Ask Jennifer@Accepted.com: Application-writing advice for the best global B-schools

[jeeves sunil]

Dear jennifer,


iam an insead applicant- my question on essays needs some background info therefore please go throught my brief profile.

My experience is primarily in sales and marketing , thus I want to do a course in strategy/ marketing strategy- I am told insead is a good school for same.

I have bad…bad acads and good if not great work experience


My profile:-
Work ex- 59 months as on today

1) worked as a contractual employee for current company( korean MNC)-2 years
2)launched a sales network for a new brand in a product category-1 year
3)As a permanent employee in the first company-out of turn promotions.
4) no international work assignement,only 1 international tourism trip.

Designation:assitant manager-
Role:Product management & multi channel sales mangement.

responsible for top 3 Markets of India- Mumbai City-For a Korean Mnc, consumer durable company, sales turnover target for a year Rs110 crores( Us $28 million).I am managing growth right now.

LAst year: i was number 1 manager among 37 others for H2 -2006- for a different territory- turnover target for a year Rs23 crores .i Turned around the sales of the branch in 25 days of joining, acheiving monthly target. Similar achievement ( most of them documented) for the 5 years of my experience.


3 promotion in 5 years.Out of turn promotion in jan 2007 in Hr designations .transfered to higher functional responsibility.

my recommenders are my ex reporting Managers

Strenth: action oriented approach,devised succesful strategies[proven), strong result orientation,indepth understanding of indian markets.


ACADS_ please note bad


GMAT - 680- math 46, verbal 38 feb 2007. ava 4 ( missed the last verbal question)

GMAT -620-math 48, verbal 26 jan 2006.

Graduate Engineering 59.7% ...( 3.4 gpa in final year)

1st year 45%( failed an year)
2nd year 50%( failed an year)
3 rd year 53% On time.
final year 59.7% ( cleared in 1.5 years instead of 1 year. single subject left uncleared in final exam…27 students in a class of 64 got this result- but bottom line remains)

Good final score( 3.4 gpa-but took 6.5 years for a 4 year course)

i needed to drop one year twice in my first and second year of Graduation course)in third and fourth i did well also in extra curricular front, edited college magazine, sat on organizing comities represented college in intercollege compitions)

i actually had a bad spell of 5 years ( when one of my parents went critically ill)

12 higher school 56% Bad

10 Secondary school 67.14% Average




My question:

should i use the optional essay to explain/justify/elaborate circumstances during failure to insead, and my learnings?


As i donot know if they will notice my acads so much after 5 years of good work ex.
if yes -what should be my tone for acknoledging failure- elaborating failure and the learnign out of it- or the circumstances,

an example could help.


So they issue in hand is justifing educational failure-and my learnign out of it, with a background of professional success.

is this risk worth being taken??


awaiting your valuable feedback


Sunil

[Accepted]

Originally Posted by madaan_amit

Hi Jennifer,

Hope you are doing well.

As I stumbled upon this thread, by its name it suggests that this would be the place to get application writing doubts clarified.

I am work in sales and marketing in India's largest car company, and want to take up entrepreneur role in long term after a good exposure in branding.

I am applying to UNC kenan flagler as it is one of the few schools that is good in marketing and entrepreneurship.

My question is the Second Essay of application.
"Describe the major obstacles or challenges you have faced in pursuit of your goals. Tell us how you addressed these challenges and how they have shaped you."

here I have given a detailed view of my goals in essay one and what I have being doing to work towards those goals. Can i write about totally personal goals of my life here and steps I have taken for those and how my professional goals will aid in achieving part of my personal goals.

Also would like ur comments whether my profile is suitable for this school:

My profile here:

Undergrad: IIT Madras (GP of 7.5)
GMAT : 770 (AWA 4.5)
Work Ex : 30 months as on date, marketing and sales initially, and added business development in Apr 06
achievements at work: other than growth in revenue, development two new sales channels
Extracurricular Under grad: Coordinator for publicity, General Secretary of Mechanical Engineering association- organized a lot of events, technical festival
Community work, 9 yrs before college (governor's award), 2 yrs in college, volunteered for an NGO after college for one yr, started a chapter of NGO in a village close to where I live.

Thanks in advance

Hi, Amit. Yes, I do feel that essay 2 can cover a more personal side of you. It does not need to be only professional challenges but could include and even be heavily focused on the challenges in your personal life. The key to a good essay, though, is not to tell a sob story, but to show how you learned from these challenges and succeeded in spite (or because) of them.

Your statistics are good. You may be a bit young since you seem to have only graduated about 3 years ago. To overcome that, you will need to demonstrate that you are assuming leadership roles that far surpass the norm for your age and amount of experience.

Good luck with the application!

Regards,
Jennifer Bloom, CPRW
Accepted - helping you write your best!

From pre-application consulting and strategizing to essay and letter of recommendation editing, resumes, mock interviews, and wait-list tactics - we guide you through the application maze.
Don’t miss these upcoming chats at Accepted:
Fuqua – with Assistant Dean of the MBA Daytime Program Liz Riley Hargrove at 6 PM GMT on November 29th
Insead – with MBA Admissions Manager Cassandra Pittman at 6 PM GMT on December 3rd
LBS – with Acting Associate Dean David Simpson at 6 PM on December 12th

[Accepted]

Originally Posted by karan_taneja18

Hi Jennifer

I thank you for taking such an initiative and replying to incessant questions sometimes on the same topic !

Please evaluate my profile :-

X- 82 %
XII- 80 %

Engineering - 67 %


GMAT - 700 (Q-48, V-37)


1.5 yrs of experience as a SAP consultant in one of the leading IT companies in India, I was handling the responsibilities of a SAP Administrator single handedly in my project , and have lead teams of small sizes around 1-2
I guess my work experience is a bit on the lower side and it would serve me better to concentrate on FALL 09 than FALL 08, In your opinion what should I do in the meanwhile to build up my profile. I would be really frank here and say that my Community Service Records is nothing to be spoken of, In extra curriculars , bits and pieces but not significant achivement in any particular field. I would really appreciate if you could guide me as to how can I build a solid profile in the next year?

Hi, Taneja. You have time to really work on your profile now, maybe even for more than one year. You didn't mention what your career goals were or even target programs, so I will have to suffice by providing a generic profile booster here.

First, yes, you need to get involved in the community. Ideally, you will choose an organization or a cause that is personally meaningful to you and you will take a leadership role. Tutoring a student every week is wonderful, but it is not as powerful as improving the education of a whole region by recruiting hundreds of volunteers. Cleaning up a dumping ground is nice, but taking a leadership role in an environmental organization to launch and run a series of activities with a larger impact carries even greater weight.

Second, seek opportunities at work to lead beyond just your team of 2. Find ways to make an impact on the direction of your consultancy, guide the business decisions of your clients, go above and beyond expectations and the norm - this is what the top MBA programs are seeking.

Finally, do real research on the programs. Know your own goals and how each program will uniquely fit your educational needs and learning style. Speak to alumni and students to gain truly insightful understanding of these programs. These will be the key to demonstrating that you know why you are seeking an MBA from each.

Enjoy the process!

Regards,
Jennifer Bloom, CPRW
Accepted - helping you write your best!

From pre-application consulting and strategizing to essay and letter of recommendation editing, resumes, mock interviews, and wait-list tactics - we guide you through the application maze.
Don’t miss these upcoming chats at Accepted:
Fuqua – with Assistant Dean of the MBA Daytime Program Liz Riley Hargrove at 6 PM GMT on November 29th
Insead – with MBA Admissions Manager Cassandra Pittman at 6 PM GMT on December 3rd
LBS – with Acting Associate Dean David Simpson at 6 PM on December 12th

[Accepted]

Originally Posted by jeeves sunil

Dear jennifer,


iam an insead applicant- my question on essays needs some background info therefore please go throught my brief profile.

My experience is primarily in sales and marketing , thus I want to do a course in strategy/ marketing strategy- I am told insead is a good school for same.

I have bad…bad acads and good if not great work experience


My profile:-
Work ex- 59 months as on today

1) worked as a contractual employee for current company( korean MNC)-2 years
2)launched a sales network for a new brand in a product category-1 year
3)As a permanent employee in the first company-out of turn promotions.
4) no international work assignement,only 1 international tourism trip.

Designation:assitant manager-
Role:Product management & multi channel sales mangement.

responsible for top 3 Markets of India- Mumbai City-For a Korean Mnc, consumer durable company, sales turnover target for a year Rs110 crores( Us $28 million).I am managing growth right now.

LAst year: i was number 1 manager among 37 others for H2 -2006- for a different territory- turnover target for a year Rs23 crores .i Turned around the sales of the branch in 25 days of joining, acheiving monthly target. Similar achievement ( most of them documented) for the 5 years of my experience.


3 promotion in 5 years.Out of turn promotion in jan 2007 in Hr designations .transfered to higher functional responsibility.

my recommenders are my ex reporting Managers

Strenth: action oriented approach,devised succesful strategies[proven), strong result orientation,indepth understanding of indian markets.


ACADS_ please note bad


GMAT - 680- math 46, verbal 38 feb 2007. ava 4 ( missed the last verbal question)

GMAT -620-math 48, verbal 26 jan 2006.

Graduate Engineering 59.7% ...( 3.4 gpa in final year)

1st year 45%( failed an year)
2nd year 50%( failed an year)
3 rd year 53% On time.
final year 59.7% ( cleared in 1.5 years instead of 1 year. single subject left uncleared in final exam…27 students in a class of 64 got this result- but bottom line remains)

Good final score( 3.4 gpa-but took 6.5 years for a 4 year course)

i needed to drop one year twice in my first and second year of Graduation course)in third and fourth i did well also in extra curricular front, edited college magazine, sat on organizing comities represented college in intercollege compitions)

i actually had a bad spell of 5 years ( when one of my parents went critically ill)

12 higher school 56% Bad

10 Secondary school 67.14% Average




My question:

should i use the optional essay to explain/justify/elaborate circumstances during failure to insead, and my learnings?


As i donot know if they will notice my acads so much after 5 years of good work ex.
if yes -what should be my tone for acknoledging failure- elaborating failure and the learnign out of it- or the circumstances,

an example could help.


So they issue in hand is justifing educational failure-and my learnign out of it, with a background of professional success.

is this risk worth being taken??


awaiting your valuable feedback


Sunil

Sunil,
There is no chance that your academics will go unnoticed! They hold a signficant place in the admissions process. If you have a legitimate explanation for your poor grades, then by all means explain it. But you will also most likely need to go much further to prove that you are able to succeed in Insead's rigorous academic environment: take a few courses to gain a better track record and perhaps boost the GMAT to significantly in the 700s (720 or above).

Some people are very successful "on the ground" but do not thrive in academic environments - that is fine. But you need to prove - since you are pursuing an academic environment now - that you are *not* one of those people. Show yourself capable of contributing to and learning in a classroom situation. Then, share those results with the admissions committee.

Regards,
Jennifer Bloom, CPRW
Accepted - helping you write your best!

From pre-application consulting and strategizing to essay and letter of recommendation editing, resumes, mock interviews, and wait-list tactics - we guide you through the application maze.
Don’t miss these upcoming chats at Accepted:
Fuqua – with Assistant Dean of the MBA Daytime Program Liz Riley Hargrove at 6 PM GMT on November 29th
Insead – with MBA Admissions Manager Cassandra Pittman at 6 PM GMT on December 3rd
LBS – with Acting Associate Dean David Simpson at 6 PM on December 12th

[aps#1]

Hi Jennifer,
I hope you are doing good.
I have a couple of questions.
1) Please see my profile:
Academics:
Xth : 83% CBSE 1997
XIIth : 81% CBSE 1999
Got selected in IIT, Roorkie ( Roorkie was a different University in 1999) , PEC Chandigarh and Army Institute of Technology. Chose the last because I wanted to major in Computer Sc andthis was the only place I was getting the same.
Graduation : 53.33% 2005
I do have a reason for this drop in marks, though. In my first year, after the first term exams, where I got a distinction (68%), I met with a serious accident. Head injury, was in coma for 2 months. This adversely affected my writing capabilities, which became slow and undecipherable for a long time. This led to the drop in grades. But my analytical and learning capabilities were as earlier. So, though t took me 6 years to complete a 4 year course, I had never failed in the same. The two extra years were due to hospitalisation and some time for recuperation.
Later I did a coupe of Certifications, like Sun Certified programmer for Java 2, PLM Certification. I took the TOEFL and got a 113 in the iBT.
So I guess I am still the same intellectually.

2) My work exp at the end on 2007 would be 27 months and I am planning to give my GMAT in March or April 2008. I am aiming at the Fall of 2009 for admissions to any B School. I am presently working in SAP Labs India. I also actively participate in the CSR forum of our company. I never let the lack of good acads get into the way of my getting good jobs. I have been one of the top performers in my jobs.

3) I was the PR Secretary of the college for an year, post accident. I represented the college soccer team and quiz team and won a couple of awards.

But my question remains, would this lack of very good acads hamper my chances to get into a top (Ivey League) B School?

Thanks and regards
Amar

[madaan_amit]

Originally Posted by Accepted

Hi, Amit. Yes, I do feel that essay 2 can cover a more personal side of you. It does not need to be only professional challenges but could include and even be heavily focused on the challenges in your personal life. The key to a good essay, though, is not to tell a sob story, but to show how you learned from these challenges and succeeded in spite (or because) of them.

Your statistics are good. You may be a bit young since you seem to have only graduated about 3 years ago. To overcome that, you will need to demonstrate that you are assuming leadership roles that far surpass the norm for your age and amount of experience.

Good luck with the application!

Regards,
Jennifer Bloom, CPRW
Accepted - helping you write your best!

From pre-application consulting and strategizing to essay and letter of recommendation editing, resumes, mock interviews, and wait-list tactics - we guide you through the application maze.
Don’t miss these upcoming chats at Accepted:
Fuqua – with Assistant Dean of the MBA Daytime Program Liz Riley Hargrove at 6 PM GMT on November 29th
Insead – with MBA Admissions Manager Cassandra Pittman at 6 PM GMT on December 3rd
LBS – with Acting Associate Dean David Simpson at 6 PM on December 12th

Hi Jeniffer,

Thanks lot for your inputs

[cs.sarmah]

Hi Jennifer,
I am applying for Judge Business school in the first cycle.

I am stuck with the following essay.
How would you like to be remembered?

I guess this essay is to see whether your aspirations and expectations out of your life match with the short term and long term goals you have framed or not. Correct me if I am wrong. I don't know how to proceed with this essay.

Please help me on this. Should you require further information let me know.
Thanks in anticipation.
Chandra

[jeeves sunil]

Originally Posted by Accepted

Sunil,
There is no chance that your academics will go unnoticed! They hold a signficant place in the admissions process. If you have a legitimate explanation for your poor grades, then by all means explain it. But you will also most likely need to go much further to prove that you are able to succeed in Insead's rigorous academic environment: take a few courses to gain a better track record and perhaps boost the GMAT to significantly in the 700s (720 or above).

Some people are very successful "on the ground" but do not thrive in academic environments - that is fine. But you need to prove - since you are pursuing an academic environment now - that you are *not* one of those people. Show yourself capable of contributing to and learning in a classroom situation. Then, share those results with the admissions committee.

Regards,
Jennifer Bloom, CPRW
Accepted - helping you write your best!

From pre-application consulting and strategizing to essay and letter of recommendation editing, resumes, mock interviews, and wait-list tactics - we guide you through the application maze.
Don’t miss these upcoming chats at Accepted:
Fuqua – with Assistant Dean of the MBA Daytime Program Liz Riley Hargrove at 6 PM GMT on November 29th
Insead – with MBA Admissions Manager Cassandra Pittman at 6 PM GMT on December 3rd
LBS – with Acting Associate Dean David Simpson at 6 PM on December 12th

Thank you jennifer,

what i realize that i will need to speak something about my acadmic failure rather than keep mum about it. i am deciding to write the optional essay. i never failed an exam apart from the time of my engineering. i must acknoledge that few things rattled me during engineering.

an honest approach to justifying/acknoledging my failure, reasons for same being -inability to manage emotional and acadmic situation + lack of maturity. and my comeback from it- note that i passed with 3.4 gpa not bad.

also my work environment is very rigourous i work approximately 12-14 hours daily and my ability to do rigourous work on ground is know. demonstrating that could help??

my work does not give me time to take another course or gmat again, a short 1 week course could help?

my seniors who are recomending me, do agree that i have contributed significantly at work could that help.

brief pointers for essay on this topic will go a long way for me.

a seat on the interview table is the opportunity i am trying to built

thanks again for he magnificient work you are doing.

Sunil

[manishonlin]

Madam,
I am a final year engineering student from india.I wish to know about the MBA programme at CARDIFF business school.Kindly help me out with this.
Thank you

Manish M

[Accepted]

Originally Posted by aps#1

Hi Jennifer,
I hope you are doing good.
I have a couple of questions.
1) Please see my profile:
Academics:
Xth : 83% CBSE 1997
XIIth : 81% CBSE 1999
Got selected in IIT, Roorkie ( Roorkie was a different University in 1999) , PEC Chandigarh and Army Institute of Technology. Chose the last because I wanted to major in Computer Sc andthis was the only place I was getting the same.
Graduation : 53.33% 2005
I do have a reason for this drop in marks, though. In my first year, after the first term exams, where I got a distinction (68%), I met with a serious accident. Head injury, was in coma for 2 months. This adversely affected my writing capabilities, which became slow and undecipherable for a long time. This led to the drop in grades. But my analytical and learning capabilities were as earlier. So, though t took me 6 years to complete a 4 year course, I had never failed in the same. The two extra years were due to hospitalisation and some time for recuperation.
Later I did a coupe of Certifications, like Sun Certified programmer for Java 2, PLM Certification. I took the TOEFL and got a 113 in the iBT.
So I guess I am still the same intellectually.

2) My work exp at the end on 2007 would be 27 months and I am planning to give my GMAT in March or April 2008. I am aiming at the Fall of 2009 for admissions to any B School. I am presently working in SAP Labs India. I also actively participate in the CSR forum of our company. I never let the lack of good acads get into the way of my getting good jobs. I have been one of the top performers in my jobs.

3) I was the PR Secretary of the college for an year, post accident. I represented the college soccer team and quiz team and won a couple of awards.

But my question remains, would this lack of very good acads hamper my chances to get into a top (Ivey League) B School?

Thanks and regards
Amar

Hi, Amar. First, let me just say that I am so glad that you recovered from the head injury. That must have been a frightening time!

In terms of top MBA admission, you are going to need to compensate for the low GPA. You might want to consider pursuing the Master's in Commerce and earning a 4.0 there to boost the GPA as they calculate it. A very good GMAT will partially overcome the low academic performance, but their worry would still remain: do you have the mental acuity to perform in this rigorous program?

As you spend some time boosting your academic profile, don't forget to outperform at work as well. I recommend the book Linda Abraham and I wrote together "The Techie's Guide to MBA Admissions" to help you determine the areas in which you can do that best.

Good luck navigating the process!

Regards,
Jennifer Bloom, CPRW
Accepted - helping you write your best!

From pre-application consulting and strategizing to essay and letter of recommendation editing, resumes, mock interviews, and wait-list tactics - we guide you through the application maze.
Don’t miss these upcoming chats at Accepted:
Insead – with MBA Admissions Manager Cassandra Pittman at 6 PM GMT on December 3rd
LBS – with Acting Associate Dean David Simpson at 6 PM GMT on December 12th
Notre Dame – with Director of Admissions Brian Lohr at 6 PM GMT on January 9th