Gilbert - Business School Essays that Made a Difference

Copyright 2010 by The Princeton Review, Inc.
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All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

eISBN: 978-0-375-42714-5

Senior VPPublisher: Robert Franek
Editor: Laura Braswell
Production Editor: Kristen OToole

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A book such as this is truly a collaborative effort. Many of the ideas and insights presented here belong not to me, but to the extraordinary business school admissions individuals who generously agreed to share their insights and essays with me.

I am particularly indebted to three schools for jumping into this project from the get-go. Their can-do attitude made the success of this project much more probable.

At Babson College, a sincere thanks goes to Kate Klepper, Director of MBA Admissions, Olin Graduate School of Business.

At the University of Chicagos Graduate School of Business, I am especially grateful to Don Martin, Director of Admissions, and to Allan Friedman, Director of Executive Communications.

At the Tuck School of Business, my deepest thanks go to Kiki Keating, Director of Public Relations, and to Kristine Laca, Director of Admissions.

Other business school folks who provided thoughtful inspiration and essay materials are:

Glenn Berman, Director of Admissions, Rutgers Business School at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Pamela Black-Colton, Assistant Dean for MBA Admissions and Administration, William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Rochester

Evan Bouffides, Assistant Dean and Director, MBA Admissions and Financial Aid, Olin School of Business, Washington University in St. Louis

Erin Ernst, MBA Admissions Director, Michael G. Foster School of Business, University of Washington

Ute Frey, Haas School of Business, University of CaliforniaBerkeley

Rod Garcia, MBA Admissions Director, Sloan School of Management, MIT

Daniel Garza, Director of Marketing, McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin

Christine Gill, Director of Marketing and Admissions, Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University

Rebekah Lewin, Director of Admissions, Simon School of Business, University of Rochester

Brian T. Lohr, Director of MBA Admissions, Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame

John McLaughlin, Assistant MBA Admissions Director, Sloan School of Management, MIT

Linda Meehan, Assistant Dean of Admissions, Columbia Business School, Columbia University

Mark Miester, Editor, Office of University Publication, Tulane University

Erin L.C. Nickelsberg, Director, Admissions and Recruitment, Wisconsin School of Business, University of Wisconsin

Emile Pilafidis, MBA Program Director, Peter F. Drucker School of Management, Claremont Graduate University

Bill Sandefer, Director of Admissions and Financial Aid, A. B. Freeman School of Business, Tulane University

Barbara Schneider, Director of Admissions and Financial Aid, Crosby MBA Program, University of Missouri

Melanie Standridge, Assistant Director of Marketing and Recruiting, Peter

F. Drucker Graduate School of Management, Claremont Graduate University

Mary Spreen, Director of Admissions, Henry B. Tippie School of Management, University of Iowa

Matt W. Turner, PhD, Director of Admissions, McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin

Sherry Wallace, Director, MBA Admissions, Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Jeanne Wilt, Assistant Dean of Admissions and Career Development, University of Michigan

Jenni Winslow and Lisa Guglielmi, first-year students at Haas School of Business, University of CaliforniaBerkeley

Heartfelt thanks goes to my editors who were instrumental in bringing this book to fruition. Id also like to thank Rob Franek for the opportunity to write another book. Hes so good. He is Hollywood.

A small circle of friends and family also needs to be acknowledged.

My children tried to endure my immersion in this project. My youngest, still at home, felt my best work would be done with her at my side. Despite an arsenal of distractions, she could not be deterred from rollerblading over my toes during phone interviews. I truly could claim that this book took blood, sweat, and tears.

That said, both of my daughters desire to be famous, so here goes: Kaela and Lexi, thank you for letting me do my work. You make the difference in my life.

Thanks also go to my dearest friends, Janine Molinaro and Susan Smotrich, for seeing me through several crises; my father, Dr. Irving Buchen, for providing thoughts on being a great writer; Livingston Johnson, who dropped everything to retrieve a document sent into computer oblivion; and Peter and Leslie Tilles for generously offering their home to my children so that I could write.

Final thanks go to my husband (and Harvard MBA), Paul Gilbert. I promised him I would not involve him in this book. I failed him miserably.

Its never easy to write a book. This was especially the case with this one. Perhaps because I was already established as someone who writes about business schools (my first book was The Princeton Reviews Best Business Schools), I thought that writing a companion book would be relatively uncomplicated.

Where my first book had several chapters on how to put together a winning application, this book would elaborate on that theme by focusing solely on the essay portion of the application process.

The essays can count for up to 75 percent of your application. So critical are they in the admissions process that neither the highest test scores and grades nor the most stellar work experience can salvage a candidate with problematic essays. I reasoned that this book was sorely needed. Not only would it provide detailed information on how to write a winning essay, it would feature loads of actual b-school essays, accompanied by critiques from the admissions officers themselves on what worked and what didnt.

But life is full of surprises. In my very first phone call to a school that in years past had provided me with generous access to its inside workings, I hit a wall. This school, one of the nations most prestigious, did not believe that real winning essays should be made public. Their concerns were several: First, publishing these essays might encourage an act of plagiarism. Second, they did not want to provide an advantage in their applicant pool to purchasers of this book. Third, they did not want to sanction essay-writing assistance. Finally, they thought students would use these essays too literally and treat them as formulaic blueprints.