Similar to your community endeavors, personal achievements enable you to differentiate yourself from the indistinguishable masses. While every candidate has his/her work experience and academics, you can offer a far more diversified and remarkable picture of yourself through descriptions of your volunteer and personal accomplishments.
In terms of personal achievements, you should focus on accelerating the timeline of existing endeavors. If you have always intended to publish a certain article and are almost finished with a final draft, then finish it. If you have always intended to complete the CFA exam and only have Level Three left, take the final test this year. If you can run twenty miles and have always dreamed of running a marathon, run it this year. I am not suggesting that if you have never run a mile in your life that you start training for a marathon now, however; I am suggesting that if a goal is in sight and it will be otherwise achieved, accelerate your timeline and ensure that you have completed it before the first-round deadline.
Beyond the examples above, other areas of personal accomplishment include language study (achieving fluency), adventure travel (completing a certain hike/climb, etc.), professional and extracurricular certifications (CA, EMT, etc.) and more. Many candidates often exclusively pursue community activity in the months before submitting their applications, but personal opportunities can also significantly affect your profile and separate you from the field.
We offer specific pre-application services for those interested in charting a clear course to their MBA.
