Am I quantified enough?

I was reading a post on application essays by wandering yogi and it reminded me of my struggles not so long ago. As I thought through the essay writing days, some points came to my mind.

- Quantify Results
Almost everyone applying to B-School will have numerous success stories. I was told by several applicants that a key to making essays powerful was to quantify the outcomes. For every activity - Define the problem, how you solved it, what was accomplished and what did you learn from this. I narrowed my list down to three very powerful examples. In each of the cases, my problem had different dimensions to them - for example - organizational issues, revenues and schedule issues. This allowed me to write about various abilities with just one example - a strategy that was very useful for questions that have word limits.

-Highlight Failures
I extensively used examples of my failures to highlight two things - I have introspected enough to know my flaws and I have learned from my mistakes. These were excellent material for the personal essays - like tell us more about your childhood etc.

-Am I special?
There is a lot of talk about different pools of candidates- I took note of this issue and decided to tackle not by highlighting success, but by giving details about what makes me different. One of my good friends, read one of the drafts of my goals essays and said - If I did not know that this was written by you, I could have sworn that this could be anyone with a similar background. To correct this situation, I followed up with details of my plans, and explained in the essay, how I had derived these plans from my previous life experiences.

-I love this school
I would highly discourage applicants from writing things that appear in the publicity materials. However if you have spoken to an alumni who has helped shaped your goals, mentioning this may not hurt. I used this strategy by linking some of the conversations with an alumni who also happened to my recommender. Also conversations with current students helped me tremendously during the interview process.

Essay writing process was long winded for me and boy!! was I thrilled to get over with it. Best of luck -applicants for the class of 2009.

In other related MBA news, after the Haas round two decisions, the yahoo group has been abuzz with activity. I was so thrilled to see folks from every walk of life - I am so looking forward to learning from all these people.