Je déteste écrire

Writing the essays was definitely not one of my strong points. I've always lived by the phrase "less talk, more action."  That is why I've always preferred to show people what I'm capable of instead of telling them.  I also think its difficult to find that fine line between sharing your accomplishments and boasting about them. The way you read something in your head always sounds different from the way someone else reads them. After working on hundreds of drafts of essays and getting tips from b-schoolers and others familiar with this game, here are some tips I would love to share:

1.  Tell your story - Don't tell a story you think ad com wants to hear. Don't tell a story that you think will be super original.  Tell YOUR story. This was my biggest mistake when I applied the first time.  I told a story I thought ad com wanted to hear and because of that, my passion for what I really wanted to do did not shine through.  I didn't feel the emotions I was interjecting into my essays and the ad com was able to spot the phoniness. 

2.  Remember these essays are about you - Even if the essay calls for you to talk about your family or something that doesn't directly address you, you need to craft a story and an essay that talks about you.  Your dad isn't trying to get into business school; you are.  Ad com is trying to learn about you even though they are asking an indirect question. Don't waste your word count setting the story up too much (I had a huge problem with this).  Spend the bulk of each essay connecting the story to you.

3.  Write tons of drafts - I usually start with an unfiltered dump of all my thoughts.  When you write unfiltered, I think that's when it is easiest to get your real emotions on paper.  Then I'll go through and pick the elements I like and begin writing more formally.  After that, I'll let a couple of friends read it and depending on how they feel, I'll either continue to edit it or I will scrap it and start over.  Sometimes, I'll write 2 or 3 versions of one essay; each with a different approach and I'll use my friends to figure out which one is best. There were a couple of instances where I worked on essays for a month and just scrapped the whole thing to start fresh.

4.  Explain your actions - Remember to convey to the reader your motives.  Explain why you want to work in finance or marketing.  Talk about the tipping point that drove you from being interested in "x" to knowing that you had a genuine passion for it.  Don't make your essay so robotic that it loses the emotion.  This is another mistake that I've made.  I was told my essays were so logical, they became stiff and boring.


5.  Reach out to those outside of your immediate circle to read your essays - All my friends know my story. They know me and they understand how much I want this. I had a problem throwing assumptions into my writing, but those don't translate well to people that don't know you. Because my friends think like me, they weren't catching some holes in my story. When I let my boss read my essay, she ripped it apart and it was awesome. She saved me from turning in a shit essay that didn't make sense.


This is all I could remember off the top of my head.  I'll make a second entry if I think of anything really important.  Actually, one last thing...when you run into writer's block:

go take a mental break and inspire yourself.