Your GMAT score is strong. Your GPA is solid. Your career accomplishments are impressive. But thousands of others equally as qualified are going to get rejection letters from Harvard, Stanford, and Wharton this year. The difference? Your essays. Faced with a sea of highly qualified applicants, your personal statement is your one chance to clearly set yourself apart. Here’s what elite business schools are really looking for.
What Admissions Officers Are Really Looking For
The numbers convey a sobering picture. Just 11.2% of those who applied to Harvard Business School in 2019 were admitted: Over 88 applicants per 100 are rejected each year there. At Stanford, it’s worse — 6.8 percent of applicants are admitted. These aren’t students lacking credentials. Many rejected candidates possess:
- GMAT scores at or above the school mean (730-740 range)
- GPA’s consistent with institutional norms (range = 3.60 to 3.75)
- 6 – 10+ years of professional experience in the related field
- Demonstrated leadership and measurable achievements
- International backgrounds and cultural diversity
Yet they’re rejected nonetheless.
So what differentiates the get-ins is thousands of equally worthy rejects? More and more, though, the essay is king. Admissions officers have long been clear about the concept of essays as that one thing they can see to distinguish applicants with similar profiles. Test scores and G.P.A.s are important — they’re gatekeeping devices. But once you have cleared that bar, essays reveal something no standardized test can ever measure: your thought process, self-awareness, grit, and sense of purpose.
The Five Essay Mistakes That Will Cost You Admissions
It’s the one that most applicants underestimate, because they underestimate what admissions committees are looking at. Here are the mistakes that torpedo strong applications:
First, the generic “Why MBA?” response. Every applicant tells you they want to fast-track their career, learn business fundamentals , or expand their network. Well, those reasons are valid but indistinct. What Your Goals Are: Include your primary motivation for wanting to pursue the program: What do you hope an M.B.A. degree will allow you to accomplish?
Second, narratives that are solipsistic rather than world-engaged. Essays that focus only on career goals or target salaries reflect the intentionality of a narrow vision. Schools want to know how you will add to your class and bring value to the world.
Third, is the mistake of not responding to what your particular school’s unique strengths are. A generic “Why our program?” paragraph that is copy-pasteable to any number of schools indicates you have not done your homework on what makes our college stand out. This is disrespectful to the admissions process.
4th, you didn’t execute the deathbed career transition story well. Many people making career changes write defensively, as if they owe an explanation for their pivot. They don’t have the ring of certainty or strategic commitment. This undermines credibility.
Fifth, overwriting of unclear messages. Applicants frequently try to cram too much material into essays, and they generally deliver unfocused narratives. After reading your essay, they may have no idea what you want to do.
The Strategic Framework That Works
The best essays from business school applicants do not come from a prompt but instead come from five strategic frameworks we’ve gathered. The strategy has been successful for hundreds of applications:
Part One was your hook—what sets your story apart? Nothing “I’m ambitious” (everyone says that), but something unique about your journey, an insight you have gained or an experience that defined your perspective. This hooks the reader immediately.
Part Two tells your journey. Where have you been professionally? What have you learned? What challenges have you overcome? This is credibility building, and this lets admission committees grasp your trajectory. It puts the where you are right now in context.
Part Three points the way forward for you. Why now? So, what happened that an MBA is now something you need — or, if mandatory sounds wrong to you because you’re not a 22-year-old undergrad straight out of school and being told by society to believe such things — then let’s say, something “you really should have”? This is where you provide the why MBA answer with a good amount of detail and conviction. This part needs to come as something that just occurred, not too forced.
Part Four articulates your vision. Where are you going? What particularly are your post-MBA goals? This is important and often forgotten. Many candidates fall short of putting forth a compelling post-MBA career plan, and admissions officers are left assuming the rest.
Part Five makes the connection. Why this specific school? How exactly do their program, faculty expertise, industry connections and campus culture align with your vision? Generic responses here kill applications. Schools want proof you have researched their program and that you know how closely it aligns with your aspirations.
Real-World Examples and Application Strategy
Take, for example, a techie who wants to move into VC. Instead of telling the reader “I’m excited to move into VC because I think the industry is sexy,” a powerful essay might lead with an argument for why capital allocation at one ink-blot company (you were) or another (one you wished was a portfolio company) could have been more effective, and how your personal experience as both builder and investor would fundamentally change your ability to spot and support the next generation of founders.
Or that management consultant who wants to make a move into impact investing. Instead of just framing it as being unhappy with consulting work, a strong essay could weave in how your consulting experience allowed you to identify trends in sustainable business models, helped you shift toward wanting more impact and return, and that a MBA at a school where there’s significant expertise re: impact investing would strengthen both your technical know-how along with network within this growing area.
The purpose of the best essays is to show you have put a lot of thought into where you want to go (not as much what you want to do) in your career path, that you recognize any deficiencies an M.B.A. would address, and that you’ve done real research on how a specific program meets those needs for you. Winner applicants counsel with experienced professionals in mba admission consulting services who have finely honed this five-part framework and polished their story through several rounds of feedback. These consultants know from experience what business school admission committees venturing between essays that work and those that don’t!
Crafting School-Specific Essays
Different schools emphasize different values. Harvard looks for leaders who will influence their fields and society. Stanford prioritizes innovation and entrepreneurship. This goes to show how Wharton appreciates analytical rigor and strategic thinking. The text is also unique as it focuses on analytic perspectives such as analysis of performance information and evaluation techniques, and real world applications to problem solving. MIT Sloan attracts technology-oriented leaders.
Your essays must convey a sincere interest in what each school has to offer. This doesn’t mean fabricating enthusiasm. Instead, you need to express how your interests and strengths are complementary to what each program provides. How would you succeed in this school?
The Refinement Process
Good essays don’t emerge fully formed out of the first draft. Expect multiple iterations.
Ask for feedback. After your first draft, give it to people who know you well. What questions do they have? Are you being clear? Does your narrative flow logically? What are you assuming that is not obvious to someone who doesn’t know your industry or background?
Then refine based on feedback. Tighten your language. Strengthen weak transitions. Clarify ambiguous points. Anything that’s not serving your narrative directly on the way must be cut. Lastly, make sure all your essays and recommendation letters complement each other to form a comprehensive picture. If your recommenders are highlighting the same strengths as your essays, then you have failed to properly align.
Why Strategic Guidance Matters
The world of admissions has changed, and drastically so. MBA programs at the top tier are now getting applications from exceptionally smart, savvy, and sophisticated applicants who increasingly work with specialist advisors known as MBA application consultants to hone their overall positioning and narrative strategy. These experts have spent years on the front lines of admissions, acquiring an intimate understanding of what admissions readers actually respond to, guiding applicants as they navigate the minefield that is college admissions–all while helping them build narratives that really stick with us.
Consider your essay as an opportunity to be a part of our admissions conversation and not the only one. It is the only time you have in front of us to demonstrate how you think, what truly matters to you, and where you believe yourself going next. It pays to get this right; it matters a great deal to your chances of acceptance. Messing it up — even when you’re bringing scores of impressive test scores and years of experience to the table — can cost you a denial letter. It is this fact that drives so many thoughtful applicants to seek professional help with this most critical part of their applications.
The story your MBA essay should tell isn’t a shared narrative, and you need to tell it in such a way that admissions officers conclude they’d actually like to have this person contributing to classroom discussions, learning teams, and bonding activities. That is the real master class in how to position yourself strategically for business school success.
