(Credit: m.gifford)
Virtually all top business schools with some notable exceptions ask applicants for a personal statement in which candidates discuss their goals and ambitions as they pertain to the MBA degree and often, to the target schools particular program. As you approach this essay, be sure that you place appropriate emphasis on the ‘personal’ aspect of what you plan to write, because you will need to take ownership of and truly tell your story in a way that is not only clear and compelling, but that also reveals your personality and individuality. You cannot afford to be generic or vague when stating your goals or the reasons why you want to attend a certain school. Instead, you must write with purpose and conviction to impress upon the admissions committee that you have maturity and vision and will see your goals through.
In practically all personal statements, you must discuss your past (work experience), present (need for an MBA and the schools ability to facilitate your academic and professional objectives) and future (career goals) with insight and focus. However, note that we actually recommend a past, future, present sequence for this essay, because in this case, the most logical approach is to first give context and background about yourself, next describe your goals and then explain why you need the particular schools resources to achieve those goals. Convincingly explaining why a schools resources are required to help you achieve your goals would be quite challenging if you have not first stated what those goals are.
Past: Context and Work Experience
In recent years, top MBA programs have been de-emphasizing work history to some degree in the personal statement. Most schools personal statement essay questions used to read a lot like this: Discuss your work history. Why do you need an MBA to achieve your goals? Why do you want an MBA from our program? In conversations with admissions officers, I have come to understand that many felt that the resume, recommendations, other essays and interview provide sufficient information about a candidates background and that a work history was increasingly unnecessary. Still, some personal statement questions follow this traditional approach, as is the case with Kellogg:
Northwestern University (Kellogg): Briefly assess your career progress to date. Elaborate on your future career plans and your motivation for pursuing a graduate degree at Kellogg. (600-word limit; 20092010 essay question)
Meanwhile, others such as those for Columbia Business School and the University of Michigan (Ross) do not explicitly ask you to discuss past experiences, but providing some basic context for your goals is still important.
Columbia Business School: What are your short-term and long-term post-MBA goals? How will Columbia Business School help you achieve these goals? (Recommended 750-word limit; 20092010 essay question)
University of Michigan (Ross): Briefly describe your short-term and long-term career goals. Why is an MBA the best choice at this point in your career? What and/or who influenced your decision to apply to Ross? (500-word maximum; 20092010 essay question)
If a school explicitly asks you to discuss your career progress to date, do not take this as an opportunity to offer every accomplishment on your resume. Some candidates make the mistake of writing about their work experience for 75% of their personal statements, even though they are also submitting a resume with their application. This wastes precious essay space by repeating facts the admissions committee already has elsewhere. We recommend limiting your discussion of your career history to approximately 40% of the essay length and including brief, but strong, examples of success to represent an accomplished career.
When no explicit request is made for information about your past, you should still include some brief background to make your present and future goals relevant. For example, a statement such as My long-term goal is to become director of marketing for a major league sports franchise becomes much more reasonable and the stated goal seems more attainable when the candidate also offers information about his/her past experience in sports management. Context connects the past and the future. With questions like Columbias and Rosss, candidates should limit their career history to 50125 words or approximately 10%15% of the total allowed word count of context, so the career goals are clearly plausible and connect to a broader story.
Admissions committees are much more interested in understanding the decisions you have made and the processes through which you have grown than reading a summary of your past work experiences. Indeed, the presentation of your career progress in your essay should show professional milestones and momentum toward your future career goals. Your career history in this context is not meant to be a full review of your professional past, but rather a story that leads the reader to understand and admire your future goals.
If you are a career changer, as many MBA candidates are, your work history may not seem to link as definitively with your stated goals, at least in comparison with someone who plans to continue working within the same industry or job function after business school. However, you still need to show growth and accomplishment and highlight capabilities and knowledge. Emphasize the aspects of your career to date that are most relevant to your future goals, either because they have served as good preparation for your new intended career, or because they have given you some transferable skills that will be relevant to that career.
Future: Career Goals
Your career goals should have a logical connection (if not a professional connection) to your professional history. The general idea is quite simple:
past experience + present MBA = future professional goals.
Short-Term Goals
Your short-term career goals need to show very clear direction and purpose. Simply writing When I graduate I want to go into marketing or With my MBA, I will enter the field of consulting is not enough. What kind of marketing (i.e., consumer products, business to business, etc.)? What knowledge do you have of consulting, and why will you excel? Remember, this is not a statement of dreams, but a statement of purpose, so you need to provide far greater depth. As you develop your short-term goals, you must consider the specific role they will play in enabling you to attain your long-term goals. You should demonstrate why you will excel in pursuing your goals and, ideally, show insight into why the market might even need you. Consider the following example:
“Given my background as a wine journalist, I am well aware of the traditional aspects of the wine-making industry and recognize that many vintners are slow to adapt to modern manufacturing and marketing techniques. With my MBA from Shinewald University, I will have the specific entrepreneurial and operational skills necessary to develop a small vineyard and nurture it so that it realizes its full potential. I see myself in my first position after earning my MBA as the general manager of an antiquated vineyard in the ABC region, implementing operational efficiencies, accessing capital for growth and marketing a superior product nationally and even internationally.”
In this example, the writer connects his/her experience as a wine journalist to his/her future as a general manager at a vineyard. He/she identifies a specific role to play and even illustrates the logic behind this role, which is essentially some vineyards desperately need professional management talent. The reader is therefore left with a clear understanding of where this applicant is going, why this applicant will succeed and even why this applicant is needed in this field.
Avoid Generic Statements
Declaring I want to be a banker or I want to be a consultant without any further clarification simply is not sufficient you must explain as specifically as possible what you envision yourself doing after business school. For example, within the consulting industry, you will find many different types of consultants: marketing consultants, operational consultants, strategy consultants, technology consultants, small business consultants even admissions consultants! Thus, stating merely that you want to be a consultant will reveal that you have not done your homework and do not really understand your field of interest or your possible place within it.
In contrast, consider this short-term goal statement:
“After graduating from Tuck, I intend to join either the Performance Improvement Group at Bain and Company, specializing in turnaround strategy, or the Operations Group at BCG, focusing on Rigorous Program Improvement.”
Although this sentence is out of context, no one who reads it could credibly argue that the writer does not have a clear sense of purpose or knowledge of the consulting field.
In short, the admissions committee needs to see conviction and passion for a path; no business school that requests a goal statement is going to accept applicants who are unfocused with regard to why they want an MBA. However, conviction does not need to mean rigidity. Spend some time thinking through your goals very carefully. If you are not able to pinpoint an exact choice or if you can envision more than one feasible route to your goal under certain circumstances, offering alternatives for your short-term goals can be acceptable. (Note, of course, that alternate paths still need to involve a logical connection from past to present to future.) Consider the following example of offering alternative goals:
“In the long term, I would like to head a nonprofit organization that focuses on offering career guidance to inner city high school students. I see two possible paths for achieving this goal. In the short term, I could work at a nonprofit with a similar mission, such as the Youngest Professionals Organization, working my way up and gaining concrete experience in managing a nonprofit. Or I could take a slightly different angle, working at Honesty Corporation, which targets its products to inner city youth, to gain a better understanding of that population before moving from the business sector to the nonprofit one.”
Someone reading this statement should clearly see that the applicant is indeed quite serious about his/her long-term goals so much so that he/she can envision at least two feasible routes toward them. Again, admissions committees want to understand that you are resolved about your future plans and view earning your MBA as a vital step in the right direction. Sometimes, maintaining perspective and offering a second possible path can reinforce that determination.
Long-Term Goals
When proposing your long-term goal to the admissions committee, first keep in mind that you will need to demonstrate a cause and effect relationship between it and your short-term goal. Note also that long-term goals can be less specific than short-term goals they essentially represent an ideal aspiration. While specificity is recommended for statements of short-term goals, admissions committees understand that no one can truly predict the future, so your long-term goals almost by necessity need to be less detailed. However, they should still clearly denote an intended and attainable career trajectory, as shown in the following example (which continues from the one offered in the Short-Term Goals section):
“In the long term, I would build on the success of this endeavor and would source and acquire multiple vineyards in need of modernization. Ultimately, I see my role in the firm as one of a portfolio manager, actively managing several vineyards and making decisions about capital allocation while leveraging operational and marketing efficiencies.”
Avoid Unconnected Long- and Short-Term Goals
As stated, you must be sure to demonstrate a cause and effect relationship between your short- and long-term goals. While your goals can and should be whatever you desire for yourself (admissions committees do not have a right goal in mind that they expect from candidates) and may even seem quite disconnected from each other at first glance, this is fine as long as a causal connection exists and is shown between your short-term goals and your long-term goals. After all, your long-term goals are based on the assumption that your stated short-term goals will be reached; the positions you will hold later in your career will be facilitated by those you hold earlier.
For example, a statement such as In the short term, I want to be in marketing and in the long term, I want to become a banker would present a significantly disjointed transition one that would likely perplex an admissions officer or career services advisor who reads it. Most short-and-long-term goals can connect in some way. Equity research can be a foundation for consulting, for example, and marketing can be a basis for entrepreneurship. Generally, the goals themselves are not that relevant the rationale behind these goals is what is vital. If the goals are well connected, they will be real.
Moreover, given that these are your personal goals and part of your vision for your career and life, you most likely already know how they connect for you. The key is clearly communicating for the admissions reader how the transition you envision from your earlier role to your later one will play out in your post-MBA years.
Avoid Disingenuous Goal Statements
Rather than expressing their sincere desires, some candidates make up goals they think the admissions committee wants to hear. These applicants tend to believe that the school is seeking only certain types of candidates who plan to pursue specific industries and positions, so they must fit this mold to gain acceptance to the MBA program. Not only is this untrue, but trying to guess what an admissions committee wants to hear and deliver it is also a recipe for failure. The end result is uninformed goals that lack context and sincerity. And considering that all parts of a candidates application package should support the same career vision including ones interview with the school, if applicable presenting false goals here can jeopardize the applicants entire candidacy.
Expressing what you truly feel and want to pursue is key. No amount of sophisticated language can make up for a lack of passion. Remember that admissions readers see thousands of essays every yearthey are extremely experienced and can therefore tell when a candidate is being sincere and when he/she is just trying to say the right thing. Besides, writing the truth is not just more effective, it is much easier.
Present: Why Our MBA?
Perhaps above all else, schools want to hear very compelling reasons for each candidates need for their particular programs MBA. Even when a school asks the generic question Why do you need an MBA to reach your goals? it is in fact also indirectly asking you, Why do you need your MBA from our school? and How will you use our resources to achieve your goals?
A common mistake among applicants when responding to this question is to simply flatter the school: Ross is remarkable because of its wealth of entrepreneurial resources. I am excited to join a community of aggressive and exciting innovators. This sentence is entirely generic; the writer has not offered any insight into his/her reasoning or into how he/she will use particular Ross resources.
Instead, infuse your arguments with school-specific information. For example, this same candidate would be more effective by writing the following:
“I am interested in modernizing the antiquated wine industry but recognize that no rulebook or simple theorem exists for doing so. Thus, I am compelled by Rosss action-based learning approach, particularly its Multidisciplinary Action Project (MAP) course. During this seven-week hands-on experience on-site at a company, I expect to face live challenges and deliver targeted solutions, with the help of peers and advisors, meeting the high-level expectations of a major firmthe ideal training ground for facing a host of management problems in the inefficient wine industry.”
In this example, the individual does not simply compliment the schools positive qualities but explains how Rosss unique characteristics and offerings meet his/her specific needs by inference, no other school can fulfill these needs, because no other school offers the MAP. While you may not always be able to pinpoint aspects of a program that are entirely unique to that school, the key is to show a connection between the schools resources and offerings and your individual interests and requirements to make the association very clear and personal. Doing so will show the admissions committee that you have done your homework and understand how the full complement of that schools resources come together to create a unique and fitting experience.
As a rule of thumb, if you can answer the following three questions about the school in some detail, you will present yourself as sufficiently knowledgeable:
1. What specific/unique academic programs or classes appeal to you and will help you reach your goals?
2. How will you both contribute to and benefit from the schools nonacademic offerings?
3. What elements of the schools atmosphere, the nature of its students or the general sense you get about the school through visits or conversations with students/alumni make it attractive to you?
Two to Three Themes
In longer essays (7501,000 words), candidates must discuss two or three key themes and give detailed explanations of exactly how they will use the schools resources to achieve their goals. For example, he/she cannot simply state: Columbia is an excellent choice for me because of its wealth of entrepreneurial programs. I also look forward to international programs at this most international of schools. Furthermore, CBS excels in finance and marketing. The idea is not to generate a list, but rather to develop a well-thought-out argument. This is similar to stating your case to a jury: prove to the admissions committee that by taking advantage of its schools specific programs in your areas of need, you will achieve your goals, and suggest that taking these specific programs is the best (or only) way for you to achieve those goals. For example, a candidate might choose to dedicate a paragraph to CBSs entrepreneurial resources:
“One of the most appealing aspects of Columbia is that entrepreneurship is not just taught but experienced through a wealth of hands-on resources. Through the Entrepreneurial Sounding Board, I will have a vital avenue available to test my ideas and gain frank feedback from serial entrepreneurs, which will allow me to refine my ideas and prevent mistakes. Equally important, I would aspire to enter the Entrepreneurial Greenhouse.”
Personal Fit
Showing your academic and career fit with a certain program is vitally important, but so is showing your personal fit. If you have visited the school or spoken with some of its alumni, students, professors or admissions staff, mentioning these personal connections can be quite helpful. Your knowledge of the school will seem more substantial, and your interest will be seen as sincere. Note how the candidate mentions several firsthand experiences with the school in the following example:
“I was deeply impressed by my visit to the Shinewald School of Business. From Professor Amanda Smiths clever explanation of the AOL case in her Acquisition Finance course to the energy of students Tom Brown and Jill Johnson, who all but dragged me across the street to have coffee and share their insights, I was amazed at the dynamic feel that permeated my brief Shinewald experience. I look forward to being a part of such an outgoing community.”
Your Contribution
Often a school will ask applicants to explain what they will bring to the greater MBA program if they are admitted as students. In this case, applicants can refer to such possible contributions as expected participation or leadership in a particular club; past work experiences, which can enrich classroom discussions; an international background, which can bring a global perspective to teams or coursework; or even personal characteristics like enthusiasm or humor, which may facilitate bonding between classmates. Be careful to not just present a list of clubs, for example, but to truly personalize your proposed involvement in specific student organizations or events and in the schools broader community. Even when a school does not explicitly ask what you can contribute, if space permits, you should still discuss what you could bring to the community, both in class and beyond, if this has not been accomplished implicitly elsewhere in the essay. Here is one example of how to address ones contributions:
“Outside the classroom, I am excited to get involved in the Operations Club, particularly the Six Sigma Challenge, given my interest in innovating within the wine industry. Needless to say, perhaps, I also look forward to joining and taking a leadership role in the Wine Tasting Club, where I could use my connections to vintners in the region to expand the clubs touring program and its connections with recruiters.”
Why Now?
An important element of personal statement essays that sometimes gets lost in the shuffle is the why now aspect. Candidates understandably focus on detailing their career progress to date, outlining their goals and/ or conveying why they are interested in a particular MBA program and either forget or forego any explanation of why they are choosing to pursue an MBA at this particular time. If a school specifically asks why you feel now is the right time to earn your MBA, do not gloss over or sacrifice this information. Do not assume that it is not as important as the other elements of your candidacy that you wish to express the school asked about timing, and an important rule in writing any application essay is Answer the question. Be sure to take the time necessary to develop a clear, fitting answer to this portion of the personal statement, when asked.
About the author: Jeremy Shinewald is the Founder/President of MBAMission, an admissions consulting service based out of New York. He is an alumnus of the Darden Graduate School of Business, University of Virginia.