Have you ever noticed that there are always more last-minute details than there are minutes to fix them? You have put in months (or even years) of work to fit all your experiences at school, work, and life in general into the perfect MBA application essays, and now it is time to finally enter them into the application form. However, no matter how much time and effort you have put in, some additional details always come up.
Use the following last minute checks to address some of the most common business school essay mistakes before you hit “submit”:
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Make sure you really answered the questions.
At this stage, your essays have probably already gone through several revisions. Most likely, you started by answering each of the essay questions directly, and then filled in your highlights as much as you could. Finding out that you went past the word count limit, you stopped or cut down on your writing and, in the process, some key parts of the essay’s prompt may have been left unaddressed. For instance, an applicant might write about his or her lofty post-MBA goals in detail, but not show how the program they are applying to will help them achieve those.
Thus, make sure you match each part of the essay question or prompt to your essay and ensure that you have addressed each one adequately. If not, edit accordingly. This does not mean you need to completely rewrite your essay – changing two to three sentences could be all you need.
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Be careful with spell checking and transferring content.
As tempting as it is to click “Change All” when you complete spelling and grammar checks on your computer, this can be very risky, especially for the use of proper nouns (for instance, “INSEAD” is often autocorrected to “instead”). Therefore, it is necessary to take the time to actually review spell checker suggestions one by one.
At this stage, if you have to choose between accepting all of spellcheck’s changes blindly or skipping spelling and grammar checks altogether, you would be better off skipping them. This is because the mistakes that remain in your essay will most likely be minor or understandable typographical errors, which is better than having the name of the school you are applying to accidentally autocorrected to something else.
In addition, doing a simple “copy/paste” from your word document to the online application form sounds very basic and routine, but errors can (and do) happen here. Make sure you are pasting your answers to their corresponding questions, and at the very least, check that the word count matches and that no paragraphs are accidentally truncated by looking at their last words (although a more thorough final check of your essays before you officially submit them is always recommended).
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“Control F” or “Command F” can save you from embarrassing slip-ups.
Imagine you are applying for a job, created a fantastic cover letter, and accidentally wrote in the name of one of the company’s competitors that you are also applying to work for. That is probably the equivalent of writing up your MBA application essay, praising your target program and declaring why you are a great fit for them, only to use the name of another school. This is a common mistake for recycled essays – where you use an essay that you have already submitted to another school and merely edit a few details or sentences.
A quick way to eliminate this risk is to use the “Control F” or “Command F” find functions. For example, say you are working on your application for Wharton and you have also already applied to Columbia and Stern – search for the two latter schools in your Wharton essays as you are proofreading them! This is an easy way to double-check that there will be no embarrassing name slip-ups (although hopefully, you have customized your essays in terms of content and not simply changed the school names!).
Want an admissions expert to review your essays before you apply? Sign up for an application review. Call us at 1-800-925-7737 and speak with an MBA admissions expert today, or take our free MBA Admissions Profile Evaluation for personalized advice for your unique application situation!
Edison Cu is a Head Consultant at Veritas Prep, the largest privately-owned test prep and admissions consulting company in the world. Since 2002, Veritas Prep has helped thousands of applicants gain admission to their dream schools using its team of experienced consultants and a personalized game plan for each client.
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