Chicago App almost done

I am almost done with the essays for Chicago. My Why MBA and WHy Chicago essay is the only one, which might undergo some amount of modifications.

I have asked two of my reviewrs to comments on the Essays, one of whom has just joined GSB and is from a different country and background. It will be interesting to get the comments from her since she is unaware of indian culture and has never met or talked to me in person.

My essay on social issues revolves around the area I have been actively invovled in for over last two years and I feel very passionately about it. This does tie in with my long term goals as well. Incase you are working on the same essay I think the best option should be to mix your personal invovlement and your passion for that social cause. It would not be a good idea to talk about a grand cause and why it is the biggest cause without actually putting "yourself" in the essay after the essays are about us.

The three short essays were really tricky too and the last one took the maximum amount of time. The first draft I worked on presenting a facet of my personality, which in turn was a strength. but after a lot of thinking I gave that up and really talked about something which is not a stregth. It is something very close to my heart and I guess reflects the true ME.

I used the book to bring out how the book resonated with my personal values and why I really liked it. Guess it was a good choice too.

Next is Duke in line and the first Essay I am working on is the Uniqueness essay. Will talk mroe about it in a later post.

Chicago Application Progress

It sure has taken me a lot more time than I expected. I am still striving to improve the 1500 words essay. The biggest challenge with Chicago app is that it gives us only two big opportunities to convey our experiences. I have the framework in place where I talk about various decisions I made and what influenced those choices. It talks about various experiences and my learnings from them. The career goals is where I am facing the biggest challenge. Not because I am not clear, but because I am not sure how detailed it should be. Also I have professional and personal goals and talking about all of them is taking a lot of words.

The three short essays are tricky but do not provide enough opportunity to talk in detail about various interests and experiences. The last one of these is turning out to be the most challenging. There are secrets, but then there are no secret qualities I can talk about :) So still thinking hard on it.

Between the social issue and the personal development essay I choose the social issue one. I feel there would definitely be bigger social issues but this is the issue i feel most passionately about.I have experienced this first hand and have been involved in community service very deeply for over three years now it was my obvious choice.

i still need to talk to my recommenders and I am hoping they would be helpful.