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7. Theme: Your Greatest Personal Achievement/Accomplishment.
Describe a personal achievement that has had a significant
impact on your life. In addition to recounting this achievement,
please analyze how the event has changed your understanding of
yourself and how you perceive the world around you.
In reviewing the last five years, describe one or two
accomplishments in which you demonstrated leadership.
Translation:
Do you know what an achievement is? Have you done anything
remarkable? What made it remarkable to you? Bonus points if you
showed leadership or inspired others in some way.
This is one of those maddening essay questions. On the one
hand, b-schools seek out applicants whose average age is 27 (a
relatively young age to have achieved much of anything) yet on
the other hand, the schools want to know what miracles you’ve
performed. Don’t pull your hair out yet. There is a way out.
Like all the others, this essay is just one more
prove-to-us-you-have-some-character hoop you’ll have to jump
through. It’s less about the achievement and more about how you
are and how you see yourself.
Again, this question can be easy to answer if you have some
clear accomplishment or event in your background. But if you’re
like the rest of us – you guessed it – you’ll have to rely on
framing.
Let’s cover bad essay topics for achievements. Getting
straight A’s in college is not an achievement because every one
else at b-school has probably done the same. Surviving a divorce
or breakup is a bad accomplishment topic. Personal stories are
acceptable – but one taboo area is romance and marriage. If this
is all you can come up with, you’re going to look like you’re as
deep as a donut.
The accomplishment you choose might show some of the
following qualities: character, sacrifice, humility, dedication,
high-personal stakes, perseverance over obstacles, insight, and
learning. You need not have published a business article or won
an award to answer this question. This essay is not about
excellence of outcome, but what it took for you to reach some
personal worthy objective. Maybe you didn’t lead a sports team
to a victory. The victory may be just that you made it onto the
team.
Next: Sample MBA
Essays #8: Failure/What Mistakes Have You Made?
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