Video 12 in a series of official excerpts from the Kaplan GMAT program. This video covers the grading criteria for Analytical Writing essays. The instructor is Dennis Yim - over 700 students taught and counting.

Describe your career progress to date and your future short-term and long-term career goals. How do you expect an MBA from Wharton to help you achieve these goals, and why is now the best time for you to join our program?

Here’s the prototypical b-school essay question.  In this case it’s Wharton’s, but you’ll encounter similarly worded questions from many if not most schools.  It’s really four questions in one: 1) career progress 2) goals 3) why an MBA/why Wharton 4) why now?

When you encounter a question like this, be sure to answer completely.  A common mistake is to give inadequate attention to part of the question.  Sometimes this happens when an applicant repurposes a similar essay written for another school, but fails to make the necessary adjustments.  Admissions Officers get annoyed when they encounter an essay they believe was written for another school’s application.  To be clear, I’m not suggesting that you need to start every single essay from scratch, especially given the similarities you’ll face.  Just be careful to make the appropriate edits when warranted.

Regarding the review of your career progress, don’t let it simply be a restatement of your resume.  This common approach is neither insightful nor especially interesting.  Rather, help the reviewer understand the decisions you’ve made, and be sure to highlight where you’ve excelled.

When it comes to articulating your career goals and why an MBA makes sense, it’s important to understand that schools really do want you to have a clear idea of why you’re pursuing an MBA.  I’ve seen otherwise strong candidates rejected when it became apparent that they had no idea what they were planning to do.  Their perspective was that two years at school would be plenty of time to figure it out.  While there’s a certain logic to this approach, rest assured it’s not what admissions officers want to hear.  Schools don’t expect you to have every step of your career mapped out, but they would like to know you’ve given it enough thought to be able to discuss the direction you plan to head.

As to the question of “how will [insert school name] help you achieve your goals?”  schools want to know that you’re not applying simply because of their prestige or rank among MBA programs.  Rather, they expect you to have done your homework and be able to articulate why the school is a match.  Although it’s important to express enthusiasm and genuine interest in the schools you apply to, try to avoid hyperbole such as, “If you don’t admit me to your school, I won’t be able to achieve my goals,” or “Nobody wants to go to your school more than I do.”

As I mentioned in last week’s blog, over the next few weeks, we’re going to look at commonly asked application essay questions among the nation’s top b-schools, and I’ll give you my take on what admissions committees really want to see in your response.

This week’s question: “What matters most to you, and why?”

This question, long used by Stanford GSB, is the ultimate values question. Extremely open-ended by B-school essay standards, this question allows the candidate to go in any direction. Compounding the challenge is that the length guidelines have historically been as open ended as the question itself.

Admissions officers readily talk about how they want to get to know you through the admissions process. Beyond learning about your strengths and accomplishments, they really do want to understand what’s important to you. Stanford just happens to ask more directly than most. So give a lot of thought to what you want to communicate. The adage that there’s no right answer is especially apt here. Is it your family that matters most? That’s great. Is it your desire to change the world? Awesome. Your passion about something? That’s good, too.

Once you’ve decided which direction you want to go, your next step is figuring out how to make it genuine and compelling. What evidence can you provide to back up your assertion? What stories or anecdotes can you share? Keep in mind that being a good storyteller is very much a part of writing effective essays.

One potential pitfall to steer clear of is the outlier essay. All of your essays should fit nicely together in a consistent fashion, with each response building on the others. When any essay, even in response to the question posed here, comes across as out of sync with the others, it strikes a discordant note and can raise questions about the genuineness of the entire application package.