesting. I should be able to look at
the video and say, “this is the guy/girl I would like to meet.” That’s really the intent
of the video essay.
Optional Essay
Please provide any additional information you would like the Admissions
Committee to know that may be helpful in evaluating your candidacy (i.e. choice
of recommenders, areas of concern in your academic record, other extenuating
circumstances, etc.). This information should be provided in a written format (200
words or less).
You can use this essay to convey your gaps in education or gaps in employment, or
use it to convey something that you couldn’t say anywhere else. But please don’t
try to retrofit stories that you couldn’t fit anywhere else. Don’t feel pressured to
write anything over here.
I know it’s not easy, especially if you haven’t done a video essay before. It can be
tough. If you would like us to help you with your application to MIT, please let us
know. You can click the link below.
Texas McCombs Essay Analysis 2017 – 2018
If you’re looking at applying to the Texas McCombs MBA program 2016-2017, stay
with me, In this Essay Analysis, we will discuss Texas McCombs, and its MBA
application essays.
The advantage about this program is the location. After California, Texas comes close
in terms of great weather and opportunities. It’s a place where there are a lot of
significant cities like Dallas.
Secondly, in terms of the program, there is a huge focus on the energy sector. So, if
you belong to the energy sector, Texas is the best place for you. The best thing is that
Texas McCombs has the center for energy, finance education, research, and a lot of
other programs that help you if you’re in the energy sector.
Apart from this, I’ve learned from our students who went to the Texas McCombs
program, that a lot of the campus life is driven by the students. There are a lot of
competitions such as the business plan competition, investment competitions, and
much more, all run by the students.
Thus, you can get an actual experience of working in cross functional and
multicultural teams. All of this happens while you’re still a student!
The student experience, the diversity, and the fact that the students run so much by
themselves is a huge plus. Now let’s look at the application deadlines.
2017-2018 UT Austin McCombs MBA Deadlines:
Round 1
Application Deadline: October 10, 2017,*
Round 2
Round 3
*Priority deadline for scholarships and fellowships.
2017-2018 UT Austin McCombs MBA Essay Questions:
Essay 1
It is the first day of Texas MBA orientation. You are meeting your study group,
comprised of five of your classmates from various backgrounds. Please introduce
yourself to your new team, highlighting what drives you in your personal and
professional life. Select only one communication method that you would like to use
for your response.
Write an essay (250 words), OR
Share a video introduction (one minute)
Introducing yourself is more than just giving your name, especially when you have
only 250 words and you say, “my name is….” and then go on to say where you did
your graduation, and go on in that vein. They do not want you to read out your
resume. This is the common mistake which most of us make. So, what are they
looking for? They are looking for “Who you are” as a person. You need to get creative.
If you feel that you can do well in front of a camera and give a great video with your
best expressions, you can do it; you don’t need any fancy equipment. You can just use
a good camera phone.
A one minute video, or 250 words are similar. Your one minute video may speak out
250 words, and your 250 words may speak for a one minute video.
So what is it that you want you to say about yourself?
• Something that is not on your resume

• Pick an adjective.
• Pick something that is interesting about you.
Ask yourself how you can define yourself with just one word. It has to be something
more personal than the data on your resume. That data is boring.
Talk about yourself, your opinions are more interesting than data.
What they want to know:

• Would I like to meet this guy?
• Would I like him to be in the class of 2019?
Essay 2
Picture yourself at graduation. Describe how you spent your two years as a Texas
MBA student, and how that experience helped to prepare you for the post-MBA
world. (500 words)
If you look at this essay, you will find a slight shift in the tense. Rather than looking
through the lens of the future, where you talk about how you think Texas MBA can
help you, you will talk about the future where you’re looking at your experiences at
Texas McCombs, and reflect on it.
With most MBA programs, you would like to focus on three things:
1. The courses you took, and how they helped you get a job
2. Your experiences with your peers and the quality of students you dealt with, and
how they made you a better version of who you are
3. The broad network you built, and the ability to brand yourself for the future.
You can pick these three points because you have 500 words, which provides you with
plenty of space to write about 150 words on each point. Make sure you have a good
start, and a good finish. So you have these three points;
1. Your electives and courses

2. Your experiences
3. How the alum network, the brand equity, and the long investment for your future
has helped you.
Optional Essay
Please provide any additional information you believe is important and/or address
any areas of concern that will be beneficial to the Admissions Committee in
considering your application (e.g. unexplained gaps in work experience, choice of
recommenders, academic performance, or extenuating personal circumstances).
(250 words)
Typically, you write an optional essay if you’re a reapplicant, or if you want to explain a
gap in your education or career.
Don’t just try to retrofit some story that you’re not able to write elsewhere.
As an international applicant from India, don’t even think of R3 because you need to
keep some buffer time for the processing of your visa, and to get your MBA funds
sanctioned.
The other thing which you should know about the Texas McCombs program is the
GMAT score. Indian applicants should note that the average GMAT score is a lot more
than the score you see on the website. Don’t get misled by the average GMAT score
that you see there. A lot of Indians apply to this program just like they do to UCLA and
Emory. You need to be careful with your GMAT score. Anything below 700 is not
recommended.
If you liked this Essay Analysis, and would like us to help you with your application
journey, Click Here.
Goizueta Business School, Emory University Essay Analysis 2017 –
2018
Welcome to this Essay Analysis in which I will tell you what you need to know about
the Emory MBA program, and the Emory MBA essays for the application season,
2017-2018.
Let’s discuss the features of the Emory MBA program. Over the last few years,
CrackVerbal has sent many students to the program, and we can help you from our
experience.
First, the school offers a one-year program as well as a two-year program. All of you
who are looking at a one-year program in the US must certainly look at Emory.
Second, Emory has a university attached to it. What people don’t realize is it’s not just
an MBA school that you’re going to but a school that has a university eco-system that
is attached to it. For example, the hospital at Emory. If you remember the Ebola virus,
there were two American doctors who went to Liberia and when they came back to
the US with Ebola, they were actually treated in Emory. They were the first cases in
which Ebola was treated successfully; guess where it happened? In Emory. It’s not just
the MBA school but also the university system that you should look at. One more
thing about Emory is the location. It’s situated in Atlanta. Atlanta is one of the
southern states, and a huge hub. In Atlanta, you have Coke, whose CEO, by the way is
after whom the college has been named, the Goizueta School of Management. You
also have AT&T and a bunch of other companies in Atlanta. If you are looking at an
MBA program, my advice is to stick to a program which is near a large city so that your
employment chances go up.
That’s pretty much everything you need to know about the program.
2017-2018 Emory Goizueta MBA Deadlines
Round 1
Deposit Due: December 22, 2017
Round 2
Application Deadline: November 17, 2017
Notification Date: January 26, 2018
Deposit Due: February 23, 2018 (International & One-Year) / April 18, 2018
(Domestic)
Round 3
Notification Date: March 9, 2018 (Domestic) / March 16, 2018
(International)
Deposit Due: March 30, 2018 (One-Year) / April 18, 2018 (Two-Year)
Round 4
Notification Date: Rolling (One-Year) / May 4, 2018 (Two-Year)
Deposit Due: Upon Notification (One-Year) / May 15, 2018 (Two-Year)
Emory Goizueta MBA Essay Analysis 2017-2018
Essay 1
Define your short-term post-MBA career goals. How are your professional
strengths, past experience and personal attributes aligned with these goals? (300
words)
If you look at it, it may not be necessary to start with your goals. You could also give
a quick summary of what you have done until now. This does not mean regurgitating
what is on your resume, this is not about what is in your application form. It is more
about your own personal journey and has to talk about your professional strengths,
your past experience, and your personal attributes. You write maybe 100 to 120
words on this and then you get on to the second point which is on what you want to
do from where you are. Talk about where you have reached in your career, and then
the natural progression to get to the next part. While writing about the short term
post MBA goal, remember to write down details of the function, the industry you’re
going to work in, and the geography you’re going to be at.Try to list a couple of
companies, and specific programs within the company that you would like to apply
for. Ensure that you do your research. One thing that could kill you is, picking a short
term goal that is improbable. Something that will not fit with your background. You
need to make sure that the goal is aligned to what you have already done, and if
there is a slight change, you need to justify why you are equipped to handle that
change.
That’s pretty much 300 words. You can use about 100 to 120 words talking about
yourself, and another 150 words talking about the short term goal in detail, and
then you have 30 to 40 words, which you can use for an introduction and conclusion.
Make sure that the introduction and conclusion are fairly strong so that you have a
packed essay.
Essay 2
The business school is named for Roberto C. Goizueta, former Chairman and CEO of
The Coca-Cola Company, who led the organization for 16 years, extending its global
reach, quadrupling consumption, building brand responsibility, and creating
unprecedented shareholder wealth. Mr. Goizueta’s core values guide us in
educating Principled Leaders for Global Enterprise. Provide an example of your
leadership – professional or personal – and explain what you learned about
yourself through the experience. (300 words)
This is a leadership essay. You’re looking at principled leadership. What you need to
pick is something where you went above the circle of concern. This could be a time
when you were supposed to do something but took the initiative, the ownership of
going beyond that. It could be very small. The question says “Professional or
personal”. So it may not be work. One mistake a lot of students do is talk about
something that is run of the mill. They say something like, “I was doing this, and my
manager quit. We weren’t able to find a replacement, and I took a step-up
responsibility, led the team, and executed the project.” Well, the problem with this
story is that it is very common.
Write something that is unique. Something that gives me an insight into who you are,
and also something that tells me more about your leadership style. Are you a
consensuc building leader? Are you a leader who believes that taking affirmative
action? Is that what differentiates you?
Whatever the reason be, you need to first talk about your background, the situation
you were put in because that is very important for you to talk about what you did. In
the second part, you can talk about the actual action that you took.
So you have the background, your action and third, you need to talk about what you
learned. If you look at the essay, it clearly says “What have you learned about
yourself through the experience?” What are the takeaways? You could say “Before I
went into that situation, I did not know certain aspects of leadership but then, I got
to know about them”. You need to tell them what you learned about yourself.
Let me give you an example. One of our students who got into Emory a few years ago
had written this story. He said that when he was in his hometown, he managed
the Ganesh Pandal, which is a religious thing that happens every year in India. We
install an idol, and for about a week or so there are a lot of activities around the
occasion. He volunteered to be the President of the local association. On the face of
it, it looked very simple because in his corporate life he had dealt with managing
projects. He thought, “how hard can it be?”
In that one week, he learned everything from accounts to logistics to supply-chain to

all kinds of corporate management jargon. The student said that whatever he needed
to know about management, he learned through that experience. Earlier, he had a
very different view on leadership. He thought leadership was where you work
without variables changing too much. He realized that leadership is about making a
decision when you don’t have enough information. He became a lot more
comfortable making decisions even when he did not have all the information at his
disposal. The student spoke in a very touching way about how he grew as a person.
As you can see, this is a very simple example but you can think of something that has
happened to you, and write about it. Again, don’t restrict yourself to only
professional experiences; even personal experiences will count here.
Essay 3
Complete one of the following statements. (250 words)
• I am passionate about…
• The best piece of advice I’ve received is…
• The best day of my life was…
• A personal goal I want to accomplish is…
I am passionate about…
They are not looking at the “What”. The mistake people do in answering this question
is they talk about the “What”.
The best piece of advice I’ve received is…
They don’t want to know just what the advice was. They want to know other things
like when did it happened. You can say, “Initially when I heard this advice, I was not
very receptive. My father gave me this advice when I was going to college and I never
bothered about it, but when I started working, his words came back to me, and I
realized how true it was and now it is the founding principle behind what I do.”
The best day of my life was….
Maybe it is the time you got married. The idea here is not to just talk about the act
but what went behind it. Maybe you got married, both the sides did not agree, and
you had to go through a lot of personal hardship and that’s when you realized your
emotional strength, the core that you have, and THAT was the realization.
The more important thing here is the “Why” and not the “What”.
A personal goal I want to accomplish is…
Here, don’t just talk about your personal goal but tell them why it is your personal
goal, and why not any other goal. Maybe you want to start your own orphanage.
Why? Maybe when you were a child you went through something, or maybe a
personal experience you have observed that deeply affected you. They really want to
know you as a person.
Students come and ask me, “which is the better response?” There is nothing like a
better response. Whichever statement you pick, after you have written, they should
be able to look at it and say, “Is this a person that I would like to meet in person?
Would I want them in my school?”. That’s the kind of question you need to ask
yourself after you have written your statement.
Essay 4
Share with the committee and your future classmates a fun or noteworthy fact
about you. (25 words)
This is the shortest essay with 25 words. People usually say “What do I write?” Again,
don’t think of this sentence as something that is going to have an impact on your
MBA. Just say something that makes people say, “Hey, this guy is interesting”. I’ve had
people who have talked about all kinds of things. One student talked about the way
he is addicted to solving Sudoku first thing in the morning.People have spoken about
how a special sweet that they make is something that is their specialty because they
put cinnamon at the end. Talk about things like this; people don’t really care. Make it
fun, make it frivolous. Don’t get serious in this essay.
So I hope you got all the information you were looking for, and you have some sense
of what you need to be doing for the essays. Just one point over here is that you have
the usual optional essay. In this essay, you can talk about any gaps in your academics
or in your work experience. You also have the re-applicant essay, which essentially is
about your short term goals.
Optional Essay
If you have additional information or feel there are extenuating circumstances which
you would like to share with the MBA Admissions Committee (i.e. unexplained gaps
in work experience, choice of recommenders, academic performance issues or areas
of weakness in application). (250 words)
For this question, make sure that you’re talking about something different, and not
repeating what you’ve already said the first time. Talk about the delta progress that
you have made.
I hope this video was useful to you. If it was, and if you need us to help you with your
application to Emory, please go ahead and click on the link below.
UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School Essay Analysis 2017 – 2018
If you’re applying to the Kenan Flagler program at the University of Northern Carolina,
you have come to the right place. In this Essay Analysis, I am going to take you through
the program and the application essays for 2017-2018.
Kenan is a good top 15 program. If you look at the various B-School rankings it appears
at the top although it’s not in the top 5 programs. It’s definitely a very good program.
We have talked to several of our students who went to this school, and one thing the
students talk about is the school’s focus on “Leadership development”. Kenan Flagler
has something called the “Leadership Initiative” where it brings a lot of guest speakers
and exposes the students to them. They also have something called the “Star
Program”. You can check this program on their website. The program gives the
students the opportunity to gain real world experience in leadership. These are the
things that you want to look at when applying to the program.
Secondly, Kenan has a strong international focus. They have an MBA exchange
program, and a vast network of partner schools. You can do a semester in another
school that is part of the network program.
You also have the ‘Global Business Project Program” wherein the students work for
companies in various regions of the world. Furthermore, they also have the “Working
Languages Program’, where they teach you foreign languages such as Mandarin,
Portuguese, Spanish, and more for students who plan to use those languages in their
career. If you’re looking at a very global expand where you are not limited to the US,
you can check this program.
2017-2018 UNC Kenan-Flagler Essay Questions
Essay One (Required)
Please describe your short and long term goals post-MBA. Explain how your
professional experience has shaped these goals, why this career option appeals to
you, and how you arrived at the decision that now is the time and the MBA is the
appropriate degree. Additionally, please briefly address a backup plan should your
short-term goal not come to fruition for any reason. (500 words maximum)
This is a classic career goal essay with a few twists. Our strategy should be the same.
First, make sure that you talk about your career progression until now. It’s very
important to talk professionally, and personally to say what it is that you bring to the
table with an MBA or without an MBA. What is the value you would be able to give?
What has been your experience? This is not a replacement for your CV. your CV
details your employment history. It details what you did. Here, they want to know
what your progression has been. Now that you have talked about all of these great
things you have done, you need to say where you see yourself going from here. That
becomes your second paragraph. Four years ago, when you started your career,
perhaps you did not know what you wanted. Now that you have had all this exposure
and you did all these great things, you realize your actual goal is to be ‘X’, ‘Y’ or ‘Z’.
You need to mention that career goal. It has to tie to what you have done. Don’t say,
“I have been in the IT industry but I want to be an investment banker, because my
Quant is good and I have a 51 in GMAT” or something like, “I did my engineering and
I am analytical in my approach.” Don’t make it like that. Give it a very clear fit with
what you have done. In this second paragraph, you say what your long term and
short term goals are. As I have maintained, short term goals have to be specific
whereas with long term goals, you have the leeway to be slightly more generic. As
long as you’re able to connect the dots. So that is your second paragraph. Let’s look
at the third.
In the third paragraph, you can explain how else you can reach there. Is there any
other path to reach there? If you feel that there is an alternate career path to reach
there, talk about it here. Tell them about that path. You also need to tell them why
the MBA is the best degree for you to get there and when you say an MBA, you need
to say t “why a Kenan-Flagler MBA is the best program to getting there.”. So this
pretty much becomes your third paragraph.
500 words are enough for you to build a good story. You need to first say what you
bring to the table. You need to tell them that now that you have done all of this,
what is it that you want to do. Next, say what ways there are for you to get there,
including an MBA from Kenan-Flagler. You can write about 150 words for each of
these parts. Then you can use 50 words for a strong opening and finishing.
Two very important things:
They specifically ask you for an alternate backup career path, in case your short term
goal doesn’t materialize. So I would say, keep your long term goal as it is. Keep two
paths to get there with your short term goals.
Next, they very specifically ask you why “now”, so you need to specify why “now” is
the correct point to do an MBA, and why now is the point of inflection in your career.
Until this point, you couldn’t have done it but at this point, you’re able to figure it
out.
Essay Two (Optional)
What personal qualities or life experiences distinguish you from other applicants?
How do these qualities or experiences equip you to contribute to UNC Kenan-Flagler?
(300 words maximum)
Not just do you need to tell me what the special qualities about you are, but you also
need to make a pitch of how you will contribute using those qualities in the MBA
program. My suggestion, for 300 words, don’t pick more than two qualities. You can
say something like “I am different because….I have this…..particular trait”. Here is an
example of what one of our students had written:
“If you were to summarize me in one word, it’s passion. As Yoda said, do or do not,
there is no try. If I take up something, I am so passionate about it. I give my 100%
doing that. People have asked me, why I am doing this. If I am doing something it
rather be worth my while or I might not do it. That same passion, I want to bring to
Kenan-Flagler. I want to participate in” and he went on to list a couple of things he’d
like to participate in, based on what he had done in the past.
Passion became one point. So 150 words gone. For the next 150 words, pick another
adjective that describes you. So that’s how I would play this essay out, but not more
than two qualities. If you’re going to write three qualities for example, it reduces the
words available for each quality to 100. One quality might be less and three qualities
might be more. Choose a good fit. I have seen successful applicants writing about just
one quality, and I have also seen applicants writing about three qualities being
successful. So you can pick either one, two, or three. Just make sure you’re able to
flesh out the details.
Essay Three (Optional)
If your standardized test scores are low, or if you have not had coursework in core
business subjects (calculus, microeconomics, statistics, financial accounting), please
tell us how you plan to prepare yourself for the quantitative rigor of the MBA
curriculum. (300 words maximum)
According to me, if you have done engineering, chartered accountancy, or if you have
done any of the professional degrees from India, youprobably meet the requirements.
This essay could be applicable only for a candidate with a Humanities background. If
you’re from the Humanities background, or you have a score lower than 48 in Quant
in the GMAT, you can probably take any of the online courses to build an alternate
transcript. In fact, you could ask them if there are any ways in which you can improve
your profile by showing quantitative rigour. If you’re an engineer and you have a good
Quant score of 48 and above, don’t worry about this essay. It’s optional for you.
Essay Four (Optional)
Is there any other information you would like to share that is not presented
elsewhere in the application? (300 words maximum)
This is one of the places where you can tell them something that is very important.
Don’t try to retrofit a story that you just couldn’t find another place for. Don’t do that.
Typically, you would talk about the things that you have probably planned to do
before you join the program. The things that you cannot put in your resume but have
planned. For example, “I plan to learn Spanish next year, and I hope to be in Level B
by the time I join the program”. Great! This makes sense to put in here. But don’t put
anything that otherwise is just a story about your past.
So that’s pretty much what we have for the UNC Kenan-Flagler MBA program. We’ve
had a lot of students who went there, and we keep in touch with them. If you feel
that we could help you in any way, if you’re stuck in any part of the application, we
would love to help you, so go ahead and click the link below.
Yale School Of Management Essay Analysis 2017 – 2018
Let’s look at Yale School of Management. What really makes Yale different from other
B-schools? What makes it unique?
1. Yale is one of the original Ivy League schools. The term “Ivy League” is used for a set
of schools which are 100+ years old; they have ivy creepers. Yale is one such school.
The School of Management is a relatively new school but Yale has the brand equity
that makes it “gold” standard for employers in the US, and across the world.
2. Another thing that Yale prides itself for is its innovative curriculum. If you go to
Yale’s website, they tell us that in their curriculum, they do not go discipline by
discipline but rather understand that management is the relationship among multiple
disciplines that constitute any company. That’s the best thing you can talk about in
your essays and interview with Yale.
3. Yale has just about 300 students when compared to Harvard, Stanford and
Wharton, which have a larger number. With just 300 students, the class is a very
intimate group, and you get easy access to the professors. The culture is not as
competitive as it would be in larger classes simply because you know all your peers
well.
4. Yale has a good connection with the financial center of the world which is in New
York because Yale is in New Haven, which is close to New York. You have many Yale
alumni in New York city; in the business district, so the connection with the financial
market is also very strong.
2017-2018 Yale MBA Deadlines
Round 1
Decision release: December 6, 2017
Round 2
Decision release: March 27, 2018
Round 3
Decision release: May 17, 2018
2017-2018 Yale MBA Essay Question
Describe the biggest commitment you have ever made. (500 words maximum)
So, what really is this commitment? This commitment may be a particular idea or
particular cause that really is your passion in life. This commitment can also be the
one thing that drives you.
One of our students from CrackVerbal faced the same essay question last year. He was
a technology geek. He loved technology, and believed that every problem in the world
can be solved by technology. When he had to write this essay he went back and wrote
on how he started something on his own, along with his full-time job.
He also mentioned in his essay what he felt technology could do to fix problems.He
spoke about how he had the patience to complete the research for which he had filed
a patent application, while he was at his first job.
If you look closely here, he did not speak about his interest in technology but rather
how he felt technology could solve problems in the world. This statement perfectly
matched his goal to be a product manager after completing his MBA. The idea here is
not to say why MBA, but to talk about you.
Most of the B-Schools are focusing on this line of thought where they want to know
who you are. When it comes to writing essays, most of us make a common mistake.
We search for information about the school, and write a few nice lines about why this
B-School, and why it’s a perfect fit for you.
Considering these factors, schools like Yale take a first step in analyzing you
thoroughly. They will want to know, “Is this person interesting?” So when writing this
essay, make sure you don’t write too much about the B-schools and why an MBA.
A student from CrackVerbal, while writing this essay, mentioned his commitment to
helping people who did not have the same opportunities he had.
He did his schooling at Ramakrishna Mission in India. During his school days, he
decided that he had to do something to help people around him. This zeal continued
while he was in college, too. In his essay, he also talked about a major calamity which
happened in India, where he volunteered, and did sizeable on-ground work for two
weeks during the floods.
The most important thing that moved the essay forward was the kind of personal
commitment he had. It wasn’t just writing a cheque to some orphanage saying that
he was committed to the cause. He rolled up his sleeves, and helped those in need.
Although he was applying for an MBA from a business perspective, in his everyday life,
he realized that this was a privilege he had, and helping others was a commitment he
had. This very strong statement pushed his essay through.
You can pick that one thing that has been a thread throughout your life, and this one
idea can have multiple instances. You don’t need to worry about it having to be just
one incident.
Make sure you’re running a thread which talks about all of these instances. Make sure
that all these instances are under a super thread, which is basically your idea; your
commitment.
This process is not easy, and it requires a lot of brainstorming.
That’s what happens when a student comes to CrackVerbal for the application
process. We spend the first few sessions just talking through their stories, trying to
understand the student a little better.
If you feel that we can help you, go ahead, and click the link below.
Columbia Business School Essay Analysis 2017 – 2018
In this Essay Analysis, I will discuss the Columbia MBA program. If you’re looking at
applying to Columbia this year, 2017-2018, you will find this Essay Analysis useful as I
am going to discuss the school, and the application essays.
When people talk about Columbia, the first thing that comes to mind is Finance. Yes,
it’s very strong for finance and if you look at it, it’s a virtual cycle. Often, when people
at Wall street want to take a break, they end up coming to Columbia. They do their
MBA and get back to Wall street, and after a few years, when they want to recruit,
guess where they come? Columbia again! So it’s a nice symbiotic relationship they
have with Wall Street.
You must have a heard of Benjamin Graham, the father of value investing. He taught
at Columbia. So in terms of its reputation and finance, Columbia is very strong. It’s
known as a very strong finance school.
The second thing is the New York City location. The fact that you’re right there in
Downtown New York, Manhattan, where there is a melting pot of culture. So many
diverse things, so many people. I think very few schools can boast of a location like
that. That’s a huge plus that Columbia has. If you look at their website and
application, you’ll see that they also exploit this aspect. They also say “Hey, it’s our
location and nobody can offer you this location!” You may have all the money in the
world but you can’t be in the heart of New York. In terms of not just culture but also
the kind of connection that you have with companies, the Who’s who is
headquartered in New York. I think that plays a huge role.
Now let’s look at the deadlines.
Columbia MBA Deadlines for 2017-2018
August Entry
Early Decision Deadline: October 4, 2017

Merit Fellowship Consideration Deadline: January 5, 2018
Regular Decision Deadline: April 11, 2018
J-Term

Columbia Business School MBA Essay Analysis 2017-2018
So now let’s look at the essay questions that we have. Essentially, we have three
essays. Over the years it has been constant, and we’ve had students applying and
getting into Columbia and what I am saying is based on the discussions we’ve had
internally with them.
Essay #1
Through your resume and recommendations, we have a clear sense of your
professional path to date. What are your career goals over the next 3 – 5 years and
what, in your imagination, would be your long-term dream job? (500 words)
First off, they are saying “I know what you have done; don’t bore me with that. That’s
the information I will find elsewhere in this application.” 500 words to talk about your
goals. That’sa lot of words if you think about. They require you to be very clear about
the function you want to be in, the industry you want to be in, and the geography
you want to be in. Usually, if you’re trying to change your career, you want to make
sure that you’re not changing all three. You’re probably changing two out of the three
which means if you’re coming from India as an applicant, your geography anyways
gets changed. You’re left with industry and function. You need to make sure that
you’re at least sticking to the same industry. If you have come from the financial
sector industry, you’d want to stick to the financial sector industry. Maybe your
function changes, or maybe it remains the same, but you want to be in a different
industry.
Another thing is that in a place like Columbia, it’s not necessary that only finance
professionals go. Think about it! If you’re Columbia, you aspire to be a Harvard or a
Stanford, and nobody even asks you what your specialization in Harvard or Stanford
is. That’s a general management program. Even in Columbia, it’s is not a Masters in
Finance program. You’re going for an MBA program. You can go for consulting, or you
can go for product management. Even tech companies are headquartered in New
York.
Whatever you want to pick, make sure that you’re able to clearly articulate what
you’re going to be doing. If you’ve not already done so, here is a tip: Make sure you
go to LinkedIn, and look for people who have graduated from Columbia. People who
are in a similar industry. Try to connect with them, and understand more about what
it takes to get that job. The school is also looking for employability. They don’t want
this guy saying, “I want to change everything about me. I was a software programmer
working in Bangalore and suddenly I want to become an investment banker without
even having an idea of what it takes.”
The second part of the question says, “…in your imagination, what would be your
long-term dream job?” Let your thoughts come out freely. Nobody is going to judge
you. I would say they would judge you only through your short-term goals and they
are not going to judge you through your long-term goals. They are really looking at,
“What is your passion?” In my short-term goal, yes I would like to look at
employability and a little bit of passion but if you were to take all of this away, ‘Who
is it that I really am?” What is it that I really want to do with this canvas called Life?”
How would I like to paint it?” That’s what they really want to know, and I think you
should dedicate at least a good 150 to 200 words for your long term goal; it gives a
great opportunity to express who you are. Dedicate about 250 to300 words for your
short-term goals. Be very specific in the short-term. For the long-term goal, you can
be slightly imaginative, expressing your own personal choices of what you want to
do in life, for the next 200 words or so. That’s how 500 words can be played out for
the first essay.
Essay #2
The full-time MBA experience includes academics, recruiting and networking. What
are your personal priorities and how do you anticipate allocating your time at
Columbia Business School? (250 Words)
The whole idea about this is essay is about the business school experience. Two
years of staying in a place like New York can be overwhelming for a lot of people.
They just don’t know what to do, and they go berserk. They go to B-School, they
want to do a little of this, and a little bit of that, plus there is a huge opportunity
cost, and there the cost of an MBA. All of this playing in your mind, and you really
can get lost.
What this essay is really saying is, “What is it that you want to do?”There is really
nothing like a right answer or a wrong answer for this. You could say, “My priorities
are really to experience the student life.” You don’t need to talk about academics. It’s
okay. You can say, “I want to use this opportunity to network with people. I want to
bring my Columbia credentials and go out into the city, and meet people.” If that’s
what you wanted to do, make sure you say so. There is really no harm in saying that,
or if you feel that you are really there for the knowledge, and your priority is to sit in
class, attend lectures, and learn from the faculty, learn from the kind of resources
you’re going to have in the B-School, that could be your answer.
There is nothing such as right or wrong. Pick your priority. 250 words, a very little
leeway for you, so you need to stick to the story. You need to get directly to what you
have to say.
Essay #3
Please select and answer one of the following essay questions: (250 words)
a: Please tell us what you feel most passionate about in life.

b: If you were given a free day and could spend it anywhere, in any way you choose,
what would you do?
Firstly, neither of the two essays has an edge over the other. I have had students
coming and asking me, “ Which one should I pick to maximise my chances?” In
Columbia, 50% of the incoming class is going to pick one essay and the other 50% is
going to pick the other essay. There is really nothing that discriminates one essay
over the other. Let’s look at these essays
A.Remember what you’re passionate about in life. If you remember, in the first essay,
we spoke about what your career goals, long-term goals are, and what you really
want to do. I would imagine that this has to somewhere connect with that. You
cannot have a long-term career goal not involving your passion. You need to make
sure that you kind of tie that. You don’t want to talk about your career in this essay,
but keep the generic theme.
1.Pretty much whatever you want to express, express it here. They are just trying to
see “Is this person interesting?, would I like to meet this person? Is he the person I
would like to see in my class for the next two years?” Be imaginative and creative. I
have noticed that students who are expressive may sometimes write weird things. I
am using the word “Weird” but they end up really popping out of the paper. They
just come out of the application paper. That will compel the reader to say, “This guy
is interesting and I would like to meet him.”
These are the points I would like you to keep in mind for the third essay.
Optional Essay
Is there any further information that you wish to provide the Admissions
Committee? If so, please use this space to provide an explanation of any areas of
concern in your academic record or your personal history. You may submit bullet
points. (Maximum 500 words)
You can talk about your academic gaps or work experience gaps if you have any to
talk about. Otherwise, stay clear. Don’t try to retrofit a story that did not find a space
for anywhere else.
Columbia Business School is one of the schools for which you have to write a lot. If
you compare it with other schools, they don’t require much writing, but this one has
a lot to write. Make sure you get your application form done as soon as possible.
Don’t prolong it, the essays can take a long time to write.
If you think there is a way in which we can help you, please feel free to click the link
below, and let us know. We would be glad to connect with you and see how we can
be a part of your MBA journey.
Kellogg School Of Management Essay Analysis 2017 – 2018
Welcome to this Essay Analysis in which I will talk about Kellogg School of
Management, and its MBA program. If you’re looking at applying to Kellogg this year,
well, you have come to the right place.
First of all, let’s look at the Kellogg program. One thing about the program is that
people think of Kellogg as a marketing school but truth be told, all the Ivy League
schools that are on the top ten aspire to be the next Harvard. If you think about it,
Harvard is not really known as a marketing school or a finance school but is known
as a general management school. The same goes for Kellogg. Yes, It’s great for
marketing and there is no denying it, but if you look at it from a B-School
perspective, it gives you a great opportunity in other areas as well, such as
consulting. Hence, my suggestion is, don’t look at Kellogg as only a marketing B-
School, don’t try to beat it down. Kellogg probably doesn’t want to hear it because it
wants to be known as a general management program.
What is unique about the program?
Team-Based Learning
A lot of learning at Kellogg is team based learning. What you mean by team based
learning is that you are essentially put into different teams. This means that for a
particular project while working with your team, if one person is not pulling his
weight, or you’re not getting along well with another person, well, it’s too bad. You
still need to make it work, because they think that this is what will happen in real
life. In real life, you can’t go crying to your boss and say, “I don’t like this guy. Why
don’t I change my team, or why don’t you change his team? ” This is the beauty of
team-based learning.
Team-based learning also comes into student involvement.Kellogg prides itself for its
student involvement. You can find that most of the clubs and communities in Kellogg
are student run. That’s the huge highlight of Kellogg.
Kellogg Community
The second important factor is that they emphasize on the Kellogg community. They
are proud of the fact that they essentially have the students network with the alums
for their professional development. I have heard about this from Kellogg alums; our
CrackVerbal students who have been there.The Kellogg network is very strong. One
of our students who got into Kellogg is now interviewing the incoming class. That’s
the kind of involvement the students have. They are very driven and passionate
about giving back to the Kellogg brand name.
With that, let’s look at the application deadlines.
2017-2018 Northwestern / Kellogg MBA Deadlines
Round 1
On-campus Interview Scheduled by: September 22, 2017
Round 2
On-campus Interview Scheduled by: January 12, 2018
Round 3
On-campus Interview Scheduled by: April 13, 2018
2017-2018 Northwestern / Kellogg MBA Essay Questions
Essay 1
Kellogg’s purpose is to educate, equip & inspire brave leaders who create lasting
value. Tell us about a time you have demonstrated leadership and created lasting
value. What challenges did you face, and what did you learn? (450 words)
In this essay, you have to talk about an incident that is in some sense, larger than you.
It’s very important for us to focus on “This is a leadership experience, where you had
created a lasting value”. The word “Lasting value” is something that is beyond you.
A mistake that a lot of students make is that they talk about a personal
accomplishment. They write something like, “I was working on this project and we
had a deadline and someone had to step up the plate…someone had to roll up their
sleeves and do it…I worked a couple of all nighters….I went and convinced people
from other departments and I made it happen.” Making it happen is one thing but
building something that is going to last even when you’re not there is another.
Contributing or volunteering for an NGO is one thing. Setting up an NGO where there
are people who are going to contribute even after you, is another thing. It is very
important for you to pick something that is larger than you; that’s the key thing here.
The second thing is, for building the story, you can use a very simple framework. You
can talk about what I call as “The Start Framework”.
• S – Situation
• T – Task
• A – Action
• R- Result
• T – Takeaway
• What was the background when you came in?

What was the task that you were assigned? You need to be very specific. Don’t say,
“We were supposed to do this.”. Tell them what you were supposed to do.
• What was the action that you performed?
• What was the result of the action?
• What were your personal takeaways? What did you learn from this experience
about yourself?
Situation, task, action, result, and takeaways. That’s how I would build this essay.
Each framework with 90 words. One more thing is that people tend to not focus on
the takeaways. You need to talk about what you learnt. So make sure that you don’t
miss it because that is a crucial part of this essay.
Essay 2
Pursuing an MBA is a catalyst for personal and professional growth. How have you grown in the
past? How do you intend to grow at Kellogg? (450 words)
This a typical career goal essay. What we need to do for the career goal essay is to
divide the essay into three parts.
The First part – Write about yourself
How have you grown in the past? Write a paragraph which describes your growth
journey. Who were you when you started as a fresher? Who are you today? What
have you learned about life? How has that made you a better person?
The Second part
Now that you have grown so much, what have you come to realize?
When you look ahead, what are the kind of goals you want to pursue?
In order to pursue those goals, what is it that you need to equip yourself with?
The Third part
Now that you have figured out the things you want to equip yourself with, how would
an MBA, specifically a Kellogg MBA, help you achieve that?
Okay. So you have three parts :

• Where are you?
• Where do you want to be?
• How do you intend to get there?
That’s how I would break up this essay.This essay is about 450 words. You can write
about 150 words for each paragraph. Obviously, in 150 words, we shouldn’t end up
describing way too much as the space will not be enough. Don’t repeat things that
are found in your resume. Don’t tell Kellogg what it already knows.
Optional Essay
My recommendation for the optional essay is to write about something like a gap in
your education or work experience, or if there is something important that you want
to tell the school but did not have the opportunity to do so anywhere else in your
application form.
Do not use this space to retrofit a story that you probably thought would be
interesting but did not find a place to write. Don’t do that; you would do yourself a
greater disservice by retrofitting.
I hope this Essay Analysis was useful. If you’re applying to Kellogg this year, as
discussed, we have worked with successful candidates who have gone to Kellogg so
we can help you. We would love to hear from you, so go ahead and click the link
below.

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Essay Analysis

1. Duke – Fuqua School of Business

2. Wharton School Of Business

3. Harvard Business School

4. Stanford Graduate School of Business

5. McDonough School of Business

6. Insead Business School

7. University of Virginia Darden School of Business

8. London Business School

9. Cornell University SC Johnson College of Business

10. The University of Chicago Booth School of Business

11. Cambridge University – Judge Business School

12. Tuck School of Business

13. UCLA Anderson School Of Management

14. USC Marshall School of Business

15. University Of Michigan’s Ross School Of Business

17. University Of Oxford Said Business School

18. MIT Sloan School Of Management

20. Texas McCombs

21. Goizueta Business School, Emory University

22. UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School

23. Yale School Of Management

24. Columbia Business School

25. Kellogg School Of Management

In terms of location, Duke is in North Carolina, where there is a research triangle.

From the student’s perspective, how will this help?

It is better than applying in Round 1 or Round 2; you have an advantage and a

Now let’s get to the meat of it, the application process.

What are your short-term goals, post-MBA?

First Required Essay

For example, you could talk about things like:

What are the qualities that really define you

Instructions: Your response should be no more than 2 pages in length.

Fuqua prides itself on cultivating a culture of engagement. Our students enjoy a

• If you have had an academic break,

Round 1 – Sept 6, 2017

Round 2 – Jan 3, 2018

Round 3 – April 2, 2018

So let’s look at the deadlines.

As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we

Essay A: What matters most to you, and why? (750 words)

For this essay, we would like you to:

2017-2018 Georgetown McDonough Deadlines

So that’s pretty much what we have. If you’re applying to Georgetown McDonough,

Secondly, INSEAD is truly international. Although most of the US B-Schools have

INSEAD has two intakes

September 2018 Intake

Round 1 – Sept 20, 2017

Round 2 – Nov 29, 2017

Round 3 – Jan 24, 2018

Round 4 – Mar 7, 2018

January 2019 Intake

Round 1 – Mar 14, 2018

Round 2 – May 2, 2018

Round 3 – Jun 20, 2018

Round 4 – Aug 1, 2018

Now, let’ discuss the optional job essays.

2017-2018 UVA Darden MBA Deadlines

“When preparing for class at Darden, students formulate an opinion on

London Business School Deadlines 2017-2018

Here is what it reads:

Short Term Goal: Immediately post-MBA my goal is to work as a(n) Consultant at

Table of Contents Essay