8 Ways To Commit Essay Writing Mistakes

A lot has already been said about how to write effective essays or how to write essays that sell. Today, I want to write about the common mistakes an applicant can make while writing his B School admission essays. From this post onwards, no TGite will commit mistakes while writing his/her essays. I promise. Months ago, we had put a poll on the same topic. Around 30% people thought that your essays would be completely useless if you fake a lot of stuff. Well! I agree. I will first touch the five points given in that poll and then add three more easily committable essay mistakes.

1. Do Not Answer the Question

This may sound like an obvious thing to do but a lot of applicants forget to do the most obvious thing only. Many times candidates beat around the bush either by going off the topic completely or by answering only a part of the question. Take an example from the recent Harvard Business School Essay topic. The question asks about your three most substantial accomplishments and why do you view them as such? A good answer would include not only the three achievements but also WHY do you think that those are the most significant ones. Business schools put a great deal of thought into their essay topics. They want to learn about your personality, goals, experiences, and contributions through your essays. Failing to write the relevant answers would weaken your case.

2. Do Not Research About the Business School

Each Business School has its own strengths. Failing to address those strengths in your essays would reflect your lack of research. Business schools would want to know how their strengths would fit in your career goals and how you would benefit from the school's strengths. It is obvious that you would want to use the same career goals essay for all thee schools but it is important that you mould each essay according to school's efficacy. It might be a tempting option to use the same essay for multiple schools but a generalized approach of your essay would make it painfully obvious that you have not done your homework properly. Miming what has already been mentioned on the website or brochure does not show your knowledge about the school but the lack of it. the research does not end only at school brochures and websites. You have to go beyond by getting in touch with people associated with school, by visiting the campus, by attending the information sessions so on and so forth.

3. Make A Boring Start

I was generally browsing through the news stories yesterday and came across an article that caught my attention:

KOMODO ISLAND, Indonesia – Komodo dragons have shark-like teeth and poisonous venom that can kill a person within hours of a bite. Yet villagers who have lived for generations alongside the world's largest lizard were not afraid — until the dragons started to attack.

An intriguing start made me read the entire article, which I might have otherwise skipped out of my laziness. Admissions committee reads thousand of applications and the ones that don't catch their attention are definitely put aside. Lousy starts, grammatical errors, and spelling mistakes all show your lack of hard work.

4. Fake A Lot Of Stuff

Not addressing your weaknesses and faking a lot of stuff to hide those weaknesses would add a zing of uselessness to your essays. Do you think that admissions committe would overlook your low GPAs or employment gaps in your application? Not really. It is best that you address the obvious gaps in your application and take responsibility for your actions. You explanations should reflect your maturity, self awareness and the actions that you have taken to overcome those weaknesses. But. Don't whine. Business school applicants go to any extent to present themselves in best light in front of the admissions committee. Although one must put his efforts to present his best side but exaggerating your achievements, using heavy business jargon, and not recognizing the contributions of others will definitely raise the eyebrows of admissions committee. Personally I have seen so many examples where candidates have just been a part of the team but wrote' lead a team' in their essays. Not everyone can become a supportive team member. So why fake? Be proud of your qualities. Support your answers with real-life examples and be genuine with your words.

5. Do Not Introspect

Each essay needs a thorough introspection about your aims and ambitions. Not spending ample time in thinking about the basic questions such as why MBA or how would an MBA fit in your career goals would render your essays shallow and casual. You need not have every step of your future cut-out because admissions committee understand that an MBA degree would give you more clarity about that. But you need to have solid reasons for why you want to do an MBA at this stage of your career. The more clarity you have about your goals, the more it will reflect in your essays. Remember that admissions committee is there to understand about your goals and motivations and how would their MBA help you in archiving them. If you are yourself not clear about your basics, how do you expect adcom to understand that?

6.Ignore The Rules

Word limits are set for a reason in an application essay and not abiding to them is indirectly asking the admissions committee to give more time to your application. The rule of thumb is to stick to +/- 10% of word limit. If you don't want to get penalized for not following the rules then stick to the guidelines.

According to Harvard Business School's Admissions Director, Dee Leopold, " We're not counting words but after lots of experience reading applications, we have a good feel for whether an essay is going over the limit. I think it's fair to say that we expect a candidate to be able to edit effectively."

Mae Jennifer Shores, director of MBA admissions and financial aid at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, will never forget the essay from an applicant that ran 27 pages. Single-spaced. It was when she worked at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and the applicant had blatantly disregarded the school's word limit, which was 1,000 words or the equivalent of three double-spaced pages. Exacerbating matters, the applicant used five of the 27 pages to explain a decision to submit three times the suggested number of recommendation letters. "My reaction was: This is very sad because this is an incredibly accomplished individual, but I would have some concerns about this person's suitability on a team."

7. Assume What Business Schools Want To Hear

Do not assume what business schools WANT to read in your essays. Admissions committee wants to hear your true voice through your application and an assumption such as this leaves them with the half baked information about you. Admissions committee want to know about YOUR goals, YOUR values, YOUR experiences and what matters most to YOU. Your essays should reflect your voice and your thoughts. Strictly, don't fall under the impression about what admissions committee wants to hear and what they don't want to her. Be genuine and introspective while writing your essays. You have to spend time on understanding what you want to tell the admissions committee about you and not otherwise.

8. Get You Essays Read By Your Family, Your Friends, and Even Your Pets

While getting your essays edited by others is one of the most important things, it does not mean that you go overboard with the editing process and end up losing your own voice. It is best that you get your essays edited only by 2-3 people. One for checking your grammatical errors, one who knows you closely and can help you add more content in your essay, and one who is familiar with the Business school process. If you blindly accepting advice from a lot of people, you might end up with an essay written by multiple authors. We wish you good luck for this application season. :) If you want to use our essay editing service, book your slot as early as possible.