MBA essays are the most important part of the MBA application. Getting MBA essays right can definitely increase your chances of admission in a business school. In this article I will cover the MBA essay topics for 2010 admission to Stanford Business School. 

Essay 1: What matters most to you, and why?

This is the flagship MBA essay of Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) and the most unconventional MBA essay topic for a business school application – a true reflection of the culture and spirit of the school.

1. How to think about it – Brainstorming: This is a very personal and anecdotal MBA essay. So take a sheet of paper and write everything of significance that ever happened in your life, personal and professional. It could be anything from your fond memories of growing up in a hill-station town, or the accident that your dad survived through and the affect it had on your family, or you preparing for your exams under candlelight, or that first job promotion etc. (These will serve as examples to support your claims in the MBA essay). The point is to put together all your life experiences in one place before you start structuring your MBA essay. Remember, it is not an easy task and you will have to strain your brain to bring out all the memories, good or bad. Don’t hold back.

2. Finding patterns in your life: Once you are done with the brainstorming part, then you need to start looking at all these events that you recalled, and try to find some patterns about your own behavior and actions. You need to write about these in your MBA essay. Do you see some consistent behavior that you showed, like always taking charge, or always being there for people as a pillar of strength? The point here is to take a birds eye view of your life till now and figure out your behavioral patterns.

3. Structuring your MBA essay: Now that you know about your own behavioral patterns and core values in life you need to form a story around this to write in your MBA essay. The story structure of your MBA essay can cover:

a. These important events in your life

b. How you acted, felt, behaved during these episodes

c. How and why these events and beliefs ultimately shaped you as the individual you are today (as mentioned on the Stanford website, the “why” is very important to explain)

d. Ultimately arrive at the answer to what matters the MOST to you, and WHY

4. Writing your MBA essay: Once you are done with structuring your MBA essay and have found your answers, you can now focus on the mechanics of writing the MBA essay. This means:

a. The way your formulate sentences. Make sure you use a simple and easy to follow style in your MBA essay. Example of how not to write sentence in MBA essays: “ The situation at home, already tense, turned disastrous later that month when the office, that my brother had been going to since the last 5 years, decided to issue a letter of warning for his tardy behavior.” 

b. The kind of English expressions you use (don’t resort to clichés, it takes the punch out of your MBA essays). Example: “For me this was an open-and-shut case and I felt that I came out of this experience sadder but wiser.” Yaaawn!

You will find this link very useful for concise writing in MBA essays:

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/GRAMMAR/concise.htm

c. Falling into the trap of redundancy in MBA essays. Most of the times the word limit is exceeded due to use of excess “fat” in your MBA essay composition. That’s why a different pair of eyes is important to bring out redundancy in your MBA essay and trim the excess fat! Look out for things like:

i. “Exactly the same” – can be replaced with “same”

ii. “Cooperate together” – can be replaced with “cooperate”

iii. “A person who is intelligent” – can be replaced with “an intelligent person”

d. The chronology of your story – some of the most interesting to read novels and stories are in reverse chronological order. This is the true story of your life, so make your MBA essay interesting.

e. The logical flow from one paragraph to another in MBA essay. Make transitions between paragraphs smooth and natural in your MBA essay. Multiple re-reads of your MBA essay may make your own mind numb and hence it is advisable to get a second opinion on what parts of your essay are awkward and have unnatural transitions from one topic to the other.

I hope you find these tips useful. I will briefly cover some specific tips for the other two Stanford MBA essays in the next article and then move onto GMAT.

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