MBA-Essays
The essays, together with the GMAT, are the most important parts of an application for an MBA. They must be written with appropriate care. Good things take time. To write a good essay can take up to a month. Our statistics show that one needs to allow for about 8 hours per essay – that is from the moment you start dealing with the essay topic until you submit the essay. Apart from the interview, essays offer the only other opportunity to present one’s experiences, desires, ideas and goals to the admission officers and to convince them moreover, that, given the direct competition with numerous other candidates who have a similar profile, you are the “right” candidate for the targeted MBA program. Along with the references, essays should convey a compelling picture of your character.
If possible, the essays should highlight the following elements:
- Good academic performance
- Professional experience or successfully completed internships; having accepted increasing responsibility in current job and made positive contributions to customers, colleagues and the company; gladly accepted and successfully resolved managerial tasks
- Accustomed to working in diverse teams; dealing with people from different cultures and countries is fun
- Recognising the importance of globalization; good knowledge of foreign languages and experience abroad.
- One is a problem solver, you have a can-do mentality
- Balanced and active life; social commitment
It is important to show both a correct self-expression in a positive sense and a possible future life after the MBA. Although the contents of the essays for the various schools are largely congruent, they differ in number (from one to twelve essays) and in length (12 lines or 100 words to unlimited).
Those who intend to apply in the US and Canada should be very sure of themselves. For German and European standards you will have to over exaggerate. Many candidates, who tend towards modesty, find it extremely difficult to choose formulations that would be unthinkable in Europe. The strategy “I will stay humble and one will discover the pearl in me” is certainly not fitting in view of the ratio of 10 or more applicants per place at many business schools. The essays are expected to be an offensive representation of the candidate clearly presenting his/her recent successes.