4. The audience isn’t well understood
While at first it may seem obvious what the Admissions Committee is looking for, it turns out not to be for a few main reasons:
There’s important sub-text underlying most questions, which candidates often miss
Certain themes resonate with admissions committees generally, and to get into the best schools a candidate’s essays really need to address all of those themes
Candidates often don’t know the distinct qualities of particular schools well enough to target their essay content optimally.
5. The true competition isn’t obvious
Most candidates mistakenly believe they are competing against all the other candidates for places, when in fact they are competing against all other candidates possessing a similar profile. Not knowing who the true competition is causes many candidates to emphasise the wrong things in their essays, in an otherwise intelligent attempt to “stand out”.
Even knowing who the true competition is doesn’t assure success, because applicants with similar profiles tend to write about similar things. While this is especially true with respect to essays on career goals and professional accomplishments, it can also be true of more personal essays, given some degree of correlation between career choice and personality.
6. The task’s true nature may not be obvious
As hinted at the beginning of the section, many candidates first consider essay-writing to be a mainly genuine, but ultimately trivial exercise of “filling the space” about their accomplishments, personality and ambitions.
Such a view critically mis-appraises the true nature of the task, however. Given all the marketing themes candidates must get across in an engaging, distinctive and personal way — in order to stand out from all the other talented candidates with similar profiles — those essay word limits should more properly be seen as a challenging constraint.
7. Applicant time and motivation are limited
Applicants tend to underestimate significantly the time and difficulty involved in writing outstanding essays. This is unfortunate, especially given that applicants tend to tackle the essays at the end of the process, when they are exhausted by the effort already expended in researching suitable programmes and preparing for the grueling GMAT exam.
8. Many of your competitors are getting professional help
As the value of a top MBA has become more apparent over time, admissions consulting has become a mainstream method for applicants to gain an admissions edge.
Although admissions officers do not officially condone the use of consultants, many have unofficially acknowledged that by now it has become a near necessity, and they privately expect most applicants to take advantage of that opportunity.
Our view is that the rise of admissions consulting is inevitable given the value an MBA represents, and that, as long as it is done ethically, helping applicants present themselves professionally is in essence no different than a business hiring a marketing agency to boost its brand or product.
