Advice from Atul Jose - Leading MBA and Master's Admissions Consultant

Physical safety is fundamental to feeling a sense of belonging.

War and threats based on one’s identity connected to historical disputes, sects, tribes, and religion are the primary reasons for inequalities.

Our sense of belonging is fundamentally driven by our psychological development.

If we have been marginalized or feel marginalized in our family, the first group where we should ideally feel we belong, our sensitivity to words, behaviors, and actions will be influenced by our past trauma.

A point that Berger explains beautifully in Understanding a Photograph is that – any photograph without a caption becomes indistinguishable from the thousands of photos that the world has seen. This was a book written in the mid-20th century. Now, with billions of photos taken every day and shared, we have developed an innate understanding of a good photograph.

NYU Stern's visual essay is not a family photo opportunity.

Think about the skills and values that your parents taught you.

Q) How has the world you come from shaped who you are today? For example, your family, culture, and community all help to shape aspects of your life experiences and perspective. Please use this opportunity if you would like to share more about your background (250 words)

Breaking down the ethos of a culture requires shortlisting 2-3 traits that are stand-out qualities for the MIT Sloan MBA application.

Applicants from a military background - parents or served in the military bring adaptability, determination, and a certain restraint in their words and phrases.

Most Yale MBA Commitment Essay drafts read like our New Year's resolution to lose weight. The success of the commitment depends on willpower, effort, and the scale of the distractions in our lives.

Effort Doesn't Always Mean Commitment

In our culture, where effort or hustle culture is worshipped, equating effort with commitment is an easy trap to fall into.

A better alternative is to reflect deeply on your life and find your core belief, passion, and career choices. Then, create a personal commitment statement.

Intentionality in the Kellogg MBA's Goals essay doesn't always mean the tried and often robotic STAR method of capturing actions, motivations, and results.

I once read an essay that took the STAR framework to the extreme, where none of the applicant's unique qualities remained in the essay. It read like a machine achieving a certain milestone and not the applicant's struggle to balance profitability with IMPACT. There was no vulnerability. Nor did the reader get a sense of the challenge she was trying to overcome.

A challenge applicants from legacy industries face is the disinvestment in the industry and the haphazard manner in which renewables are integrated into the operations. Applicants from these industries tend to focus on two noble and essential initiatives – education and renewable energy.

The Why Stanford MBA essay is a great opportunity to highlight a cultural failure as motivation to pivot to a different employer, a different industry, or start a venture.

These cultural failures fall into three broad themes:

The opening line is 

"African American fathers are more likely to stop child support than any ethnicity in the world. ."

The opening line is a brutal stereotyping. You should never write such a line unless you are also coming from the same ethnicity.

This is an example of a bias creeping into Generative AI and how easy it is to believe in AI when the lines are presented with a lot of confidence, 

The opening line is 

"I hid my family name for two years. "

A lot of candidates at Stanford are coming from wealthy families and many of you might also relate to this essay even if you are not coming from a wealthy family. 

The core of the narrative is the applicant's journey of finding her voice, initial aversion to the idea of business as a force of good, to finally, after serving UNHCR - the UN's agency that assists refugees, realizing that businesses play a crucial role in rebuilding communities affected by wars. 

The opening line is,  "When my teacher asked where I lived, I used to say near "x" – a cover not to let them know that I lived in a slum." 

The essay obviously immediately takes the reader to the insecurities of a low-income applicant. Stanford has the BOLD fellowship to fund low-income students and student groups exclusively to support candidates who are first-generation college attendees.

The essay is for those who have risen through the economic hurdle to take the family out of intergenerational poverty.