The MBA Essay Preparation Process

If you started writing your essays before starting to work with your application consultant, you have 2 options:

  • You can jump immediately to stage 4 described below. If your essays contain strong content – this will be the most efficient and cost effective option.

– or –

  • Start from stage 1, without showing your written essays to your application consultant. You may use parts of them during stage 3. If this option leads to changes in essay content (compared to the original essays you wrote), there is a likely chance that your essays will end up stronger.

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The essay creation process is usually comprised of 4 steps:

The outline is the skeleton or abstract of your essay. The outline is normally written in a form of short bullet points and its purpose is:

  • To create a logical flow of content.
  • To make sure you don’t miss crucial information/points in your essay.

The outline interview is conducted by the ARINGO consultant, and its purpose is to create content for the outline. The interview usually begins by determining the relevant content for the essay. This is done by using the original “Admissions Drivers” system, which was developed by our team and is constantly being updated based on our research.

The subject of the essay (for example ‘describe your greatest achievement’) is the focus of the interview. During the interview, your consultant will interview you about the essay topic and take notes of your responses in a form of an outline for the essay.

The consultant takes into account the topics most likely to be emphasized by each admission committee, based on the ARINGO research.

The purpose of the outline is on one hand, to be the basis of an authentic essay, and on the other hand to have an optimal effect on the admission committee. Therefore, to maintain authenticity, the outline will only be structured from the actual words you used.

If your time or budget is limited, or if you possess reasonable writing skills, please consider optional tips for streamlining the outline writing process.

Following the outline interview, the consultant will write the outline of the essay. In many cases, the outline will include short bullet points or exact quotes of content points that you raised during the outline interview. The consultant will send you the outline once it has been written.

Once you’ve received the outline, write the first draft of your essay based on the outline. Then, send it to your consultant through the Client Interface.

In applicable cases, the Client Interface will also provide you with the option to send the essay to the relevant school analyst. Every ARINGO school analyst is a graduate (or soon-to be graduate) of the MBA program to which you are applying. The school analyst’s job is to ensure your essays contain the specific nuances relevant to your target program.

Please note: the outline contains only the ‘dry facts’, the content anchors. However, it is important that you add “your personal touch” and personality to the essay, and only you can do that! It is important that your essays be moving, personal, honest and true – this will help you evoke empathy within the reader.

Once your consultant receives your essay draft, he/she will first focus on the content. If the consultant reaches the conclusion that strategic or structural changes are required in your essay, he/she will point them out to you.

Often, the process is gradual, and it usually requires 2-6 editing rounds until a satisfying version is achieved. However, in terms of cost effectiveness, one or two editing rounds are often enough. The added value of each editing round is normally smaller than that of the round preceding it.

Make sure you send your essay drafts to your consultant through the Client Interface. This will ensure that you will receive all the instruction you need during the process.

The process described above was defined in order to fulfill a dual-purpose:

An authentic essay is a personal, honest, original, interesting, and occasionally moving or daring essay. Its purpose is to show that behind the words of the essay there is a human and unique person. An authentic essay evokes interest within the reader. It is memorable, and quite often arouses sympathy towards the applicant.

One of the main purposes of your ARINGO consultant is to assist you in different ways to write authentic essays.

Our conversations with admission committees show that authentic application documents are often more effective in terms of admission chances. Therefore, ARINGO instructs its application consultants to maintain your original language when editing the text. This includes small foreignisms (indicators that English is not the first language of the applicant) to maintain authenticity. In the case of foreignisms, if you feel that this approach should not apply to you, please instruct your application consultant accordingly.

A focused essay has the content and the logic that increase your admission chances. A focused essay doesn’t have to be a literary masterpiece. It has to show that you have the characteristics (“Admission Drivers”) that the specific program your are applying to likes its students to have.

According to our experience, a focused essay is not necessarily a super-impressive essay, however it “gives you points” on the qualities that the Admission Committee is looking for in its MBA candidates.

In order to write effective application essays, take another look at Work Effectively with ARINGO Tips, before starting to work on your essays. Also, it is recommended that you take a look at the article Successfully Negotiating the Essay Maze.

Much luck with the process,
The ARINGO Research Team

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