How Sahil got into MSU Broad?

Sahil had 4 years of experience in an over-saturated pool of applicants, engineers.

He cracked MSU Broad, despite the high competition.

Here’s his story.

Sahil’s goals story

The problem with trying to be politically correct or diplomatic is that it inspires no one. When an applicant tries to be politically correct in their essays, it becomes a very drab, fact-filled story that isn’t memorable.

Sahil needed to use his experiences to convey a story that

1. A layman could understand.
2. Would inspire the reader.
3. Is memorable for the admissions committee members.

Sahil’s feedback included a few things:

1. Explain his challenges, not personal but professional, to his audience without using industry jargon.
2. Detail how he has added value and his input has made a significant difference in his industry an what motivated him to create that change.
3. Talk about how his work ethic has affected the people he worked with and how he could use his international experience in his MBA program.

Sahil’s essay analysis

In MBA applications, your essays are the first impression that you will cast on the admissions committee. Your profile and resume are important too but can be similar to a lot of other applicants. However, your values, beliefs, struggles, and decision-making process is what really drives the admissions committee’s decision of accepting or rejecting you.

Let me explain it with an example. When you buy an internet plan and have two competing brands to choose from, what do you consider? The speed and the price? What if the speed and the price of the plans were the same? You would read customer reviews and research about the kind of service the companies providing the plans impart post-installation.

The customer reviews are your letters of recommendation and the quality of service is your personality that comes across via your application essays.

The school already knew a lot about how Sahil had great analytical skills, thus, our focus was on introducing them to Sahil the ‘person’ through his essays. So rather than focusing on what his greatest accomplishments were, Sahil needed to focus on why they were his greatest accomplishments.

He needed to talk about why was a situation challenging to him and how he overcame that challenge.

Sahil’s biggest challenge was to stop being an engineer for his essays. He needed to explain his decisions to laymen and not colleagues who knew all the industry jargon and challenges.

A few drafts and some more feedback later, Sahil gave us some rocking essays, that we were sure would get him his dream admit.

So, in a delightful turn-of-events, Sahil got accepted to MSU Broad.

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