5. Extracurricular Activities Since College

First, be truthful. Second, think expansively. If you have been working 18 hours a day for the last three years in an investment bank, you may not have much to say about how you've spent your free time helping the community. But have you served in an advisory role for any non-profits or small businesses? Have you been involved at all in your alumni association? Think think think.

Depending on the application, you will probably have space for a short description of the activity. Clarity outweighs specificity. Remember that the reader may never have heard of the organization and may have trouble following technically accurate, but jargon-filled, descriptions. Recall also that the reader will probably just glance at these forms, and if you want the substance understood, you have to think "sound bite."

6. Honors and Awards

Like for extracurricular activities, think broadly and be honest. And be clear. Honors can range from military medals to corporate "team player" awards given at the annual Christmas party. Don't include the unserious here, as you will be competing against applicants with plenty of serious honors.

7. Essays

The first thing to remember is that this is the one area of the application almost entirely under your control. Your transcript, work experience, community involvement--they're all locked in. You may still be able to take the GMAT again, but your score may not go up by much. These uncontrollable factors will set the bar for you. If you write compelling and memorable essays, you will be able to jump over that bar.

How do you make your essays compelling and memorable? First, they must be about you. Second, they must be interesting--both in subject matter and in style. Third, they must answer the questions.

A. About You

Making your essays about you seems like a simple proposition, but many applicants make the mistake of describing elements surrounding their life, without describing themselves. For example, if you worked at a consulting firm known for its use of teams, an essay should not spend a lot of time describing the firm and its culture--it should instead talk about how you have grown within that culture. If an essay asks about an historical figure you'd like to have dinner with, don't talk too much about the historical figure--talk about your interaction with that figure.

A lot of prospective MBA students feel a bit uncomfortable talking about themselves--fewer admits are so uncomfortable. You've got to walk that fine line between arrogance and humility. "I" should figure prominently in your essays-but then again, it shouldn't be the beginning of each sentence. Your thoughts, your feelings, your goals, and your dreams are the centerpiece of a world-class application. Put the reader inside your head, or at least inside the head of the more focused, driven you.

B. Interesting

Let's say you've been an accountant for four years--how do you make your essays interesting? This is not an easy task. It is even more difficult if you have the personality of the stereotypical accountant. You are going to have to push yourself a little bit. Most of us have jobs that are not particularly interesting to others, but every job has its ups and downs, its triumphs and failures. Luckily, essay questions rarely ask you to simply "describe your job," but instead give you hooks to attach stories of achievement or interpersonal conflict.

The best way to make your essays more interesting is to infuse them with a strong voice, to provide some variety of content, and to provide necessary detail without becoming tedious. A strong voice comes easily to some writers, while others seem to be ashamed to speak at all. Having a strong voice means more than just avoiding passive language-though that is part of it. It also means saying something with every sentence. It means moving us along through the essay with force and efficiency. Crisp language; economy of words. Think (HBS alum) President Bush's speeches in comparison with Alan Greenspan's testimony on the Hill. Compare:

Tentative signs suggest that this favorable dynamic may be beginning to take hold. Industrial production, as I indicated earlier, seems to have stabilized, and various regional and national business surveys point to a recent firming in new orders. Indeed, the backlog of unfilled orders for nondefense capital goods, excluding aircraft, increased, on net, over the first five months of this year. Investment in structures, however, continues to weaken.

- Alan Greenspan in July 2003 testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives

The terrorists and the Baathists hope to weaken our will. Our will cannot be shaken. We're being tested, and America and our allies will not fail. We will honor the sacrifice of the fallen by ensuring that the cause for which they fought and died is completed. And we will make America safer by helping to transform Iraq from an exporter of violence and terror into a center of progress and peace.

- George W. Bush's November 1, 2003, radio address

Lesson #1: Never use phrases such as "may be beginning to take hold." Use simple, direct language.

Lesson #2: Some subject matter lends itself more directly to the use of a strong voice than other subject matters. Try to write about subjects that allow you to use a strong voice.

What do I mean by variety of content? Essays are more interesting when they have descriptive language, a bit of personal feeling/introspection, some anecdotes (including maybe a direct quote or two), and of course, narration, to move the piece along. Not all of these factors can appear in every essay, but you should be thinking about which of these might fit naturally into answers to certain questions. Humor is also an option, though not for every essay question. Admissions officers are reading hundreds of these things and can appreciate a little levity. Two things to remember: (1) not everyone has the same sense of humor; and (2) if you're not funny, don't force it.

Providing detail is important, as your reader must be able to understand what you're talking about. If you are describing a project you worked on, you should give the reader a sense for that project. If it is technical, put it in terms the layman can understand. But you don't need to go into too much detail. Here are two examples of the same story, in the response to the question, "What was the first consulting project you ever worked on?":

(1) My first project at McKinsey was a growth strategy for a mid-sized insurance company. Our task was to explore avenues for the company to improve top-line revenue by 50% over the next three years. In our final recommendation to the board, we outlined growth prospects amounting to twice that number, through both internal, organic strategies--like recruiting and hiring 100 new agents in 20 states--and acquisition strategies, such as the purchase of a small competitor.

(2) My first project at McKinsey was a growth strategy for a mid-sized insurance company. The company had 1,000 agents in 35 states and 2002 revenues of $1.5 billion. Over the last 5 years, its profits had dropped from $80 million down to $30 million, mostly due to a soft insurance market. The number of agents had stayed relatively constant and overall revenues were stagnant. Now that the insurance market was hardening, our job was to help the company increase top-line revenues by 50% over the next three years, expecting that profits would follow. The CEO didn't care where the $750 million came from--consumer lines, commercial lines, or specialty lines. He just wanted the money. We found him that $750 million, and an additional $750 million, through organic growth, as well as acquisition strategies. We recommended that the company increase the number of agents by 10%, particularly by hiring in Texas, Florida, Georgia, Arizona, California, and 15 other states; that they add new product offerings, like variable annuities and universal life policies; and that they add new channels, like direct and wholesaling. In addition, we recommended that they acquire some other players in the market, a term life competitor, a small bank, and a financial planning company.

This was an exaggerated example, but the second story is filled with unimportant facts. The question didn't ask for the whys and hows of your first project; just what it was. Each detail in and of itself is not necessarily extraneous, as it is good to give the reader a window into the project's magnitude or impact--but added together the exact profit numbers, the market situation, the description of lines of business, the states in which agents are hired, the distribution channels… It's just too much! The first gives a few details, just enough to allow the reader to understand what has happened, but does not bog the reader down. Remember also that if you are describing a particularly important event or moment-perhaps in an anecdote-that the level of detail can be crucial to bringing the reader into the moment. Compare:

(1) After months of work and controversy, my team approached my manager with our final recommendations. With some hesitation, he agreed with our conclusions: the department had to be downsized. He told us to implement the recommendations.

(2) After months of work and controversy, my team was scheduled for an 8:00AM Monday morning meeting with my manager, the director of a 50-person department. We had worked all weekend to prepare. At stake: the jobs of 25 people. The company was going through a cost-cutting process and my team's mission was to find $3 million. Other options slowly faded from the picture as impractical, as our analysis proceeded. On this day, we were to present those findings to the director. We slowly filed into his expansive office as he finished checking his e-mail.

"So," he said, "Do I have to order pink paper or did you guys come up with something better?"

It was my job to break the news. "Mr. Skinner, we have thoroughly reviewed all the options, and there is just no way to make this work without reducing headcount," I said.

"Well, I was afraid of that. Let me have your report. In the meantime, I assume you have a plan? Should I call in the other supervisors?"

When the whole team was assembled, he gave us our marching orders, having glanced at our recommendations. It was going to be a rough year.

The second story allows the reader to truly understand the conflicts and issues in the situation described. The reader was in the room with the team and could feel the dynamic, whereas in the first description of the same event, the reader is left wondering. Were there other options considered? What was the magnitude of the impact? Was this just a rubber-stamping by the boss or did he challenge the recommendations? Sometimes there is not space to describe fully a relevant situation, but when there is, and when the details further the story, they should be included.

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