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Many MBA applicants feel that they are purchasing a brand when choosing a business school, but the educational experience is what is crucial to your future, and no one will affect your education more than your professors. Each Wednesday, we profile a standout professor as identified by students. Today, we focus on Subramonia Sarma from the Indian School of Business.

Though not a full professor at the Indian School of Business (ISB), Subramonia Sarma helps drive a majority of the entrepreneurship programming at the school. As head of ISB Special Programs, he oversees the ELP, the Wharton Global Consulting Practicum and the ISB’s business plan competitions (including the Global Social Venture Competition). Sarma also personally mentors ISB students and alumni who seek to create and grow their businesses.

On campus, Sarma is perhaps best known for one of his contributions to Professor Kavil Ramachandran’s “Planning an Entrepreneurial Venture” class: the “Make as Much as You Can” Challenge, in which teams of up to five students and community members receive $10 in seed capital and then race to create the most profit in a span of seven days while conducting business solely within ISB walls. Students then submit three-minute slide and video presentations on their learnings in this entrepreneurial guerilla boot camp and compete for one of the top three prizes. Past student teams have created businesses that offer massages, singing telegrams, section tee shirts and seemingly just about everything else both legal and imaginable. One year, starting with a total initial investment of $400, the 40 student teams created a return of $8,000. According to Sarma, the only campus member not delighted with the outcome was the dean, who, to be fair to all, had to partake of each and every student team’s offering. At some point during their time at the ISB, nearly all students will come into contact with Sarma, who told mbaMission, “Part of my job is to help students do whatever they want to do.”

For more information about the ISB and 15 other top-ranked business schools, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.

*Please note: You are viewing an essay analysis from the 2014-2015 admissions cycle. Click here to view our collection of essay analyses for the current admissions season. 

If you are thinking about applying to the Yale School of Management (SOM) this year, you had better make sure your resume is clear and compelling, your recommendations are replete with examples and showcase your distinctiveness, you offer your best and most comprehensive self via your interview and you carefully consider each short-answer question. These are all important tasks with any application, of course, but why do they merit extra attention with respect to Yale? Because Yale is offering you just one essay and only 500 words with which to make a memorable impression, and that is simply not enough room to reveal all your diverse achievements. In writing your one essay, you have a very important choice to make, because those few words will shape much of your initial qualitative impression. Our analysis follows…

Essay 1: The Yale School of Management educates individuals who will have deep and lasting impact on the organizations they lead. Describe how you have positively influenced an organization—as an employee, a member, or an outside constituent. (500 words maximum)

As we have noted, you are quite limited with the Yale SOM application essay this year, so you will have to think very carefully about which experience to showcase. As the question makes clear, you need to show evidence of positive influence and enduring impact. This does not mean, however, that you must have reshaped an entire organization. If you helped revamp your firm’s hiring function, thereby influencing future hiring, or shifted a key thinker’s strategy, thereby triggering a ripple effect that yielded positive results, or added an important feature to a product, thereby making it a revenue driver, then you have doubtlessly had an impact. In other words, Yale is not expecting CEO-level influence from you, but it is expecting that you have made a mark of some kind within your sphere. Of course, if you actually have led the overhaul of an entire organization, that is great, but again, it is not a requirement.

To create a strong essay, put your reader in the middle of the action quickly. With 500 words, you will not have enough room to expound on your organization’s background and its failures/needs. Instead, launch immediately into your narrative, presenting the problem you worked to solve or the opportunity you tried to seize. Then focus on how you conducted yourself on your way to positively influencing affairs and making an enduring impact—how you ultimately solved that problem or seized that opportunity. And, as regular readers of our essay analyses know, you must show that the path to your victory was a bumpy one, because if the whole thing was a slam dunk from the beginning, your story will lack dramatic tension—your reader will finish with a “big deal” shrug.

Be very clear to show “lasting impact,” which means you should not be afraid to carry your story through to its end. For example, revamping a firm’s hiring can have many ripple effects in terms of attracting employees who are better fits and leading to improved performance for both a team and the firm overall. Do not brag, but do not be too modest, either. Be fair to yourself and present the full story of your accomplishment, all the way to its logical conclusion. If your essay is humble (because of its narrative approach, it has to be!), your reader will gladly follow you there.

For a thorough exploration of  the Yale SOM academic program, merits, defining characteristics, crucial statistics, social life, academic environment and more, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guide to the Yale School of Manangement.

What has motivated your decision to pursue an MBA at this point in time? (250 Words)

Within the Yale SOM application is a question that asks you to explain “Why now?” with respect to your desire to earn an MBA and demands that you respond in just 250 words. Before you rush to answer, stop, take the time to truly consider the question, and identify your honest reason. Many people get overly anxious about this question and struggle with it, often thinking they must determine the “right” answer, but not only does a “right” answer not exist, but the authentic answer is truly the most compelling one.

You do not need to argue that starting your MBA studies next summer is absolutely imperative; you just need to show that you have purpose in applying now—that you have grown to a point at which the experience is necessary in some way, that you would benefit from the accelerant, that your firm is pushing you to get the degree, that you feel you lack certain skills that would enable you to succeed or have gaps that indicate you need more education. What is even more important than your stated reason is how you personalize it. You will need to truly “own” your answer to ensure that it is effective and convincing, and that is entirely possible, even with just 250 allotted words. Relate your past and your future in a detailed but concise way, relying on events in your professional life to support your point, and your final essay should naturally be a persuasive one.

*Please note: You are viewing an essay analysis from the 2014-2015 admissions cycle. Click here to view our collection of essay analyses for the current admissions season. 

Historically, the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, has been a bit of a wild card with respect to its application essay prompts, asking applicants about their favorite songs and/or times when they were “students of their own failures.” This year, Haas’s questions are pretty darn conventional, though one could argue that the school’s third essay question is a bit of a twist on the traditional personal statement. We discuss that twist in our essay analysis, which follows…

Essay 1: Describe an experience that has fundamentally changed the way you see the world. How did this transform you? (400–500 word maximum)

To show how you have changed, you will need to offer not just the “after” but a clear “before and after” scenario. Do not just assume that the admissions committee will understand that you had a powerful experience. You must figuratively hold their hand, walk them through the situation—explaining how you originally perceived the world—and then describe that “transformative” moment when everything changed, leading to new and different behaviors and perceptions on your part.

The first part of this essay will build toward that moment or experience, through a narrative, and show how you previously viewed your world. Then, you will come to a deeply influential experience that is in sharp contrast, leaving you no choice but to change. The experience you describe can be a professional or personal one, and it can also be something that happened to you, such as a political debate or a book you read. While the catalyst itself is important, the admissions committee is far more interested in your capacity for change.  The school is not expecting you to become a completely new person but wants to know that you are open to the world, critically evaluating your thoughts and adapting when necessary. Your narrative should demonstrate some or all of these traits!

Essay 2: What is your most significant professional accomplishment? (200–300 word maximum)

This is a classic essay question! So many schools used to pose this query, but now Haas is one of the very few that still does. Why not give applicants a chance to showcase their best professional accomplishments as they apply to a school that is meant to be a catalyst for professional success?

Your response should be very straightforward. Identify the accomplishment and then use a narrative approach to illustrate how you achieved your goal. That said, this is not the place to brag—the admissions committee should understand that you performed quite well without you having to explicitly say so! By relying on sharing what you did and how you did it, rather than claiming why you are so great, you will show both that you are an elite performer and that you are appropriately humble.

Remember, any great accomplishment is hard won. If you story does not have a clear conflict, it is not the right story to share. You do not want to portray yourself as a hothead, battling to achieve something important to you, but you do need to show that through your efforts, you met challenges and overcame them. And you can do this in 300 words!

Essay 3: What is your desired post-MBA role and at what company or organization? In your response, please specifically address sub-questions a., b., and c.

a) How is your background compelling to this company?

b) What is something you would do better for this company than any other employee?

c) Why is an MBA necessary and how will Haas specifically help you succeed at this company? (500–600 word maximum for 3a, 3b, and 3c combined)

Haas wants to know about your goals and why you need its MBA program specifically to facilitate/accelerate your career. However, the school is asking you to discuss your career path in an indirect way—essentially forcing you to walk a few steps in your post-MBA shoes, rather than imagine an ideal now. Haas appears to be pushing candidates to really think about their post-MBA aspirations and consider the plausibility of their paths, possibly to lessen the chance of admitting those who do not have sufficient direction to succeed.

In the first section, you should relate your strengths to your target company, showing examples from your existing professional life and, in some rare cases, personal interests. Definitely take the time to research your target firm and understand what it seeks and the values it holds dear. Avoid clichés like “I am tech savvy and dynamic and would be a perfect fit for Google.” Such a declaration would be way too superficial—you must show a profound understanding of your target company to demonstrate the “fit” that will impress the admissions committee.

“Better…than any other employee” is a pretty high bar for you to clear, but do not be daunted by this phrasing. We would advise you to think carefully about your professional strengths and relate them to a task that you see yourself fulfilling or even to an intangible aspect of how you will conduct yourself (maybe you foster community incredibly well, even though doing so would not officially be part of your job as a marketing associate at Clorox). If you can offer something that you truly do better than others, that is great, but most candidates will reveal an aspect of their experience that is inordinately strong, and that should be compelling enough.

In section C, we revert back to pretty typical personal statement phraseology. And because personal statements are similar from one application to the next, we have produced the mbaMission Personal Statement Guide, which helps applicants write this style of essay for any school. We offer this guide to candidates free of charge. Please feel free to download your copy today.

For a thorough exploration of UC-Berkeley Haas’s academic program, merits, defining characteristics, crucial statistics, social life, academic environment and more, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guide to the Haas School of Business at the University of California-Berkeley.

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*Please note: You are viewing an essay analysis from the 2014-2015 admissions cycle. Click here to view our collection of essay analyses for the current admissions season. 

These days, Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business is a veritable maverick in that it offers applicants vast opportunities to tell their stories. In the school’s first three very short “essays,” candidates reveal their goals. In its second “essay,” applicants offer a list of what should be far more than 25 diverse accomplishments and experiences. Then, candidates choose from two essay options through which to reveal their fit with the Fuqua program. As admissions committees seem to be limiting applicants’ flexibility more and more each application season, Fuqua ensures that its applicants can instead share all of themselves. So, although Fuqua may require a little more work for some applicants, the payoff should be there in the form of creative control!

Required Short Answer Questions Instructions: Answer all 3 of the following questions. For each short answer question, respond in 250 characters only (the equivalent of about 50 words).

1. What are your short-term goals, post-MBA?
2. What are your long-term goals?
3. Life is full of uncertainties, and plans and circumstances can change. As a result, navigating a career requires you to be adaptable. Should the short-term goals that you provided above not materialize what alternative directions have you considered?

With this trio of questions, Fuqua is essentially asking for a standard, but very brief, personal statement—only this one has a nonstandard component, presented in the third query. Most candidates feel that they have to be unequivocal in their goals, but here Fuqua is asking applicants to equivocate somewhat. Fuqua’s admissions committee knows that sometimes the best-laid plans do not always play out as expected or yield the intended results, and the school wants to know that you are prepared to switch gears and recommit to a different path, if necessary, and are fully capable of doing so. The key in answering this question is showing that your alternate goal is just as connected to your skills, interests and ambitions as your original plan and does not come “out of left field,” so to speak. For example, you would probably have a difficult time convincing the admissions committee that your short-term goal is to work in technology consulting while your alternate goal would be to work in human resources, because these industries, for the most part, require entirely different skills and personalities. Just be mindful that both goals you present must be plausible and achievable. Because personal statements are similar from one application to the next, we have produced the mbaMission Personal Statement Guide, which helps applicants write this style of essay for any school. We offer this guide to candidates free of charge. Please feel free to download your copy today.

For a thorough exploration of Fuqua’s academic program/merits, defining characteristics, crucial statistics, social life, academic environment and more, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guide to the Fuqua School of Business.

First Required Essay Instructions: Answer the following question — present your response in list form, numbered 1 to 25. Some points may be only a few words, while others may be longer. Your complete list should not exceed 2 pages.

The “Team Fuqua” spirit and community is one of the things that sets The Duke MBA experience apart, and it is a concept that extends beyond the student body to include faculty, staff, and administration. When a new person joins the Admissions team, we ask that person to share with everyone in the office a list of “25 Random Things About Yourself.” As an Admissions team, we already know the new hire’s professional and academic background, so learning these “25 Random Things” helps us get to know someone’s personality, background, special talents, and more. In this spirit, the Admissions Committee also wants to get to know you–beyond the professional and academic achievements listed in your resume and transcript. You can share with us important life experiences, your likes/dislikes, hobbies, achievements, fun facts, or anything that helps us understand what makes you who you are. Share with us your list of “25 Random Things” about YOU.

Be prepared to have fun creating this list for your Fuqua application, but before you start scribbling down your 25 random things, take some time to brainstorm. You cannot simply draft a list of “typical” accomplishments—remember, the school is asking for a random list, and keep in mind that your reader should learn more about you as an individual through this list. Make sure that each piece of information you provide gives the admissions committee a new window into your personality, into what really makes you tick and makes you you. Most important, make sure that you own all the points on your list—that your list is truly yours. For example, a statement such as “I love Goodfellas and have watched it eight times” could easily apply to many applicants—therefore, it would not be truly yours. However, if you were to instead write, “At least once a year, my friends and I put on dark suits and don’t so much watch Goodfellas as recite it together line-for-line,” you would present an experience that is undoubtedly yours, because few other candidates would be likely to say this same thing about themselves.

Although the admissions committee does not want you to rehash your professional and academic accomplishments in this list, and you should certainly avoid listing anything that already appears elsewhere in your application, you can of course still include moments that occurred in these spheres. Use detail and a narrative style (but keep things brief!) to give these elements life and ensure that they are personal. For example, rather than saying that you “won a creative thinking award for implementing an innovative training solution,” you might write that you “once won an award for instructing trainees to flip their desks upside down and face what was previously the back of the room—thereby creating an exercise to introduce new hires to the concept and value of new perspectives.”

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*Please note: You are viewing an essay analysis from the 2014-2015 admissions cycle. Click here to view our collection of essay analyses for the current admissions season. 

The Darden School at the University of Virginia claims to have released its essay question for the year, but last year, it released a single essay question on its blog but then added more when the complete application was later released. Let us hope that Darden makes things simple for applicants this year and takes a “what you see is what you get” approach—keeping the required application essays to just one. We will stay on top of this and update our essay analysis as needed, if Darden happens to be up to its old tricks again! [Update 12/1/14: Just like last year, Darden has added two short essay questions through its online application—we have now added them to our analysis here.]

Essay 1: Describe the most courageous professional decision you have made or action you have taken. What did you learn from that experience? (500 words maximum)

Darden’s use of the word “courageous” here may fluster some applicants, leading them to wonder, “At this point in my career, can I really say that I have been courageous in my professional life?” In this context, you do not need to equate courage with heroism. Do not worry if you have not yet bet the farm on a new technology or stared down a Wall Street raider—the admissions committee knows that most candidates are still in the earliest stages of their careers and therefore understand “courage” in relative terms. So, rather than equating courage with heroism, think of courage as referring to “risk.” Have you ever stuck your neck out for something you believed in or stepped out of your comfort zone to take charge of something? Some moments to consider include the following:

• Taking a risk in telling someone senior that his/her plan will not work
• Asking for a greater level of responsibility to execute on a high-profile project
• Pushing your firm to change its thinking on a client/supplier
• Advocating for an individual to be hired, fired or promoted

In any of these circumstances, for a story to work, something must be at stake for you—your reputation needs to be on the line.

You can also consider discussing moments that touch on personal risk. Maybe your most courageous decision was leaving a job or declining one offer to accept a more challenging nee. Or, perhaps your most courageous moment came as the result of a failure or disappointment, or you took responsibility for an error and learned invaluable lessons. Our list could go on and on.

As you write, work to create a narrative structure that has a clear inflection point, one at which you can choose one of two paths. If your reader does not understand the risks to you that are inherent in these two choices, then your ultimate decision will hardly seem courageous. So, to reiterate, your narrative must involve and present a very clear conflict that forced you to take decisive action and altering your path in some way. Then, after presenting the results of your decision, you must examine your behaviors and discuss your learning—possibly exploring your relationship with others and/or your understanding of your own capabilities. Reiterating the obvious themes will not work. Your reader needs you to be introspective and show that you have true insight into your actions and that the lessons you learned have been profound and enduring.

The following two short essay questions are buried in the Darden application:

1. The Darden classroom is a high-engagement environment where students learn from classmates as well as faculty. Our case method teaching style is highly experiential and obligates students to share their perspectives. What knowledge and skills will you bring to our classroom? (200 words)

For this essay, you will need to relate your experiences to the case method, so your first step is ensuring that you clearly understand what the case method truly entails and demands. For example, you will need to be able to develop strong opinions, while simultaneously being open to those of others; you must possess an analytical mind and be capable of dealing with uncertainty; you will be required to participate actively (speak publically), and your ideas will be challenged from many angles. Once you have fully grasped the nature of the case method, you must then incorporate anecdotes and examples from your life into your essay to demonstrate this nuanced understanding. So, for instance, saying simply, “I was a debate champ, and I think I will thrive in a case environment” would not be enough to accomplish this. Instead, you would need to link your debate background to the case method and explain what exactly this experience will enable you to do in the classroom. How would you use the skills you gained from debating to facilitate others’ learning? In a mere 200 words, you will need to reveal a skill—or even better, expertise—you possess in an area that applies to the Darden classroom environment and then illustrate that connection in a compelling manner.

2. What is your short-term goal and why? What makes this goal a good fit for you? (200 words)

This essay prompt is essentially an abbreviated version of a standard personal statement, and  because personal statements are similar from one application to the next, we have produced the mbaMission Personal Statement Guide. This free resource is meant to help applicants write this style of essay for any school. Please feel free to download your copy today.

For a thorough exploration of Darden’s academic program/merits, defining characteristics, crucial statistics, social life, academic environment and more, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guide to the Darden School of Business Administration.

Want some essay-writing advice straight from the source? Sara Neher, assistant dean of MBA Admissions at Darden, offers several helpful tips for prospective students in a recent video blog. Click here to watch!