How Many People Lie On Their Essays?
Anyone ever hear of people lying on their B-School essays, specifically the "Why do you need to go to B-School" essay?
For example, I'm talking about someone with unspectacular work experience but was a football player at college, and has volunteered extensively in football outside of work. Maybe he is a part-time coach for a pop warner squad or is a referee at junior high school football games. He wants to work at a HF or PE, but writes to HBS "I want to work in the NFL and revamp their drug testing policy, etc."
Basically, somebody who wants to go into X, but his background is in Y, and he leverages that to get into a top B-School, even though he has no intent of doing anything related to Y after graduation.
awesome question
the people that get into business school are the people that have the right stats and tell the best stories.
tell the best story that you can believe in. dont think of it as a lie, think of it as describing one of the best out of many options available to you as a successful prospect. this distinction is important. adcoms read a lot of essays and i think your essays will be subconsciously affected if you dont believe what you are writing (read: adcoms will smell you BS from a mile away).
in reality, i would bet that most bschool entrants at best pursue some variant of what they wrote in their essays, and very often end up doing something different. adcoms must know this by now. they are just looking to see how well you can articulate your future goals inside their parameters. its a game. play it to win.
We all know that you are your "friend."
Shame on you.
LOL
No one mentioned anything about friends in this thread
The situation the OP describes is EXACTLY what you should do. Schools need to know that you are marketable and if you have a liberal arts degree and spent the last 4 years working with nuns in Italy, saying you want to do IB isn't going to work very well. E.G. Say you've done S&T for a few years and what you really want to do is consulting. While you could spin your experience into a new-found passion for consulting, it is a far easier, more logical story to say you want to get an mba to go to the buyside, you're going to do the CFA, you want to take advantage of the school's portfolio management practicum, etc. It's not about lying, it's about sounding certain about your goals even when you might not be.
bump...any other input for the OP? What if a school specializes in one area that you're not crazy about, and seems to avoid the area you want to get into?
I went to an HBS session back in December, the adcom person said it loud and clear:
"we all know that 95% of you will change your career goals by the time you finish your MBA".
So they all know that you are unlikely to accomplish what you wrote, however, showing interest outside of finance and consulting is important because these industries are also divided in industries. If you are into healthcare, it would best to find a consulting firm where you can explore your affinities, the same with IB.
You don't do consulting or IB for the sake of doing it; you are looking into going into a certain group within.
Atque voluptatum et earum ea deleniti. Sit possimus adipisci est ad voluptatem. Accusamus deleniti voluptates quia provident totam dicta.
Sed magnam id illum enim. Nesciunt similique non repellat laboriosam omnis. Quis et eum voluptas. Nisi iusto et laborum et. Ea molestiae nulla perferendis repellat. Animi quia est vero corporis vel et.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...