Akshay got accepted to Richard Ivey with Low GMAT score
With just 2-year long work experience and a GMAT score of 680, Akshay wanted to get an MBA from a top business school.
We were very proud when, after a few months of working on applications, he received his acceptance letter for Richard Ivey, a top school in London.
Akshay’s goals story
Akshay’s first draft of the goals story was very basic and generic. One can get away with saying, “I want to work for an MNC” after undergraduate school but admissions committee members at business schools do not accept such undirected goals.
They understand that not every student would follow through on these goals post-MBA, in fact, most would chuck this goal story soon after being exposed to the various possibilities after entering an MBA program. However, having a though-out goals story means that the applicant has an authentic motivation behind pursuing an MBA.
Thus, having a goals story that simply said I want to work in a leading role for a global organization wasn’t good enough.
The solution to this problem was research.
Akshay needed to find out the companies that his target business schools got visited by the most during recruitments. He also needed to have an exhaustive list of the organizations that hired for his desired function at his target business schools. He found people that had been working in his desired function at these organizations and dedicated his networking calls to find out about their career trajectory at the organization.
Akshay’s essay analysis
Akshay’s essays started off well, answering the question head-on, but would then digress. He would answer the question in the first few lines and then go on for another 10 lines about a related topic that, in no capacity, answered the essay question,
For example, if you asked Akshay what he likes to have for breakfast, he would tell you his favorite cereals name, and why that one was his favorite amongst all the options available, and then talk about which bowl he uses to eat his cereal.
The thing with such an answer is that it’s so relevant to the topic, that the applicant can mistake it as a good answer, whereas, it will have no value for the admissions committee member reading the essay.
When writing an application essay, you need to keep in mind that the admissions committee doesn’t really want to know your accomplishments, they have your resume for that. What they really want to know is your journey to those accomplishment. They want to know what influences your decisions and what personality traits helped you succeed in a certain task. This was also something that Akshay needed feedback on. However, once the feedback was given. Akshay’s essays improved with every draft.
His diligence got him through the whole process and Akshay scored an admit to Richard Ivey.
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