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Aerial view of the Dartmouth Campus
The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth just announced that its application for the 2015 / 2016 season is now open. There were no significant surprises this year.
You can’t get through an MBA application without being asked about your career goals, but a lot of applicants struggle to answer the question convincingly. This post is dedicated to helping you do just that. I’ll not only be talking about the keys to writing a convincing career goals essay, but I’ll also be using my own career goals essay from my HBS application to illustrate my points.
Ultimately, a good career goals essay is five things: it’s clear, it’s specific, it’s genuine, it’s ambitious, and it’s congruous. Let’s take each of the five in turn.
Be Clear. State your goal unambiguously and immediately. No one ever got admitted to business school for a beautifully written and captivating introduction, but plenty have gotten dinged because admissions committees couldn’t understand what exactly the applicant’s career goal was. My advice to applicants is always the same: lead your essay with a clear statement of your career goal. Here’s the first sentence of my HBS career vision essay:
“My career will focus on launching and managing social ventures that can provide innovative private-sector solutions to public problems.”
It’s simple, straightforward, and most importantly, it isn’t hiding amidst paragraphs of cliche prose and wannabe poetry.
The one ding I’d give myself is that, by itself, it’s a little broad, which is why it’s also important to quickly get very specific…
This is a big week in MBA admissions, with a handful of big-name programs (like HBS, Kellogg, Ross, Tuck, LBS, Johnson, and INSEAD) rolling out decision notifications for Round 3 applicants. For some who are accepted, it will mark the beginning of an exciting journey to business school, but for most, it will present an opportunity to reflect on your application and consider what comes next.
Waitlisted Candidates
To help candidates who receive a waitlist notification, we recently wrote a post about dealing with the waitlist decision, and we dedicated one of our 10-step guides to navigating the wailtlist process. Although waitlisted candidates should follow instructions provided by the admissions committee, in some cases there are steps that can be taken to maximize your chances, so the articles are worth a read.
For waitlisted candidates, we can also guide you through the waitlist process, and answer any questions you may have about the steps you can take to increase your chances. Reach out through our Free Consultation form, and we’d be happy to help.
Ding Analysis
We have also provided ding analyses to many candidates in the past, and we have helped them secure interviews or admissions offers at top programs like MIT, Wharton, and Columbia as a result. Our Ding Analysis service has been regularly described by our clients as one of the best in terms of value.
Reach out through our Free Consultation form if you are interested, and we’ll be happy to help.
Good luck!
As Harvard Business School is about to release a new batch of admissions offers, we thought that prospective applicants would enjoy watching this video. It was released by Harvard in Q4 2013 on youtube, but it still provides a pretty accurate of what HBS is about. Kyle and I even recognized some of our classmates… Please do not hesitate to share your thoughts with us after watching it; we would love to hear from you ! Good luck to everyone expecting an email from the school this round.
On Monday, April 6 2015, MIT Sloan will be releasing its round two decisions, putting an end to a pretty busy period, during which Wharton (on March 24), Kellogg, Harvard Business School, Stanford, Darden, Tepper, Cornell (all on March 25), Booth, Haas, McComb and London Business School (March 26), Yale SOM (March 27), and UCLA Anderson (April 2) will release their second round admissions decisions.
Notification time Continue reading
As MBA programs begin sending out second-round decisions, many candidates will find themselves stuck in the nebulous world of the MBA admissions waitlist. This can be a tricky place. On the one hand, it’s important to let a school know that, if admitted, you would accept in a heartbeat. On the other, it’s important to demonstrate good judgment and humility. That is, you don’t want to pester members of the admission committee, faculty, or students.
To help navigate the MBA admissions waitlist process, we wanted to share some of our best practices, built partly from our own experience during the admissions process. Continue reading
