Well I'm still riding the emotional roller coaster that is MBA admissions, and I haven't even gotten to the point yet where I'm waiting to hear decisions. I started writing my HBS essays today and at first it started out well. I wrote 2 essays and felt pretty decent about them. My sister read the first one and gave me some great feedback on it. I was feeling pretty good about things. Then I read this and this. As I read the analysis of the essay questions I realized the essays I had slaved over for hours were not nearly detailed enough, did not talk enough about me as a leader, and that furthermore, one of the essays I planned to write would also be wildly off mark compared to the approach suggested by both these blogs. Now I do not know how much to trust these analyses, but at the same time the advice they give made sense so I wasn't about to just dismiss it either. That started me down the whole death spiral again of "Oh there's no way I'm gonna get accepted." But then a remarkable thing happened. As I was driving home, things started to click. I came up with a plan for my essays that will i) tell a coherent story about me and ii) highlight the impact I've had as a leader (at least in a professional setting). Bottom line is I'll have to scrap one of the essays I already wrote (d'oh) in favor of an essay on my career vision, which I'll use to tie everything else together. I've also changed my plan for my 3 most significant accomplishments essay in order to focus more on instances of the impact my leadership has had rather than a straight-up personal accomplishment that doesn't say much about me as a person/leader. So right now I'm feeling pretty good again. Still haven't reached the high again that I had after the GMAT when I felt like I was a sure thing candidate, but I'll take this current state of cautious optimism.
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