Tag: essay writing guide

Mastering the MBA Personal Statement: From CV to Compelling Story

Crafting an MBA personal statement can be daunting. For many applicants, it’s the most uncomfortable part of the application process, transforming a straightforward CV into a compelling narrative. Yet, mastering this challenge is crucial for standing out in a competitive field. Here’s a comprehensive guide to help you navigate from your CV to a polished personal statement.

The Right Mindset

Your personal statement is about your future. Unlike a CV, which lists past achievements, your essay should articulate a clear, specific, and feasible plan for your future. This plan should align with the strengths and resources of the schools you are applying to, guiding your selection of stories and experiences to highlight.

Begin by asking yourself: “What do I want to become and do?” Then, follow up with: “What specifically do I need to learn to make that happen?” and “What is the foundation that has prepared me to pursue this knowledge?” Your past achievements matter, but only in the context of how they have prepared you for your future goals.

The One Big Question: Storytelling

The heart of your personal statement lies in storytelling. Rather than providing a breadth of experiences, focus on a few well-chosen stories that convey your traits and readiness for your goals. Ask yourself:

  1. What traits am I trying to convey?
  2. How can I demonstrate that I’m ready to pursue my given goal?
  3. What stories convey those traits and demonstrate your preparedness?

Remember, showing is more effective than telling. Instead of stating, “I have great entrepreneurial instincts,” show it through a story, like, “When Jane and I built Xenotech, we identified an unserved niche in the market and created a plan to service it.” A compelling story should make clear the trait you’re trying to convey without explicitly stating it.

Building and Writing Great Stories

Every personal statement must answer the clear “why?” questions:

  • Why MBA?
  • Why now?
  • What is your vision for the future?
  • What experiences or potential do you have that supports this vision?

Incorporate “the steak and the sizzle” into your stories. The “steak” includes a clear rationale for why you need an MBA, why now is the right time, and evidence of your ability or potential, grounded in past experiences. This foundation ensures you are not bragging but demonstrating your qualifications.

The “sizzle” adds passion, excitement, and personality to your stories. Showcase human moments and personal interactions that reveal your leadership, learning, and moments of loss. Avoid being all steak or all sizzle. All steak with no sizzle is boring and misses the chance to let your personality shine. Conversely, all sizzle with no steak comes off as emotional but lacking substance.

Your Plan of Attack

  1. Get a Notebook: Write down your aspirations and the traits or skills you hope to acquire or build upon.
  2. Identify Stories: List instances where you demonstrated or failed to demonstrate these traits. Failure can be a powerful source for a compelling essay.
  3. Connect the Dots: For each trait, find a story that shows your excellence and readiness to achieve your goals.

Final Hints

Before you start outlining, have a clear sense of what you hope to emphasize. Distill your core positioning down to 2-3 sentences. Use brainstorming and freewriting to generate useful content. Remember, your core task is storytelling.

Conclusion

Mastering the MBA personal statement requires a balance of clear planning and engaging storytelling. By focusing on your future goals, selecting meaningful stories, and blending rational arguments with personal passion, you can create a compelling narrative that stands out. For more tips and personalized guidance, check out Gurufi.com, where we’ve helped over 10,000 applicants achieve their dream schools. Good luck!

A Non-Minority Student’s Guide to Diversity Essays

An animated image featuring a diverse group of medical school students in a classroom setting. The students, representing various ethnicities, genders, and backgrounds, are all wearing white lab coats and have stethoscopes around their necks. Some are engaged in conversation, holding medical textbooks, or examining medical charts. The classroom is equipped with essential medical tools, adorned with anatomy posters, and includes a skeleton model in one corner. Their expressions convey happiness and a shared enthusiasm for learning, illustrating an inclusive and collaborative educational environment
Embracing Diversity in Medical Education: Future healthcare professionals learning together in an inclusive environment

As a non-minority student, it’s important to approach the writing of a diversity essay with sensitivity and an open mind. Here are five tips to help you write an effective diversity essay:

  1. Think of “diversity” expansively. When most people think of diversity in the context of admissions, they focus on racial, ethnic, national, gender, and sexual identity. But you should also think about experiential diversity. How has your life been different? Think about the kinds of people you’ve encountered, what they taught you, and how you grew. Reflect on the places you’ve lived, unique trials you’ve faced, jobs you’ve held, training you’ve received, or unusual insights you’ve gained. Then, take the additional step of asking yourself how these things would help you make School X a more dynamic, challenging, accepting, and comprehensive educational and life experience for your peers.

  1. Acknowledge privilege: It is important to acknowledge any privilege you may have as a result of your race, ethnicity, gender, or socio-economic background. Reflect on how your experiences may have been shaped by these factors, and how they have impacted your understanding of diversity and inclusion. A frame that can be helpful is to complete this sentence, and then expand on it in a brainstorming writing session: “my privilege has allowed me to ______, and as a result, I feel compelled to _______ in order to _____.” For instance, “My privilege as an upper-middle class man raised in a healthy home has allowed me to have access to mentoring, networks, and advice that many of my peers never had, and as a result, I feel compelled to mentor others, build robust inclusive networks, and look for talent in unexpected places.” This sort of opening could provide the foundation for an insightful, frank self-assessment that gives the reader genuine insight into your values.”

  1. Show empathy: Demonstrate your ability to understand and respect different perspectives and experiences by expressing empathy and a desire to learn from others. Describe how you plan to continue to learn about and engage with diverse communities in the future.

  1. Highlight your commitment to diversity: Emphasize your commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion in your academic and professional pursuits. Explain how you plan to use your experiences and understanding of these issues to contribute to the graduate school community. Identifying and listing your values is good, but providing stories and examples is much better.

  1. Seek feedback: Before submitting your diversity essay, consider seeking feedback from someone who has experience with these types of essays. This could be a mentor, a teacher, or someone else who has a good understanding of the graduate school application process. Their feedback can help you refine your essay and ensure that it effectively communicates your commitment to diversity.

Importantly, our editors and consultants at Gurufi have extensive experience helping people write diversity essays.

Lastly, we recognize that this form of essay can feel unusual or uncomfortable, especially for non-American applicants who aren’t conversant with the world of DEI, why universities value diversity, or even what this idea means. After all, many applicants come from places that are largely mono-racial.

So, while there can be a learning curve, your mindset should ultimately be that the diversity essay is an opportunity to demonstrate your understanding and commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion, whether or not you are a minority. By reflecting on their experiences, acknowledging privilege, showing empathy, highlighting their commitment, and seeking feedback, non-minority students can write effective diversity essays that showcase their ability to contribute to diverse and inclusive academic communities.

For more help with your personal statement, check us out at Gurufi.com. Our personal statement editors and consultants have decades of experience helping clients get into top MBA programs. Our specialty is helping you craft compelling personal statements that move the needle in your admissions process! For questions, shoot us an email at service@gurufi.com. Check us out on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.