I just finished reading The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton by Jerome Karabel. This book's 557 pages plus 100+pages of footnotes tells the story of admissions at these elite institutions since the beginning of the 20th century, when frankly they were more like male finishing schools than rigorous academic institutions. Mark Twain's line "I've never let my school interfere with my education" comes to mind.

Throughout, The Chosen presents a consistent theme. The Ivy League administrators have known that their institutions are producing the leaders of tomorrow. They have created classes reflecting their  beliefs as to who would and should lead professions, the country, and the world in the future. They knew and know they are creating a leadership class.

While societal views on diversity, inclusion, and exclusion have evolved over the last 100 years, the elite schools are elite because they produce leaders. To paraphrase Harvard Business School, it's easier to develop leaders than create them. Consequently, if you want to attend a program dedicated to producing leaders, you need to show leadership in your essays.

The need to demonstrate leadership in applications isn't really news, but it does present a problem: If you show you are leaders and write and talk about leadership, you all sound the same. Kind of boring. Furthermore that homogeneity butts up against another major admissions value: diversity.

In contrast, if you write about different aspects of leadership, then suddenly your essays will not sound like all other essays. You will choose different qualities to write about and focus on those elements of your experience that reveal those qualities as opposed to the overarching principle of "leadership."

I listened this morning to a Businessweek podcast called Leadership Lessons from Top CEOs , in which special guest Jason Jennings, author of the new book, Hit the Ground Running, discusses the leadership qualities he discovered after studying top business CEOs. For example:

• The importance of transparency and integrity. In Jennings' words, "You reap what you sow."
• Humility. The value of seeking help.
• The ability to "select a destination," or determine a goal, and inspire.
• A drive to simplify.
• Desire to balance long-term and short-term interests.
• Willingness to share strategy with your followers.
• Good listening.

You probably can't discuss all of these attributes, but by portraying one or two in an essay, you can reveal qualities valued by admissions committees, and you will distinguish yourself. Help them see you as a mover and shaker whom they may just want as a member of their class.

Ambler's co-authored response to the Commission's consultation, sets out a range of recommendations on how financial regulation within the EU should be reformed post crisis. The paper proposes a revised superstructure for financial services as two new linked entities to provide:
  - ‘Macro-prudential supervision', i.e. helping to ensure overall and/or by country financial stability 
  - ‘Micro-prudential supervision', i.e. supervision largely left with member states under EU direction, and/or rule-setting/regulation set by the ESFS or one of its three subsidiary bodies.

Read more

The Indian School of Business is one of the newest graduate business programs in the world, but it has quickly earned a renown matching the leading American and European programs. Its Admissions Office recently released the deadlines and questions for the 2010 intake. My suggestions are in red below.

Essays:

1. Give 3 reasons as to why you should be selected to the class of 2011? These reasons should ideally differentiate you from the applicant pool and should be backed with some data.(300 words max)

ISB is strict about its word limits; unlike most other programs, ISB will not allow you to submit even 301 words, so you must be truly concise. I suggest you stick to around 100 words for each "reason" for your selection but if one of your points can be concisely stated, don't feel obligated to elaborate on it. Instead, use those unused words to offer more details of your actions and motivations on another point in the essay.

Look at your resume and identify how you have differentiated yourself: have you earned fast promotions? made significant business impacts? built teams of unprecedented success? Identify the top three – those that best demonstrate your achievements and impacts – then describe them briefly.

2. Describe a challenging assignment you have handled (at work or outside) to date. What were the challenges and how did you handle them? What were the personal learnings you derived from this assignment?(300 words max)

In my opinion, this is a much more direct question than last year's essay 2 about contesting the election for student body president! Thank ISB for their pragmatism with an essay that highlights not an average assignment but one that is beyond the expected. The key to this essay is to show the multiple challenges facing you in this one particular assignment, explain just how difficult meeting those challenges were, and then spend the bulk of the essay explaining how you applied your creativity, interpersonal skills, and business acumen to overcome those hurdles. Be sure to include, and if possible quantify, the impact that this assignment had on the company or organization. And don't forget to discuss the lessons you learned from the experience.

3. Briefly assess your career progression till date along with an assessment of your future career goals. Discuss how your career goals will be met by the ISB’s one year programme in management.(300 words max)

Graduate business programs are seeking applicants with clear paths behind and before them. You may have worked for a few companies and held different roles, but it is important to clarify why you made these moves and how each one added to your professional knowledge. If your goals are very different from what you currently do, devote space to explaining how you have prepared for the career change, why you are suited for this work, and how you have discovered that it is a fitting career for you. Finally, this essay demands that you explain how ISB – better than any other business program or career move – will help you prepare for those goals.

4 (optional) Please provide additional information, if any, that will significantly affect the  consideration of your application to the ISB. Please do not repeat information which has already been stated elsewhere in the application. You may use this to clarify any breaks in education/work, inform about any other item which you think has not been covered elsewhere etc. (300 words max)

Since the essays for ISB are so short, I imagine that everyone will want to complete the optional essay. Share an extracurricular or professional experience that further demonstrates your exceptional qualifications and ability to contribute both to ISB and a recruiting company in the future.

If you would like help with ISB's essays, please consider Accepted.com's MBA admissions consulting and editing services. And if you purchase before July 31, 2009, you can save 15% on all of our MBA editing and comprehensive packages.

Application deadlines for Indian Passport Holders are as follows:

Cycle 1

Cycle 2

Application Deadline

September 15, 2009

December 1, 2009

Offer Decision

On or before 
November 25, 2009

On or before 
February 15, 2010

Acceptance Decision

15 days from 
the date of offer

15 days from 
the date of offer

Course commencement date: Mid April, 2010

International Applicants are subject to a rolling admissions process.

Check out the Carnival of College Admissions, hosted this month by College Surfing Insider. The Carnival is growing! The August edition presents an savory mix of articles (32!) from college and graduate admissions blogs, covering everything from extra-curricular activities in admissions to financial aid to dorm food. And there's even room for discussion of IPhone Apps.

My comments are in red:

Listed below are the supplemental questions, short answer questions, required essays, and optional essays for the fall 2010 application.

Supplemental Questions:

1. If you have not provided a letter of recommendation from your current supervisor, please explain; otherwise, enter N/A.

Keep it short and sweet. This is primarily for those of you who don't want to tell your boss yet that you intend to leave.

2. List in order of importance all community & professional organizations and extracurricular activities in which you have been involved during or after university studies. Indicate the nature of the activity or organization, dates of involvement, offices held, & average number of hours spent per month.

Whenever possible, quantify your impact or contribution.

3. List full-time and part-time jobs held during undergraduate or graduate studies, indicating the employer, job title, employment dates, location, and the number of hours worked per week for each position held prior to the completion of your degree.

Again, quantify as much as possible your responsibilities and impact. Focus on achievements. Stay way from bullet points and job descriptions that are obvious from your title.

4. Please explain all gaps in your employment since earning your university degree.

Provide the explanation, but again, be succinct. If you were laid off for three months as part of a restructuring, say so. No harm, no foul. If the layoff was much longer, try to also indicate how you spent your time, other than job-searching. Community involvement or extra-curricular activity, if true, would be great to mention here.

5. Beyond the courses that appear on your academic transcripts, please discuss other ways in which you have demonstrated strong quantitative abilities.

This is particularly important if you are a "poet" or at least if you were one in college and didn't take much math in or since college. Is you work quantitatively analytical? If so, describe some of the challenges you have handled with aplomb. Have you enrolled in a certificate program like the CFA? Have you participated in a course like MBAMath?

You engineers should have an easy time providing the requested information.

6. If you have ever been subject to academic discipline, placed on probation, suspended or required to withdraw from any college or university, please explain. If not, please enter N/A. (An affirmative response to this question does not automatically disqualify you from admission.)

Please, please, please don't "forget" to respond to this question if it applies to you. It's far worse to omit than to answer it.

Short Answer:

1. What are you most passionate about? Why? (250 word maximum)

Please see "What is "Passion" in Admissions?"  Realize that passion without action is meaningless and shallow.

2. Tell us about your most significant accomplishment. (250 word maximum)

You don't have a lot of room here. Describe it. Show your impact through a succinct use of numbers. Given the length restriction for this very important essay, a PAR approach could work well.

3. At Haas, we value innovation and creativity. Describe a time when you created positive change in a group or an organization. (250 word maximum)

This is one more example of how schools' essay questions reveal school values (and what they want to know). Creativity and innovation. When have you looked at a situation or problem and seen it in an entirely new light, or from a different angle than you or others had seen it previously? That's creativity. When have you designed something new and different? It's OK to build on the work of others, but have you taken an idea or concept further than anyone around you or applied it in an innovative way?

4. What steps have you taken to learn about the Berkeley MBA program, and what factors have influenced your decision to apply? (250 word maximum)

This essay should complement the required essay 2 (below). Have you done your homework about Haas? If you live in California, you should really make the effort to visit Haas if you want your application to be taken seriously. Haas is very proud of its community and wants to know that you want to be a part of it, not something else. If you reside far from the West Coast, you can learn about Haas in other ways: Their publications, communicating with current students, blogs, info sessions, and receptions.

Required Essays:

1. Give us an example of a situation in which you displayed leadership. (500 word maximum)

This question reflects a common b-school value: leadership. Schools want to see it because employers want to see it. Leadership is going to come up again and again. When have others followed you? When have you taken initiative and persuaded others to go in your footsteps or take your suggestion? Discuss the impact you had, the challenges you faced, how you overcame them, and what you learned.

2. What are your post-MBA short-term and long-term career goals? How do your professional experiences relate to these goals? How will an MBA from Berkeley help you achieve these specific career goals? (1000 word maximum)

Standard goals question. How do your goals flow from your professional experience? What are you short-term and long-term goals? How will the Haas MBA at this point in time help you achieve your goals?

Optional Essays:

1. (Optional) Please feel free to provide a statement concerning any information you would like to add to your application that you haven’t addressed elsewhere. (500 word maximum)

A bonus! If there is some facet of your experience, be it professional, academic or personal, that you have not discussed elsewhere and would like the adcom to know about, include it here. Give them another reason to admit you, but don't submit the grand summary, appeal, or closing statement. Keep it focused and cogent. Obviously, you could use this essay to explain a weakness, but that would leave your application ending on a weakness, which is less than optimal. Try to fit the explanation in somewhere else in the app or if necessary tuck the weakness into this essay, but have the main focus of this essay be something positive. An Example: Your pride in working your way through undergrad, the challenges, and the ultimate satisfaction of learning to manage your time. An essay with this theme will explain a slightly less than stellar GPA; it won't justify a 2.0.

If you would like help with your Haas MBA application, please consider Accepted.com's MBA essay editing and admissions consulting, or a Haas Comprehensive Package. Through July 31, Accepted offers an Early Bird Special that can save you 15% of all school packages and essay editing.

*In order for an application to be considered for a particular round, it must be submitted online prior to midnight Pacific Standard Time the evening of the deadline.