Coming soon to your local, handy-dandy computer screen: A whole new Accepted.com. Yes folks, Accepted.com will have facelift. (I decided I didn't want one. May be needed, but too painful. I'm chicken.)

Check back on Monday morning, maybe even Sunday, and you will find  a brand new and improved Accepted.com with: 

1. Improved navigation and ease of use.
2. Cleaner look.
3. Less clutter.

But some qualities of Accepted.com are classic and timeless. They will remain:

• Rich variety of informative articles and resources.
• Commitment to quality and service.

And if you find things a little out of whack, not in the right place or just plain broken, please let us know. Accepted's staff and webmaster, Synet Systems, have worked very hard to have a seamless transition, but I expect a few glitches.

Speaking of glitches. While our Roadmap to Bold & Brilliant MBA Essays webinar was generously praised by those who attended, the aftermath proves that Murphy's law is alive and well. I am happy to report that at this point in time, the webinar file is where it should be and in the format it needs to be in. We will post it when the new site goes live. Apologies for the delay.

My comments are in red:

JOB ESSAYS

1. Please give a detailed description of your job, including nature of work, major responsibilities; and, where relevant, employees under your supervision, size of budget, number of clients/products and results achieved. (250 words)

Note the emphasize on quantifying results. Numbers speak volumes about the amount of responsibility you have handled. Also, while the description ask for major responsibilities, if you focus on achievements and accomplishments, you will reveal both your responsibilities and those occasions when you really shined.

2. Please give us a full description of your career since graduating from university. If you were to remain with your present employer, what would be your next step in terms of position? (250 words)

Don't confuse "full description" with "history." How would you characterize your career since college? You also have to answer the second part of the question and you only have 250 words. 

ESSAYS

1. Give a candid description of yourself, stressing the personal characteristics you feel to be your strengths and weaknesses and the main factors, which have influenced your personal development, giving examples when necessary. (400 words approx.)

For a question like this I recommend two strengths and one weakness. If you can choose one anecdote that reveals both the strengths and the weakness, you will have a strong essay. Don't forget to discuss how these qualities influenced your personal development.

A word on weaknesses. Be honest without going overboard. Don't make up a phony weakness. I attended an HBS info session a few years ago. One of the alumni said that he discussed a "phony weakness" in his essays (required for HBS that year) and his interviewer focused right on it, and basically said, "Come on. What's a real weakness?" The applicant had to get real in a hurry. Take advantage of the essay: Give it some thought and respond with the benefit of that reflection. For more information, please see "Flaws Make You Real."

At the recent AIGAC conference one of the adcom members remembered that an applicant in response to a similar question had listed his weakness in "pitching new ideas in a meeting." The adcom member felt that the applicant was specific, real, and showed self-awareness by revealing this flaw. In fact, by demonstrating these qualities in addition to the requested weakness that he was working on, the applicant actually enhanced his chances of acceptance with his response. 

Don't write about "weakness in pitching new ideas in meetings" as your weakness just because you read it here :-) It will become like the swine flu of MBA essays -- an epidemic. However, you all have weakness. Now just  be thoughtful enough and honest enough to reveal yours.

2. Describe what you believe to be your two most substantial accomplishments to date, explaining why you view them as such. (400 words approx.)

Try to take accomplishments from different arenas of your life. (But don't go back to high school and earlier to do so.) The accomplishments should show impact, contribution, and for INSEAD at least one should have a multi-cultural flavor.

3. Describe a situation taken from school, business, civil or military life, where you did not meet your personal objectives, and discuss briefly the effect. (250 words approx.)

In choosing the situation, here's a case when you can go back in time a little -- let's say 2-5 years. You can illustrate how you learned from this situation and were able to meet similar objectives next time around.

4. Discuss your career goals. What skills do you expect to gain from studying at INSEAD and how will
they contribute to your professional career. (500 words approx.)

This is a forward-looking career goals question. Use the past just enough to set context for your future and show that your goals are anchored in experience. Then explain how INSEAD with its intense, one-year, general management program and strong international focus will help you achieve your goals.

5. Please choose one of the following two essay topics:

a) Have you ever experienced culture shock? What did it mean to you? (250 words approx.),

or

b) What would you say to a foreigner moving to your home country? (250 words approx.)

These two have been part of the INSEAD repertoire for several years. Choose the one that is easiest for you to answer and allows you to bring out a facet of your experience not found in the other essays.

6. (Optional) Is there anything that you have not mentioned in the above essays that you would like the Admissions Committee to know? (200 words approx.)

Take advantage of the optional essay to give them one more reason to admit you. DON'T use it for a grand summary, a restatement of your other essays, or something similarly boring, superficial, and repetitive. Write a tight, focused essay highlighting something you haven't yet discussed.

If you would like help with your INSEAD MBA application, please consider Accepted's MBA essay editing and admissions consulting or a INSEAD Comprehensive Packages, which provide essay editing, interview coaching, consultation, and a resume editing for the INSEAD MBA application. And if you purchase before July 31, 2009, you can save 15% on all editing and comprehensive packages.

INSEAD 2010 (Sept) MBA Application Deadlines

UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business has posted its 2010 MBA Application questions, instructions, and deadlines. 

There are a couple of changes:

• #5 in the supplemental questions is modified.
• Short answers: #1 is new.

Fall 2010 Haas Essay Questions

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.
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.
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.
4. Please explain all gaps in your employment since earning your university degree.
5. Beyond the courses that appear on your academic transcripts, please discuss other ways in which you have demonstrated strong quantitative abilities.
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.)

Short Answer:

1. What are you most passionate about? Why? (250 word maximum)
2. Tell us about your most significant accomplishment. (250 word maximum)
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)
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)

Required Essays:

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

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)

Fall 2010 Haas Application Deadline & Decision Schedule

I will post my tips and comments next week.

Assume you are evaluating your application from the perspective of a student member of the Kellogg Admissions Committee. Why would your peers select you to become a member of the Kellogg community? (600 word limit)

That’s Kellogg’s Essay 3 this year. It’s the resurrection of an earlier essay, and one that effectively replaces the “How would you contribute to Kellogg” essay from years past. Note also that Kellogg has (finally) stipulated word counts, rather than those ambiguous spacing and page limits, which often prompted my clients to ask me if it was okay to use 1.5 spacing and 9-point font to fit in their 1200-word essays (it wasn’t).

So how should you handle this one?

First, consider that there’s no more Contributions essay, so this essay pulls naturally for information on how you will enhance Kellogg’s community. Don’t brush that off. Second, as always, approach it with a nice, clean structure and rich specifics.

Structure: You have some options here. One would be to talk about the specific areas in which the admissions committee member can see your contributions: your unique and relevant professional experience, your leadership at work and beyond, your deep experience with community service. And so on. But perhaps an even more effective structure would mirror the one I advise my clients to use in answering the “How can you contribute?” question when it comes up in interviews: discuss how you would be a highly valuable member of the Kellogg community inside and outside the classroom. Let’s use that one to talk about specifics.

Specifics: So you’ve laid out a structure with something like this: “A student member of Kellogg’s admissions committee would hopefully perceive the many ways I could contribute to the school’s community both inside and outside the classroom.” Now fill it in with rich specifics. The “inside the classroom” part is arguably less important here, as you’ve already discussed work experience briefly in the Goals essay and, frankly, because Kellogg can fill its class many times over with individuals with great scores, grades, and professional experience. But talk briefly about your unique functional and leadership experience at work—the super complex financial models you developed, the high-profile HR taskforce you were selected for, the analyst group you led on a key marketing initiative. And link those to a few specific Kellogg classes and/or team assignments. Then move on to the “outside the classroom” part. Here there are several potential areas to emphasize: social enterprise, cultural groups, travel, hobbies, sports. Talk about specific achievements (especially leadership) within this and, as with the earlier part, link them to specific Kellogg activities. Will your time spent with the Peace Corps in South America help you lead a GIM trip to Brazil? Sure it will. Will your experience establishing a soup kitchen be relevant to leading Net Impact? Sure it will. Will the six triathlons you’ve completed help you start a Kellogg Triathlon Club? Not a chance. I mean, sure it will. You get the idea.

I hope this makes clear that the new (old) Kellogg essay is more or less a “How will you contribute” question in new (old) clothing. They want to know if you’ll be a dynamic, involved, unique contributor to Kellogg’s all-important student community. Show them that’s exactly what you’ll be. My fellow editors and I would be happy to help.

By Dr. Sachin Waikar, former McKinsey consultant, published author, and advisor to applicants to business and grad schools.

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