Linda Abraham

The 5-Step Guide to Writing Your MBA Goals Essay

The 5-Step Guide to Writing Your MBA Goals Essay

You’re getting ready to apply to b-school this fall, targeting the Round 1 deadlines. You may also have other responsibilities like work or family, or trying to improve your GMAT scores. What you don’t have is extra time. Let’s take advantage of the time you do have to prepare for the application process in the most efficient way possible.

Based on Accepted’s years of helping students determine their goals and write compelling essays, we’ve put together 5 steps for preparing to write an absorbing, remarkable MBA goals essay:

Step 1: Distinguish between short-term, long-term, and intermediate goals.

The first thing you must do is start defining your MBA goal. The more time you spend now thinking about your goal and how best to express it, the easier and faster the actual essay writing will be later. You can start by listing specific roles and industries that you will discuss in your MBA goals essay.

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Make sure you go beyond the obvious, or at least find a unique way of expressing a less-than-original goal. Think of ways to communicate your goal with as much detail as possible. These details will make your essay stand out from all those others in the pile. Details will make your essay interesting, readable, and individualized.

As you think about your short-term, intermediate, and long-term goals, ask yourself: What would be your ideal position and industry at each of these stages? These may change as you move from short term to long term. Using specific job titles and companies will show how much thought you’ve put into your future.

Step 2: Continue to identify the details of your short- and long-term and the intermediate goals by thinking about what specific goals you’d like to accomplish at each stage.

Talk about the impact you want to make on the people that you come into contact with and the industry in each phase.

Step 3: Do your research so that your goals are realistic.

Now is the time to look up hiring trends, services, organization, market status, products, etc. You should also speak to people in your target industry about what their goals were, and about the steps they took to achieve them.

Step 4: Become familiar with the challenges of the industry you’ve chosen.

Be aware of any current events that have affected your industry. And again, speak to others who have achieved similar goals (or who are currently en route to achieving similar goals) and gather information about the obstacles they’ve hit and overcome along the way.

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Step 5: Be prepared to discuss why you’re attracted to your target industry/position.

Keep your motivation in mind to help you write a more engrossing story with a stronger message. Both of these will help your essay stand out.

Keep these tips in mind during the pre-writing stage of your goals essay. They will help you convey a clear, convincing, and unique depiction of what your goals are, as well as make the actual essay-writing process move along more quickly and smoothly. Use your time wisely and you will be done with your apps before you know it.

Need more guidance on identifying your MBA goals and organizing them in an essay? Download Accepted’s admissions guide, Why MBA, to write a goals essay that will help you get you accepted!

Author

  • Linda Abraham

    Linda Abraham is the founder and CEO of Accepted, the top-tier admissions consultancy that helps you unlock your competitive advantage. Linda has written or co-authored 13 ebooks on the college admissions process. In 2007, she co-founded the Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants (AIGAC) and became its first president. For the last 20 years Linda and her highly credentialed, experienced team have helped thousands of applicants get accepted to top colleges and graduate schools worldwide, including but not limited to Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Columbia, Kellogg, and MIT. She has been featured in The Wall St. Journal, The New York Times, US News, The Sunday Times of London, Businessweek, Poets & Quants and MBA Podcaster.

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