How Suru cracked University of Massachusetts Boston?

Suru was a great MBA applicant who needed our help to streamline her profile. While she was making some mistakes with her MBA application profile, we could see a lot of potential in this candidate and decided to work with her.

Suru was able to create an amazing result in the end, as she cracked one of the top schools in the US, UMass Boston.

Here’s her story.

Suru’s goals story

Suru wanted to be a part of the HR team, that much was clear, however, her expression of what an HR team was and why she wanted to be a part of it needed to mature a bit. Thus, we asked her to conduct research on the roles she will be required to undertake as a part of a Fortune 500 company’s core HR team.

We also provided Suru with a detailed and comprehensive note about HR as a function post-MBA to make her research a bit easier.

Another issue that we recognized was that Suru was confused between two very similar functions to choose her short-term and long-term goals from. Which is okay everywhere except for your MBA application as it makes you vulnerable to a rejection.

Applicants have to justify the equation of employability “Past + MBA = Short term + Long Term Goals”. Whereas, Suru’s first approach was, “I think an MBA would be good for my career so let me do it”.

While Suru had her past, and short-term and long-term goals somewhat figured out, she had no clear picture of how an MBA fits into the equation. What she needed was to understand her current handicaps that made it necessary for her to get an MBA to move into her future goals.

After a lot of research and multiple goals story drafts, we moved on to the essays once we had a good outline for the goals story.

Suru’s essay analysis

Suru’s first feedback was to be specific. She was told to use every essay to convey to the admissions committee how she was a good fit for her target school both in culture and academics.

Now being humble is great virtue in an applicant and one that business schools really do look for. However, there is a very thin line between humble and self-sabotaging. One very common move that crosses that thin line is starting an essay with a weakness. Be it a weakness of character, like recklessness, overthinking, etc., or weakness in your MBA profile, like low GMAT score or GPA, starting an essay with it is like cutting one’s own throat.

Thus, unless the essay asks you about it, do not go on detailing your flaws.

However, Suru learned this very quickly and never repeated this mistake. The result was that she made it to a top US school, UMass Boston.

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