Today we will be going international with our target the prompt and focus our attention on essay 4 for HEC Paris:

“Imagine a life entirely different from the one you now lead, what would it be?”

My answer would be “James Bond” … if I weren’t already a globetrotting secret agent. Oh dear…I’ve said too much.

All joking aside, one look at this essay prompt and it evokes memories of high school guidance or career counselors asking you the million-dollar question, i.e., if you could do anything you wanted for a living, what would you do? The answer was supposed to be a guiding light to your future career path. The obvious difference in this case is that you already have a clear indication of what your career path is. So what this question is asking you is to provide an example of not only a profession other than your own that you are passionate about, but also what other life paths you feel you could have followed.

You are allotted only 250 words for this prompt, so it is vital that you make every word count. You want this to be a short, but impactful essay that leaves the admissions officer with a clear expression of how you see your skills and abilities translating into a completely different life path. The key here is to not be too imaginative. You want this alternate life story to be genuine, and grounded in a possibly reality. Take a look at your past and make a list of all those moments when you were still finding yourself and trying to determine which career you wanted to pursue. These forks in the road will provide you with possible alternate timelines that you can use as the subject for this prompt. There was a reason you considered these other career possibilities. Why did they interest you? Which one of your skills would have made you just as successful had you chosen that path? Start at the fork and try to follow the path in your head. Write a quick outline of how the pursuit of this other life would have played out. Your answer will provide an example of your conceptual thinking skills, as well as an example of the values that define you as an individual.

Since your answer has to be short and sweet, once you have chosen your desired alternate life the real challenge will be in providing a worthwhile representation of that life in 250 words. This means that only the most integral moments in this alternate path should be discussed. Every scene must define why you selected this particular course. Take the same approach of outlining the forks in the road of your actual life, and map out the entire alternate life. It doesn’t have to be in too much detail, but out of these defining moments you will pick the most important ones to form the spine of your response. You need to show the reader how this alternate path defines you as an individual. The insight it provides will help the reader to understand the fundamental characteristics of your persona that define you apart from your current professional career. You want to provide a holistic all encompassing image of yourself. Since the previous essay prompts covered your professional life, prompts such as this one will provide the rest of who you are, and this will serve to set you apart from your peers.

Cheers,

Ivy Eyes Editing

www.ivyeyesediting.com

So many personal statements, so little (but just enough!) time. Applying to business school is a grueling, time-consuming process, but the Ivy Eyes Editing team is here to help you. Today we’ll look at the third essay prompt for the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business:

“Considering what you’ve already included in the application, what else should we know about you? In a maximum of four slides, tell us about yourself.”

Sneaky, sneaky Chicago Booth. We see what you did there. It isn’t difficult to see that this essay is a test of your presentation skills, minus the presentation, wrapped in an opportunity to provide the Booth admissions officers with a better picture of who you are and what defines you. There are some guidelines that you must keep in mind when crafting your response:

1. Acceptable formats are PowerPoint or PDF.
2. Embedded video, music, or motion images are not supported.
3. All content must be included in the four pages; hyperlinks will not be viewed.
4. The file will be evaluated on the quality of the content and ability to convey your ideas, not on technical expertise or presentation.

For starters, let’s cover some presentation basics that will help you structure your approach to this essay. It is highly likely that by this point in your careers you have lost count of the presentations you have prepared and given, but there is always room for improvement. Remember that each slide in a presentation needs to show AND tell. A balance needs to be struck between the visuals and the amount of words placed on the slide. A picture might be worth a thousand words, but it doesn’t say any of them. You don’t want to simply throw up an image and let the admissions officers read whatever they want into it.

You also want to avoid using each individual slide as a page from a word processor. Fight the urge to use the space to write your complete autobiography. That perfect combination of words and visuals will serve to hone the clarity of your slides. While the essay guidelines specifically mention that your response will not be evaluated on the basis of technical expertise or presentation, that does not give you carte blanche to ignore the basics of crafting a proper presentation. Keeping these fundamentals in mind will help you in crafting the best response.

Now comes the hard part, finding the right content. In the first two Booth essays you have already covered your short and long term goals, and the development of your leadership skills. Now it is time to focus on everything you haven’t mentioned. Imagine someone asks you the question, “What do you do for a living?” But with the caveat that you are not allowed to mention anything about your job or your career, how would you respond? Make sure that you do not discuss anything that you already covered in the second Booth essay. What would your friends or family say about you?

You can pick four different aspects of yourself, or flesh out a single one across the four slides. The most important thing is to focus on things that really define you as a person, and clearly and succinctly describe why that is the case. Make a list of all the hobbies, interests, and events in your life that define you, and then make a slide for each one. If one slide isn’t enough for a particular event or interest, focus on that one and ask yourself why it wouldn’t fit, and if it really defines you, then make it fit. In the end you will have a wide visual representation of who you are sitting in front of you, and from there you can pick the slides that truly speak to who you are.

Good Luck!

Ivy Eyes Editing

www.ivyeyesediting.com

As the third round of application deadlines creep closer and closer, it’s time to start honing those essay writing skills and putting the finishing touches on your personal statements. Today we’ll take a look at the second essay for the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business:

“At Chicago Booth we believe each individual has his or her own leadership style. How has you family, culture, and/or environment influenced you as a leader?

In order to craft a proper response to this prompt, we are going to have to initially mentally situate ourselves in those distinct moments that we feel best represent our leadership abilities. These instances will not be forming the basis for your personal statement, but rather the starting point by which you will trace back to the origins of the abilities that you exhibited during these examples. This part will most likely be fairly simple at first. We all have a personal mental note placed on all the moments that we feel best represent us as leaders. Once you have made a list of these, now comes the more challenging part of the exercise: pinpointing the different traits that you exhibited during these moments and tracing them back to their origins.

Many of the quality traits that we exhibit in our greatest hits of leadership moments come from fundamental character traits that we developed growing up, and then honed through years of practice and implementation. Leadership isn’t a concretely defined character trait. It is composed of several different traits in several different combinations. It is from this variety that you will be able to cull the best possible personal statement that adequately represents your leadership skill, while simultaneously differentiating you from the rest of the application pool. So don’t try to provide a laundry list of different traits that fall under the umbrella of leadership. Think about the traits that truly define you and your ability as a leader, and focus on those. Even if you end up with one defining character trait, it doesn’t matter. The point is to craft an honest and genuine representation of you.

Once you’ve started to trace the development of the characteristics back to their origins, and likely find yourself with several source of influence from your family, culture, and environment, the challenge will be presenting these in a manner that is unique and sets you apart from your peers. It is very likely that, given the size of the application pool, there is someone with a similar background to you applying for the same spot in the incoming class at Booth. Focus on this. Imagine your clone is currently filling out an application to Booth (there isn’t an actual clone. Even though that would be really cool in a science fiction thriller sort of way, it would also be incredibly creepy) and that you are now trying to describe the exact same family, culture, and environment as another applicant. How would you describe them differently? What aspects of these influences don’t appear on the surface? If you have to, craft one response, then go over it and try to say everything about your influences that you didn’t say the first time. This will take a lot of time and effort, but in the end you will have the best possible response you can get. And that is what you’re striving for.

Submitting essays for Round 3 MBA applications? Visit www.ivyeyesediting.com for free initial feedback on your work.

Cheers,

Ivy Eyes Editing

www.ivyeyesediting.com

Many ESL MBA applicants come to us looking for the ‘Ivy League varnish’ on their MBA admissions essays. However, that’s simply not our core mission here at Ivy Eyes Editing – and that’s something we convey to each and every one of our prospective clients. Our fundamental belief is that the best content comes from you.

Through our signature Advanced Service, in addition to helping our clients identify mechanical issues in their writing, we take a Socratic approach – asking targeted questions intended to generate the deepest thinking. While some ESL applicants may be in search of a final editing product that reads like Hemingway, we know this would be a faulty admissions strategy. Revealing how you think is so much more important!

You’ve grown up in Taiwan, attended college at National Taiwan University, and you started studying English just 3 short years ago. Your English should not be on par with HBS applicants who also attended Harvard undergrad – and it won’t be expected to be.  Your candidacy will be evaluated differently – on its own terms – and not exclusively or primarily based on the refinement of your language.

Here’s a more practical shortlist for all ESL MBA applicants to keep in mind:

What To Do:

-Tell your story in crisp, precise language.

-Focus on communicating your concrete strengths through substantive career, academic and personal anecdotes. Show versus tell really works!

-Convey a confident, honest communication style in your prose and your personality will shine through.

What NOT To Do:

-Fill your essay with substance-less, woolly language, business jargon and abstraction you’ve read after googling “great sample MBA admissions essays.”

-Try to interpret or translate colloquialisms or philosophies that are unique to your native country.

-Pander to an admissions committee  through sycophantic or hyper-polite language (a strategy exceedingly common many international applicants).

If you’re an ESL MBA applicant, we encourage you to submit for our free critique (admin@ivyeyesediting.com) in advance of upcoming Round 3 and Round 4 MBA deadlines.  If there’s one thing we love to do at Ivy Eyes Editing, it is help people to communicate their stories, in their own words, with their own authentic style.

And though English may not be your first language, you and only you have the best things to say about your experience and what you are poised to share at an MBA program.

Cheers,

Ivy Eyes Editing

www.ivyeyesediting.com

Every year, the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) conducts its Year-End Poll of Employers.  Aimed at comparing current-year employment data to hiring projections for the coming year, the survey offers valuable information to those seeking advanced degrees.

In November of 2011, the GMAC polled 229 employers at 216 companies worldwide.  The information found in the survey results yielded a positive outlook for those entering the workforce in 2012.  Not only does it appear that employers plan to continue hiring, but many indicated a likely uptick in staffing for the coming year.

MBA students in particular appear to be entering a more favorable job market.  Of employers polled, “74 percent plan to hire MBAs (up from 58%), 59 percent plan to hire specialized master’s (up from 38%), and 51 percent look to hire Master in Management candidates (up from 36%).”

Hiring trajectories are up for the non-MBA graduate field as well.  The poll indicates that 70% of employers planned to hire non-business master’s graduates, up from the 53% that hired them in 2011.  Specialized master’s are projected to be desirable to 59% of those polled, a noticeable increase of the 38% from 2011.

Perhaps more importantly, as cash is king, 2012 salary projections for MBA students appear promising, or at least appear poised to remain at 2011 levels.  According to the survey, “Nearly a third (32%) of companies planning to hire MBAs in 2012 expect to increase the annual base salary of these hires compared with 2011. In addition, 65 percent of companies plan to keep starting salaries at the same level as those offered in 2011”

As for non-MBA graduates, the news is similarly positive.  Masters in management graduates are expected to see an average salary increase of 27%, while specialized master’s and nonbusiness master’s are projected to enjoy an increase of 26%.

One employer offered some insight on the anticipated salary increases – “From our current recruiting processes, the candidates we have offered [jobs] are all considering multiple offers. The market seems to be robust at the moment.”

Though these projections may seem promising on paper, you may be wondering how well they stack up to actual employment data.  The survey addressed this concern, and demonstrated great accuracy (around 95%) with their 2011 projections in comparison to actual 2011 employment data.

Aside from salaried positions, many graduates obtain internships at the onset of their career.  Internships are an integral part of the genesis of many careers, as employers often consider on-the-job experience equal to and in some cases more valuable than an advanced degree alone. Here are two responses received by the surveyors from employers they queried on the value of internship programs in the current market:

“It is more competitive than ever…build your resume with work and internships and a great MBA.”

 “If the student[s] determine they will go straight into graduate programs, it is important that practical work experience is completed, at least through internships or co-op work experiences.”

 As for the poll’s results regarding the 2012 internship outlook, both paid and unpaid, graduates can once again expect in increase in opportunity.

MBAs led the pack with a 69% share of employers planning to hire them in 2012 for paid internships (25% for unpaid).  Following closely were nonbusiness master’s with a 69% paid internship projection (17% unpaid).  And lastly, specialized master’s in business and master’s in management graduates are expected to be selected for paid internships by 56% and 54% of the employers polled, respectively, and by 16% and 17% for unpaid positions.

In conclusion, the survey yielded positive results and a largely optimistic hiring outlook for the range of graduate degree types in its scope.  Hiring trends are poised to either meet or exceed 2011 totals, and compensation projections are favorable.  Additionally, those searching for internship positions can expect a more robust hiring market than in 2011.  Overall, 2012 portends to be a good year for advanced degree holders seeking to take the next step in their careers.

Cheers,

Rich

Ivy Eyes Editing

www.ivyeyesediting.com

Greetings MBA applicants,

We are already well into the month of February, and I’m sure you are all starting to feel the pressure of the Round 3 application deadlines that are quickly approaching. Take a deep breath, try to remain calm and focus on crafting the most precise essays possible. Below let’s take a look at the third essay for NYU’s Stern School of Business:

Please describe yourself to your MBA classmates. You may use any method to convey your message (e.g., words, illustrations). Feel free to be creative. All submissions become part of NYU Stern’s permanent records and cannot be returned for any reason. We do not recommend submitting anything that must be played or viewed electronically, that is perishable (e.g., food), or that has been worn (e.g., used clothing). If you submit a written essay, it should be 500 words maximum, double-spaced, 12-point font.

We can’t truly express how much we love the fact that NYU had to specifically ask people not to submit food and clothing. In the event that you are capable of baking a dessert that fully encompasses all the minutiae of your personality, we would be happy to review it personally.

The phrase “target the prompt” is critical to this essay question–every word in the prompt does really count here. For starters, it is important to try and ignore the fact that the question is being asked (and the answer read) by admissions officers at one of your desired business schools. The admissions officers are trying to get a natural sense of who YOU are as a person, and that is why they are asking you to introduce yourself to YOUR MBA CLASSMATES, and not to them. You’ll be collaborating with and leading your peers, so your communication style must be relatable, organic and human (nota bene: keep the business jargon at a minimum).

So how do you craft a humanizing, compelling introduction? The Ivy Eyes Editing team is stronger with words than colored pencils, so we wouldn’t jump at the illustrations option. If you are sufficiently capable of crafting an incisive visual introduction of yourself, by all means go for it. This will likely set you apart from a lot of the other candidates. Two suggestions if you go this route: Don’t use a preexisting artwork (create an original from the prompt), and accompany it with an explanation as to why it is an introduction of yourself.

For those of you who do NOT have the ability to illustrate your introductions, the process I just outlined can still serve as a method for approaching this essay. A mental mindmap of sorts. If you could draw your introduction, what would you include? What would you be wearing? Would you even be in it? What location would you depict? Who, or what, else would be depicted alongside you? The purpose is to look back on your life and determine what events and actions led to the development of your most elemental qualities, and by extension define you as an individual. You aren’t going to introduce yourself by rattling off a history of all these events, but they will provide you with the fodder for telling someone you are meeting for the first time about your origins as well as your present self.

Cheers,

Ivy Eyes Editing

www.ivyeyesediting.com