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A dangling or misplaced modifier is a word or phrase that is intended to describe one thing but actually describes something else because of its placement in a sentence. Misplaced modifiers are a common mistake in MBA application essays and can be very distracting to a reader, in addition to possibly misrepresenting the writer’s intention. Although misplaced modifiers can appear anywhere in a sentence, the most common, most obvious, and (thankfully) easiest to correct are those that occur at the beginning of a sentence. Consider the following examples:

As the highest-rated professor at the school, West’s academic writings are primarily analyses of recent developments in tort law.

Even after studying all night, the test was still too difficult for John to pass.

In the first sample sentence, “the highest-rated professor at the school” is meant to describe West, but it instead refers to “West’s academic writings.” In the second example, we can assume that John was the one who studied all night, but because of the way the sentence is constructed, “the test” supposedly did the extensive studying.

To avoid these kinds of confusing constructions, make sure that the first thing you mention after a descriptive introductory phrase is what you want that phrase to describe. To correct our examples here, we could reword them as follows:

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With regard to the GMAT, raw intellectual horsepower helps, but it is not everything. In this blog series, Manhattan Prep’s Stacey Koprince teaches you how to perform at your best on test day by using some common sense.

Many business schools, including Stanford, Harvard, and Wharton, accept either the GMAT or the GRE. I have spoken with a couple of admissions officers about this topic, as well as several students who have had their own conversations with admissions officers about which test to take.

The general consensus seems to be that taking the GRE instead of the GMAT confers no major disadvantage, but some schools do (as we suspected) discount the GRE quant score a bit because they feel that the GMAT quant is more challenging. (And I think they are right about that.)

No one would discuss specifics, but here are some things I inferred. First, the discount is not enormous—my guess is that it is on the order of perhaps five to ten percentile points. If you, for whatever reason, find the GRE quant much easier than the GMAT quant, then it still might be to your advantage to take the GRE.

Second, so far, I have only heard top schools acknowledge doing this. Certainly, any schools could discount the GRE quant; my guess, though, is that everyone else is not as concerned about the small differences in score/difficulty level between the two tests. The top schools receive so many applications that choosing among all of the highly qualified candidates is extremely difficult, so they are even more concerned about making an apples-to-apples comparison (as much as they can).

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*Please note: You are viewing an essay analysis from the 2016-2017 admissions cycle. Click here to view our collection of essay analyses for the current admissions season. 

A famous quotation, though one of murky attribution, states, “If I had had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.” MBA essays used to be lengthy, but Columbia Business School (CBS) has helped lead the way in their gradually becoming shorter and shorter over the years. In fact, CBS was the first business school to incorporate a micro essay into its application. This year, CBS appears to be sticking with the “shorter may be better” theme, because the school has stipulated a minimum of 100 words for each of its essays in addition to setting a maximum, essentially telling candidates that they do not have to submit a long essay to get their point across. (That said, we suspect that no one—no matter how much time they may have to be that brief—will actually use the bare minimum.) However, in a twist, CBS has also increased the allowed word count for several of its essays: applicants have 33% more space for Essay 1 (750 words versus 500 last year) and twice as much for Essay 2 (500 words versus 250). Even the allowance for the school’s short-answer question has grown from 50 characters to—oddly—51, after having been reduced steadily over the past several years (from 200 to 100 to 75 to 50). These increases constitute a pretty significant change and one that will probably come as a relief to applicants, who quickly learn just how challenging trying to say everything they want to in a short essay can be. So, when you write your CBS essays, keep that famous quote in mind. Just because you have more room, you do not have to use it all—you just need to use the allotted space wisely. Focus on making every word count, rather than on trying to say “everything.”

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Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday.

MBA candidates often ask us whether they should complete one application before moving on to the next or whether they should attack all of their applications at once. Although this question has no definite “right” answer, we generally advise candidates who start early to make significant progress on their first application before beginning the second or third.

Why? Simply put, business school candidates can learn a tremendous amount from the process of completing their first application, and this can prevent them from repeating any mistakes two or three times. By mistakes, we mean errors not just in terms of grammar and style, but also in terms of approach. For example, once an applicant starts writing, he/she might discover that achieving the right “balance” in his/her essays is difficult or that conforming to stringent word counts is tougher than expected. In this case, the candidate would benefit from “battling” through the first few essays and using them as an opportunity to refine his/her message and approach, rather than attacking multiple essays at once. After working through these issues and having completed a full set of essays, the applicant can then move forward with the next application(s) and can do so with confidence that he/she is not repeating the same mistakes.

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Many business school candidates take a straightforward, historical approach in their personal statement essays. Although this can be an easy way to organize an essay, it may deprive applicants of an opportunity to deliver a more focused and gripping introduction. Nothing is fundamentally wrong with taking a historical approach, of course, but an anecdotal approach can better maintain a reader’s interest in certain circumstances. Of course, this all comes down to execution!

Example 1: Historical

“When I graduated from New York University with a finance degree, I eschewed Wall Street and pursued my own distinct path; I opened a flower shop in midtown New York, never imagining the challenges I would face as I strived to bring in new customers and locate products around the world. With time, I learned to advertise selectively (on billboards in local office buildings) and developed relationships with suppliers, particularly one in Peru, with whom I obtained an exclusive on Heliconia flowers. After one year, we started to specialize in foreign flowers, and with a niche identified, we developed a strong client base. My firm stabilized, and I was no longer bleeding cash to support my 11 employees; we were cash-flow neutral and contemplating a new location.”

This introduction is very direct and informative but involves almost no drama or emotion. To be more effective, the writer might instead consider positioning himself/herself as “the hero” and drawing the reader in with some anecdotal tension.

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