ABC of Application Essays

For the past six weeks I am trying to write the Application essays for my dream school. This fall, it might be a turning point for my career or one more struggle year added to previous ones. Whatever be the fate, only tide of time will wash away the dust from the future. But the aplying to B-Schools is a tough job - tougher than it looks like.

Ok here is my journey till date. When I started with my GMAT prep I thought, GMAT is the toughest part. Once this is clear - rest will be cakewalk. Fair Enough. This was at the time when I used to falter in my prep tests. Phew!!! Let the GMAT be over, I will again be comfortable and have a breathing time. I will fly in the air again and as my friend prasoon says - I will be able to see the 'blue sky' again. He has some theoram of 'Blue sky' - which says that when you are under immense pressure - you stop seeing that the sky is blue. You get detached to the world. The state remains till you are out of that pressure. Once it is done you can see the 'blue sky'. So I thought - my blue sky is waiting after my GMAT.

And so it came. I could see the blue sky after my GMAT but that didn't last for long. Immediately I started with the Essay writing stuff and thought to write the app essays of three schools - what an idiot I was even to think of it in first place. All other work like arranging transcripts and reccos were also included in this two months time period.

Let us keep the schools as L, C, W. So it started with the L essays. Huh!! Pretty easy. I always knew why MBA? and stuff. This is cool. Next!! Ambitions?? Huh!! Another sitter!! And so it went. I thought to extend my 'rest'. One of my MBA friend adviced me that I should not act stupid and immediately start with it. And on the weekend, I started with it. Gosh!! I could not tell you the feeling on that day. Imagine a person writing his first love letter surrounded with the crushed paper strewn all over the place and the site of the person with knees on table. I instantly realized that this is going to be the toughest portion of the entire App. A few more weeks and it only increased the number of crushed paper in the neighbourhood - Phew!!! I guess the blue sky coverted to 'blues'.

Anyway, finally I was able to have a proud Draft version of the essay and sent it to friend to have a third eye view. I was devastated by the reply. It seems like he had put RDX beneath my essays say BLAST. I had to undergo the labor pains again....And for an easy stuff like Why MBA????? That was the funny part. However, just like your first love letter - you want to be perfect, you need to be perfect - You got to be perfect. There is no escape (unless you decide to change your opinion about your love) , no mercy and no easy way out...

I believe the hardest part of any essay is the forced self introspection. Because when you do self introspection for yourself, you tend to gain but if somebody forces you and say - Hey look, try to ascertain your past pieces of life and build four walls and show me what rooftop you want? - What do you do? You do as he says...Because he is the boss at present. Sometimes this forced self introspection leads to self depression when you think excessively about your scattered past and are unable to join these pieces to give you a larger than life image. Well, welcome to the Club MBA. I don't wanna discuss my story of the essay writing for the second school - C. However, I totally dropped the idea for W so you are better judge as to how it faired for C... :).


However the story is far from over....But it gives you a good fuel to discuss it with your boss.. Yes, I mean it. With your boss!! If your boss really cares about you and your future, I don't think he has any problem with your decision to take a break to build your career and future. If he has....Change your job....Well in my case, I enjoy discussing these cycles with my boss ( incidentally we share the same institute background..so a rapport is already there).