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
