Business School Admission Essay, Part 2: Question One

This is the second part in a seven-part series about how to answer INSEAD’s business school admissions essays. Make sure that you have read the first part, as it contains some vital first steps. In fact, in many ways that is probably the most important information in this series. That said, on to answering the first admissions essay question! The first question is:

1. Give a candid description of yourself, stressing the personal characteristics you feel to be your strengths and weaknesses and the main factors, which have influenced your personal development, giving examples when necessary. (400 words approx.)

As you go about answering this question, you can probably see now why it is so important to have gone through the exercises I covered in the previous blog. As you answer this, keep in mind your answers about the theme and approach of your essay. Building on these previously covered points, it is important to identify some stories that convey your strengths and weaknesses. Often, the most compelling stories are those in which you used your strengths to overcome hardships or in which you had to learn to manage your weaknesses in order to accomplish a particular task. Combining these into a single story is ideal, but if such an incident does not exist in your life, then you can use more than one story. It is important that you use stories, anecdotes and examples, though, as this is really the only compelling way to get across who you are. If you just list off superlatives (example: I am a very smart, driven and ambitious person) without linking these superlatives to actual examples taken from your life, your assertions will fall flat. The reader will have no reason to believe that these things are true. This is absolutely vital: DO NOT just list off your strengths and weaknesses. They need context.

Most of the essay should focus on your strengths. Talk about how they have served you, how the successes they brought about informed your choice of career and direction and how you hope to expand and build upon these strengths so that you have a broader array of intellectual, personal and professional tools. Again, stories are vital.

With respect to the weakness, it is best to list just one. Obviously, focusing too much on your weaknesses is never good, so you want the balance to certainly be on the positive side here. When it comes to selecting which weakness to talk about, keep several things in mind. First, do not be disingenuous. A phony weakness, such as, “I care too much,” or “sometimes I am too smart for my own good,” will be seen as an attempt to answer the question in a way that is boastful. Find something that is a real weakness, but nothing too serious such that the reader will be put off by it. Talk about an example of a moment in which you had to confront this personal failing, but managed to overcome it. Placed within the context of something that you can manage, are cognizant of and have demonstrated you can overcome, you can put a positive spin on this aspect of the question without being phony about it.

If you keep these things in mind, you can produce an effective and succinct admissions essay for INSEAD that will show the reader that you are prepared for the challenges of a graduate Business education at INSEAD.