The Admissions Essay Part II: Equal Parts Memoir and Strategic Communication

For many applicants, the essays are the most daunting part of the admissions process.  The task of writing is arduous enough, but then there is the reality that application essays must be part memoir – pieces that express your individuality and unique experiences, and part strategic communication – pieces that also impart your knowledge and fit with the institution, along with your leadership and innovation potential.   In Part II, I am going to address the importance of research, the jargon you must do away with, and the conclusion.

Remember, the first thing to remember is simple.  You are the writer and the admissions director is the reader.  What keeps you reading through newspapers, magazines and books?  Important to consider, the qualities that maintain your interest will be some of the same ones that engage your admissions director and help you make that memorable connection you are striving for.

Research:

Conduct extensive research about the institution to which you are applying, so you are able to make the connections admissions directors are looking for.  Think about why the school in question is a strong choice, given where you are coming from and where you want to go.  You must get specific, but don’t over explain what the reader already knows or can figure out.  Admissions directors know a lot about their institution, so they don’t need a long list of classes or clubs you’ve regurgitated from their website.  They want to know why you are interested in specific activities and how you will be proactive in their community.  Talk to the school’s professors and career services professionals.  Visit the school and have lunch with current students.  In order to sound authentic, you must gain first-hand experiences investigating the program you claim to be so passionate about.

Get Rid of Jargon:

You want to sound like a confident leader, so don’t write like you’re not.  Good writing is concise and clear so it is best to avoid sentences cluttered with pompous jargon words like incentivize, alignment and criticality.  Readers identify with people, rather than concepts, especially if they are esoteric principles common only in the lives of chemical engineers or air force pilots.  Admissions directors don’t want to read about the measures being facilitated at the ground control station if there no human element or universal message that will move your candidacy forward.  If you are trying to explain a complex process, relate it to something we can all understand and remember, as Zinsser says, “A simple style does not reflect a simple mind.” 

The Strategic Communication:

As you begin to create your narrative, you will face the reality that an admissions essay is, indeed, a strategic communication, a piece that must communicate your leadership and innovation potential in a carefully crafted way.  The best place to start is a blank document with empty bullet points.  Think about your most meaningful experiences working in and managing teams, investigating and presenting innovative ideas that improved department efficiency or challenging the group consensus.  There are no word limits in brainstorming, so let your thoughts go.  Over time, you will be able to narrow your list to specific examples that demonstrate the high quality of your professional experience, poignant anecdotes that will serve your narrative well.  

The Conclusion:

Just as the lead’s objective is to push the reader into the paragraphs that follow, your conclusion should bring the reader back to a memorable moment in your opening sentences and, simultaneously, take them somewhere else.  A thought-provoking close will be remembered long after your file is off their desk.  As a former admissions director, I would read hundreds and hundreds of essays in any given year and, still to this day, I will never forget the gripping honesty in a conclusion written by a former officer in the military, regarding his account of a tragedy that took the lives of nearly half the men in his platoon.  Unafraid to admit his lack of heroism, his closing remarks about the harsh reality of war, left me stunned.  I realized then I could relate to and remember those applicants who were compelling and human, rather than those who tried to construct a perfect façade.

I’ve often heard my clients refer to the business school admissions process as ‘grueling’ or ‘maddening’.  The mere thought of essay writing brings them back to the college composition class they dreaded or their article in the school newspaper mocked by their peers.  In a system where test scores and transcripts can only take you so far, some of the most powerful tools you possess are words.  Use them well.

The Admissions Essay Part I: Equal Parts Memoir and Strategic Communication

AppEach word of the essay question seems to add significant weight to the paper it’s printed on.  As you stare at the question, you feel sluggish and frustrated. How can you possibly tell a story that will appeal to highly selective MBA admissions committees?  Where will you start?  How will you weave in the qualities deemed acceptable for future students?

For many applicants, the essays are the most daunting part of the admissions process.  The task of writing is arduous enough, but then there is the reality that application essays must be part memoir – pieces that express your individuality and unique experiences, and part strategic communication – pieces that also impart your knowledge and fit with the institution, along with your leadership and innovation potential.  

You’ve heard admissions advice, attended information sessions and combed through Internet searches about admissions essays. So, I’m not going to waste your time with repetition or complexities.  The first thing to remember is simple.  You are the writer and the admissions director is the reader.  What keeps you reading through newspapers, magazines and books?  Important to consider, the qualities that maintain your interest will be some of the same ones that engage your admissions director and help you make that memorable connection you are striving for.

The Lead:

You must capture the reader and force them to keep reading.  You can do this with an unusual idea, an interesting fact, a question or anything else that will appropriately reel them in and push them into the subsequent paragraphs.   Some don’ts worth considering: Don’t repeat part of the essay question in the first sentence of your essay – ‘I am interested in Columbia Business School because’…  Don’t lead with the buzzing of your alarm clock to transition into an essay examining a significant personal experience.  This stale, yet common introduction only signals the work of an inexperienced writer.  Don’t lead with a specific anecdote from childhood.  There are a few exceptions, but keep in mind that admissions committees want you to focus on your experiences post-baccalaureate, so any mention of childhood could be deemed inappropriate.     

The Narrative:

Admissions essays should take a narrative approach, a style conducive to applicants thinking and writing about themselves.  You want to tell a story and construct a meaningful memoir laden with specific details that show instead of just tell the reader about your experiences.  It is best to think narrow.  Don’t summarize your life since college.  Think about one or two impactful projects or events that allow the reader to come to their own conclusions about your innovation and leadership potential.  One of my recent clients responded to Wharton’s first essay question, regarding career objective, by focusing on a recent management experience that inspired her goals post MBA.  Through her minute-by-minute recount of the situation, the reader could see her potential and understand her fit, not only with the future role she is targeting, but also with the student work groups at Wharton.   Just as William Zissner describes memoirs in his book, On Writing Well, essays are meant to be a window into life, very much like a photograph in its selective composition.  

The Message:

Too often, applicants surrender the qualities that make them unique to focus solely on the strategic communication aspect of the essay.  They end up writing what they think an admissions committee member will want to hear, which empties the essay of the very element that makes it memorable, the humanity behind the words.  A laundry list of the results you’ve achieved or the leadership accolades you take pride in won’t provide enough depth.  Leave those for the resume.  For the essay, use the space to show the why and the how of your journey.  Zinsser says, “What holds me is the enthusiasm of the writer for his field.  How was he drawn to it?  How did it change his life?  It is not necessary to want to spend a year alone at Walden Pond to become involved with a writer who did.”  The essays are the reader’s first opportunity to get to know you, so be yourself when you write and don’t forget that part of what makes you compelling are your weaknesses.  The struggle and lessons learned can be some of the most interesting parts of a story, so you don’t have to leave them out. 

I’ve often heard my clients refer to the business school admissions process as ‘grueling’ or ‘maddening’.  The mere thought of essay writing brings them back to the college composition class they dreaded or their article in the school newspaper mocked by their peers.  In a system where test scores and transcripts can only take you so far, some of the most powerful tools you possess are words.  Use them well.