Optional Essays in MBA Applications – Crafting Compelling Submissions
Optional essays, sometimes called supplemental essays, are a key part of most full-time MBA applications. While the core components like resume, recommendations, and required essays establish a candidate’s academic and professional qualifications, optional essays give applicants an opportunity to share personal attributes, goals, and experiences that make them stand out from other candidates. Given their importance, applicants should approach optional essays with the same careful thought and effort as the required components.
Why Business Schools Include Optional Essays
Admissions committees understand an applicant is more than just grades and test scores. They want to learn who you are as a person – your motivations, strengths, unique perspectives and how you might contribute to their program and community. Optional essays allow applicants to share qualities, accomplishments or circumstances not evident elsewhere in the application. They provide needed context for committees evaluating hundreds or thousands of similarly qualified candidates.
Business schools also use optional essays to gauge an applicant’s writing ability and communication skills outside a rigid required essay structure. How thoughtfully and coherently one conveys additional information reveals qualities like initiative, critical thinking and attention to detail. Well crafted optional submissions signal these applicant strengths.
Choosing Effective Topics
With only a limited number of optional essays permitted, it’s crucial to select topics strategically that most powerfully support an application. Applicants should choose experiences, accomplishments or perspectives directly relevant to their personal and professional goals for business school and beyond.
Topical options could highlight impactful career experiences, unique personal projects, community service, hobbies revealing character or abilities to contribute unique perspectives to class discussions. International applicants may discuss experiences adapting across cultures. Others could analyze failures leading to personal growth. Essays explaining setbacks sensitively humanize applicants and show their resilience.
Rather than generic interests, essays work best highlighting meaningful involvement through stories and examples. Applicants should brainstorm all potentially relevant experiences and backgrounds before selecting options uniquely qualifying them while complementing their overall profile.
Structuring Compelling Submissions
Well crafted optional essays follow standard guidelines for clarity and flow while demonstrating additional applicant qualities in fresh, compelling ways. Here are some structural guidelines:
Open with an attention-grabbing introduction smoothly orienting the reader to the topic and its significance to the applicant’s goals and qualifications.
Use 2-3 well chosen, vivid examples, incidents or anecdotes to bring the experience to life rather than broad generalizations. Provide just enough context for understanding while focusing on lessons learned, challenges overcome or contributions made.
Analyze how the experience influenced personal or professional development, strengthened relevant skills or demonstrated character qualities crucial to business leadership. Relate tangible takeaways to career ambitions.
Maintain a balanced, thoughtful tone avoiding hyperbole or emotions difficult for objective assessment. Focus on substantive impact and self-awareness over bravado.
Edit thoroughly for coherence, word choice, conciseness and proper mechanics. Have others proofread to ensure clarity and professional presentation complementing other application materials.
Sample Optional Essay Topics
To provide concrete guidance, here are sample topics and outlines for effective optional essays:
Community Volunteering: As a volunteer ESL tutor, I taught language skills to immigrant families. Despite initial language and cultural barriers (give example), we developed strong bonds of trust and understanding. This experience strengthened my ability to build rapport across differences and gain insights from diverse backgrounds and perspectives. These qualities will help me excel in an international MBA program and global career.
Entrepreneurial Project: In college, I launched an app providing campus meal delivery. Facing founder struggles like marketing challenges and financial pressures (give example), my persistence paid off with 500 student users by graduation. This hands-on experience managing stakeholders, complex logistics and a budget solidified my entrepreneurial spirit and leadership potential benefiting future business ventures.
Outdoor Adventure: Completing a difficult multi-day mountain hiking trail tested my physical and mental endurance. Overcoming weather difficulties and injury fears (give example) taught me the importance of grit, adaptability and pushing past perceived limits. These lessons directly translate to my ability to thrive in a demanding full-time MBA program and take on challenges in high-pressure business roles.
Career Transition: As an engineer, I enjoyed the technical problem solving but longed for more client interaction. After much soul-searching, I enrolled in a coding bootcamp and transitioned to a software consultant role. Facing the steep learning curve and risk to my career (example), this pivot strengthened my commitment to adaptability essential for remaining competitive in a changing job market.
Crafting Strong Finishing Touches
Polishing optional essays with attention to small details leaves powerful final impressions:
Reread for content flow, cohesive wording and appropriate tone for an academic assessment. Trim unnecessary words and repetition.
Have others proofread for correct spelling, grammar and punctuation mistakes which damage credibility. Consider employing editing services, if needed.
Ensure submission formatting aligns with any specifications regarding word count, font size etc. Leave strong closing statements summarizing relevancy.
Limit each optional essay to one compelling, coherent topic avoiding overload or distraction. Less can be more.
Consider revisiting essays later with fresh perspectives before final deadline to further strengthen focus and impact.
Devoting serious time crafting thoughtful, well written optional essays allows applicants to meaningfully showcase themselves beyond required application components. With diligent self-reflection and presentation, optional submissions strategically selected and developed can tip the scales for admission by revealing an applicant’s unique strengths, experiences and fit for a program.
Andrew Stroud