MBA Essay Do’s and Don’ts from Kenan-Flagler
The admissions team at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School recently provided a list of helpful do’s and dont’s for applicants working on their MBA admissions essay, and their advice holds no matter which program you’re currently contemplating.
Three Things to Do:
- Tell a compelling story if you hope to stand out amid the thousands of essays read by the admissions team each year. Make sure your personality comes through so the team gets a real sense of who you are, as well as why you want to attend UNC Kenan-Flagler, and how your past experiences have shaped you as a professional.
- Recruit at least one other person to proofread your essay for those pesky punctuation errors or grammatical mistakes that we tend not to see ourselves after re-reading and tinkering along the way.
- Thou shalt adhere strictly to the word count limit unless thou wishes to antagonize the overworked folks in admissions.
Three Things to Avoid:
- One hopes this goes without saying, but please refrain from regurgitating your resume in essay form and calling it a day. Use examples to illustrate the highlights of your professional experience. Remember, you’ve got a story to tell and a personality to sell!
- To build upon the previous point: don’t forget to make the case for why Kenan-Flagler is the right program for you. The admissions team is adept at sussing out applicants who have merely switched out the school name from another essay…so don’t be that applicant!
- Don’t forget to proofread, spell-check, and proofread some more. “Submitting an essay riddled with spelling, punctuation and grammar errors is the equivalent to wearing pajamas to your admissions interview,” the admissions team warns.
You may also be interested in:
UNC Kenan-Flagler 2014-2015 MBA Essay Topics
UNC Kenan-Flager’s History of Sustainable Enterprise
