The Stanford Graduate School of Business has kindly provided applicants with one of the more daunting and open-ended personal essay questions. Stanford’s first essay question is:
What matters the most to you, and why?
If you decide to write about “the bottom line,” then you should probably start preparing yourself for all the great skills and fond memories you will be accruing at your new post-graduate alma mater not named Stanford University. It’s important to remember that unless the essay question specifically asks you to relate an anecdote from your professional experience (for example, Stanford’s third essay), these essay questions are your opportunity to tell the admissions officer everything that your undergraduate GPA and resume do not reveal.
So dig deep. It might help to work backwards. If you have been preparing your application to business school, business is probably what you have on the brain. So take a long, hard look at one of the most defining moments in your professional career. What qualities did you exhibit? Now backtrack and try to figure out how you developed that quality, and why. How is that quality expressed outside of your professional life? What you are trying to do is whittle yourself down to the fundamental values and beliefs that you hold nearest and dearest. The admissions officers want to see the personal characteristics that define your actions both privately and professionally.
Remember that time your heart grew three sizes and you gave the Whos down in Whoville their Christmas back? That wasn’t you? That’s fine. Grand larceny wouldn’t have been a good topic for this essay anyway. But that sort of inner growth and development is where you need to focus. This has to be about you as a person, not you as a business professional. There is a reason the suggested allotment of words for this essay is higher than all the others: it is your golden opportunity. So don’t overlook it. If you aren’t sure what to write about, make a list of things and draft essays for all of them. Then look back at your responses and see which one really captured your sentiments accurately. These personal qualities will permeate all aspects of your life, and you will want to focus on expressing the breadth of its influence.
What would my topic be? No, it would not be bacon. Writing about bacon in a personal statement is like writing about Catcher In The Rye in your college essay, everybody is going to do it. A better option would be empathy. On the one hand it helps me in my personal relationships with friends and family by allowing me to better understand their points of view and support them in times of need. On the other hand, it gives me the ability to make sense of all the angry emails my boss sends me wondering why it is taking me so long to write my latest entry (answer: food coma). So there you have one quick example of a highly valued personal characteristic expressed in both a private and professional setting.
Good luck.
Francisco
Ivy Eyes Editing
www.ivyeyesediting.com
