One of the most daunting aspects of the application process is how to explain your background in a succinct but compelling manner. We work extensively with applicants on how to do this across their essays, recommendations, resume, application forms, and interviews. A recent blog by Penelope Trunk, author of Brazen Careerist, has some great ideas about communicating your background.

The challenge in explaining your background is you don’t know what to include and what to leave out. You are, of course, an expert on your life which can make it hard to objectively determine which details an admissions committee needs to know about you. Trunk offers up three “plots” that can help you frame your personal and/or professional experiences:

1. The challenge plot — you overcame an obstacle to get where you are

2. The creativity plot — there was a turning point in your life that inspired a new direction or idea

3. The connection plot — you brought people together to achieve a dream

You can use these frameworks on a micro level (discussing a job experience) or a macro level (explaining how you ended up being an engineer after college). The important thing to remember is to create a cohesive storyline that you can support with details as opposed to just listing out experiences.

If you’d like to speak with one of our consultants about the admissions process and your story, please contact us here.

An article was recently published in WSJ.com about fraud on applications (undergrad as well as all types of graduate school). It’s an unfortunate reality that applicants are going to great lengths to fabricate stories in order to gain admittance to programs at which they do not necessarily belong. Dishonesty on your applications is not only likely to be uncovered, but it also defeats the purpose of this whole process, which is to reveal yourself and end up at a school that is a truly good fit for you. If you portray yourself as something that you are not, you may end up in the wrong environment.

The article talks about the background checks that a lot of schools are using now to verify facts on your application. Concern over these background checks, often prompts my clients to feel concerned about statements they are making. What if something is misinterpreted? What if the admissions committee is not familiar with the grading requirements at my particular school? Rest assured that an admissions commitee is looking to uncover blatant lies - fabricated jobs, completely false activities and awards. If something needs an explanation, and you can reasonably explain it, you will be just fine. They are hoping that they will not uncover anything! They are not going to be nit picking and manipulating your statements so that they are untrue. Making your application sparkle, marketing yourself, putting your best foot forward - these are expected parts of selling yourself. But making up facts is *obviously* not allowed. You will know if you are doing something that can get picked up by a private investigator and when that internal red light goes off - stay far away!

View the whole article here.

Last month we wrote about Haas founding an education case competition. Haas students seem to have a knack for such competitons as their Revolution Foods team recently won the $25,000 grand prize at the eigth annual Global Social Venture Competiton held at Berkeley.

According to the Haas press release:
Revolution Foods, founded in August 2006 by Haas graduates, has replaced unhealthy meals at nine charter schools with healthier options such as spaghetti marinara, couscous, brown rice and fresh fruit. Their deliveries have doubled to 1,500 meals per day since August and are expected to double again before the year’s end. Revolution Foods also provides nutrition education and technical support to the schools they serve.

Nine teams of finalists from around the globe competed, and venture capitalists and social entrepreneurs judged their business plans. Three teams tied for the second place prize of $5,000:

• d.light (Stanford) - replacing fuel based lighting with safer LED lighting for people around the globe living without electricity
• Feed Resource Recovery (Babson) - providing the food industry with a cost-effective waste disposal solution that produces renewable energy and organic fertilizer
• Verdacure (Thammasat University, Thailand) - providing an herbal remedy for periodontal disease

You can read the full Haas press release here.

On April 9 we wrote about how to choose a recommender. In response we received the following question from an applicant (paraphrased) regarding alumni recommenders:

My top choices for business school are Stanford and Kellogg. My boss is a Wharton alum who is actively encouraging that I apply there. While I intend to apply to Wharton, it is not my dream school. I’ve worked under my boss for a while and he is in the position to write a strong recommendation. Is there anything specific I should consider here? Is there a different way to approach a recommender from a competitive school? How are the recommender’s credential from one school viewed at a competitive school; and does it affect your application?

Great question!  In general, alumni recommenders from top schools are well regarded by competitive schools. Because your boss has the best knowledge of your experience, growth, and potential, he should write your recommendation for every school. (Also as we mentioned in choosing a recommender, schools want to see a recommendation from your current supervisor.) To strengthen the recommendation you should help your recommender understand why you feel each of the schools is a good fit for you.  To that end, create a recommender package for your boss and include information on why you like each school - academically, geographically, culturally, etc.  Then your boss can write an informed recommendation for every school.

That said, every person is different and if you sense that your boss has a problem with you applying to other schools (for whatever reason), then your boss would not be a good recommender for those schools. This would be very unusual but it is important to recognize that special circumstances happen. You just need to feel out the relationship. If you feel your boss would not write a strong recommendation for schools other than Wharton, then you should find a different recommender for Stanford and Kellogg.  You can explain to those schools that you weren’t comfortable asking your current supervisor to write the recommendation because you did not want to inform him of your plans.

Thanks to the applicant for sending us this question.  If you have a question, please post a response to our blog entries and we’ll be happy to try and answer it.  We love to hear from you.

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