Great Application Essays for Business School (Great Application for Business School) [Paperback]

Paul Bodine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0071452990 | ISBN-13: 978-0071452991 | Edition: 1

Expert guidance to help you write the essay that gets you accepted by the best business schools

If you're applying to a business school these days, you need more than good grades, high GMAT scores, and an impressive resume. You need to write attention-grabbing essays that express your individuality, identify your goals, and play up your talents and strengths.

Written by a renowned admissions consultant who has helped applicants get accepted into the nation's top schools, this all-in-one guide will show you what today's top-level admissions offices are looking for. Filled with clear guidelines, insider tips, and winning samples, it will lead you through every step of the application essay process. You'll learn how to organize and structure your writing, avoid common pitfalls, and market yourself like a pro. The book includes:

• The 8 most common essay questions--and how to answer them
• 22 actual essays by successful applicants to top schools
• Interactive exercises and self-quizes to guide you in the right direction
• Self-marketing strategies to highlight your individual talents
• Candid insights from admissions officers at top-ranked business schools

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A must read... a smart and important book." --John Byrne, founder of PoetsandQuants.com and former executive editor at BusinessWeek.

--Poets & Quants.com

"A tour de force--a practical and lively guide. Paul Bodine really understands the inside track and offers his readers a wealth of useful information. Thorough and wide-ranging." 

----Caroline Diarte Edwards, Director of Admissions, INSEAD

"A very thorough and witty explanation of the admissions process. Excellent advice as to what to do and how to do it skillfully." 

----Christie St-John, Senior Associate Director Admissions & Recruiting, Dartmouth Tuck School of Business:

"'Great Applications for Business School' has great advice for any student interested in earning their MBA from a top school!"

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From the Back Cover

Expert guidance to help you write the essay that gets you accepted by the best business schools

If you're applying to a business school these days, you need more than good grades, high GMAT scores, and an impressive resume. You need to write attention-grabbing essays that express your individuality, identify your goals, and play up your talents and strengths.

Written by a renowned admissions consultant who has helped applicants get accepted into the nation's top schools, this all-in-one guide will show you what today's top-level admissions offices are looking for. Filled with clear guidelines, insider tips, and winning samples, it will lead you through every step of the application essay process. You'll learn how to organize and structure your writing, avoid common pitfalls, and market yourself like a pro. The book includes:

• The 8 most common essay questions--and how to answer them
• 22 actual essays by successful applicants to top schools
• Interactive exercises and self-quizes to guide you in the right direction
• Self-marketing strategies to highlight your individual talents
• Candid insights from admissions officers at top-ranked business schools

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (November 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071452990
• ISBN-13: 978-0071452991
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #448,131 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #28 in Books > Business & Investing > Job Hunting & Careers > Business School Guides

More About the Author

Follow Paul on Facebook (paul.s.bodine), Twitter (@paulsbodine) and LinkedIn (in/paulsbodine).

One of America's most experienced admissions consultants (serving clients since 1997), Paul Bodine has helped hundreds of applicants worldwide gain admission to such elite business schools as Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Chicago, Kellogg, MIT Sloan, Columbia, Dartmouth (Tuck), Berkeley (Haas), London Business School, INSEAD, Yale, New York University, Duke, Cornell, and Virginia, among many others. He has been interviewed by or featured in the Financial Times, BusinessWeek, Christian Science Monitor, MBAPodcaster, and LawSchoolPodcaster. His law school clients have been admitted to such elite programs as Harvard, Columbia, NYU, Virginia, Duke, Northwestern, Cornell, Georgetown, and Vanderbilt. Paul's services to customers include strategizing on application strategy, editing admissions essays, recommendation letters, and resumes, admissions interview preparation, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great advice, excellent analysis of the sample essays, January 9, 2006

By 

V. Bhardwaj "MBA applicant" (Seattle, WA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Great Application Essays for Business School (Great Application for Business School) (Paperback)

This is by far the best B-schools application guides on the market. Paul has done a fabulous job of providing great tips for writing application essays. His "inline" analysis of sample essays helps you analyze your essays critically.

The best part about this book is the process that the author walks you to through to help you think about "your stories" and how do you best present them. His second chapter on "goals essays" is worth alone the price of the book. I only wish this book was published earlier.

Highly recommended.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!, November 29, 2006

By 

naturallight99 (Seattle) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Great Application Essays for Business School (Great Application for Business School) (Paperback)

My essays were awful before I got this book. I was basically extrapolating my resume into essay form, which didn't make for a very persuasive or compelling story.

But this book really helped me write a solid "goals" essay, which is the most important essay. Mr. Bodine shows you how to tie your conclusion into your introduction, for a nice snappy finish. He gets you to focus on "why's" in your life, not the "what's". And he really helps with the structure of the essay, which was the most challenging part for me.

Bottom line: This book is really a must-have if you're applying to business school. Many of my buddies and coworkers are applying now, and I'm almost reluctant to recommend this book to them because I know how much it will help them (and thus make it harder for me to get in!)

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just Accepted, March 10, 2007

By 

BSchool07 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Great Application Essays for Business School (Great Application for Business School) (Paperback)

I got started on my essays very late in the game after having spent the majority of my time taking (and retaking) the GMAT. As a result I was considering blowing $2,000 on an admissions consultant and essay service...

Then I found this book. Most of the other books are full of *other* people's essays. This one will walk you through creating *your* essays and uses the examples as a teaching aid rather than just compiling essays that worked (not useful to me).

To make a long story short, this book helped me construct my key essays including finding your story for constructing the basic 'why mba,' creating a 'packet' for recommenders that is specific and reinforces your story with credibility, and, especially for me, putting the *optional* essay to good use. I was especially concerned about the optional essay because of a sub-par gpa.

This past year I applied to 5 schools, am yet to get my first 'ding,' and have a scholarship offer from a top 10 school. I like the fact that the book is relatively short/focused (not inches thick), annotates the sample essays, and uses real feedback from adcom readers. This is essentially the same service I was about to spend a lot of money on.