This document provides advice for applying to MBA programs. It discusses several key points: 1. There are many benefits to getting an MBA, but it also comes at a high cost in terms of tuition, lost wages, and time. 2. Common myths about MBA applications include that an MBA will provide freedom, that fit is the most important factor in choosing a school, and that essay questions are most important. The document advises focusing on getting into the best school possible. 3. Effective career goals connect past experience to specific future career paths, rather than being vague. Applications should also avoid jargon, tell stories through examples rather than just stating achievements, and be creatively organized to

1. PRECISION ESSAY’S
SO YOU WANT AN MBA…
^
PRECISIONESSAY

2. LOTS OF REASONS TO GO GET AN MBA
 Make more money
 Get promoted
 Meet some powerful future contacts
 Learn…stuff (accounting, finance, etc.)
 Career change (Everyone wants to be a rock star!)
 Enjoy two years away from work
 Intangible benefits of the “pedigree”
I’m here today to tell you that ALL of these things are true. If you go to a good program,
you simply WILL get all these goodies. Period.
-2- PRECISIONESSAY

3. BUT AT WHAT COST?
 Lose money in the short term
 Two years of no pay = $200K
 Two years of tuition = $150K
 Two years of beer = $50K
 You’re out, what, $400K?
 Lose your current JOB and job-track in the short term
 The app process stinks, and will crush your soul
 The smartest people don’t need MBAs anyway…
So what do you do? Well…you get an MBA of course. It is just pricey…
-3- PRECISIONESSAY

4. THE COSTS ARE GREAT; THE COSTS OF NOT GETTING IN
OF COURSE ARE EVEN GREATER…
That’s where we come in.
 We have done 10,000 MBA applications in five years.
 Last year, well over 50% of our client base was international with the other
50% based in the US.
 All Precision Essay MBA consultants attended Magic 7 MBA programs in
the US and live in the US or Europe. You will work directly with them.
 I have trained all our guys personally—and Raj and I look at EVERYTHING
before it goes out the door. When there is a second MBA (all Deluxe
packages), I do the work personally…
 Last year over 50% of HBS students used consultants; we are expensive,
but compared to $400K it’s a drop in the bucket!
PRECISIONESSAY
-4-

5. THE “COST”…IS PEANUTS. LET’S REVISIT OUR LIST…
 “Lose money in the short term”
 If you play your cards right, you will earn this
money back in five years. Period. And 10X it
in your lifetime…
 “Lose your current JOB and track in the short term”
 If you were perfectly happy with your career
you wouldn’t be looking to go to school.
 “The app process stinks”
 Man up folks! So what, three tough months.
(You.)
It’ll all be a memory soon. And worth it if you play your cards right.
 The smartest people don’t need them anyway
 Sure, but even Stoppelman came up w the idea for Yelp at HBS…
-5- PRECISIONESSAY

6. SO WE’RE IN AGREEMENT: “LET’S GET AN MBA.”
BUT. Look out for some very common myths. Misinformation.
Three myths to be exact.
1) An MBA will grant me FREEDOM.
• I want to go to bschool for freedom. I want to learn new things, meet new
people, and find myself. Who knows what I’m gonna do after school…
• Recruiting starts in October. You have four weeks to find yourself.
• Loans anyone? (Time in Bschool) (You.)
Many applicants hope that the world will open up to
them when they graduate; but in fact, the opposite is
the case. The world gets muuuuch smaller once you
arrive at bschool…
-6- PRECISIONESSAY

7. MYTH #2: “FIT.”
2) Fit is important when considering Bschools.
• “I like finance—so I should likely go to CBS.”
• The Golden Rule: Go to the best school you can get into.
• Network
• Getting a job
• Mileage in 30 years
• A case study: raising money in the film business.
• Do not choose a school based on a scholarship.
• If top ten (or even 15) isn’t right for you, THEN start
to look at other factors, like geography or specialties.
But mostly, just go to the best school you can get into.
-7- PRECISIONESSAY

8. MYTH #3: “ESSAY QUESTIONS.”
3) Essay questions REALLY matter.
• “I am so stressed about my essays! Where do I even begin...”
• Ignore essay questions. 
• The entire game is predicated on your putting your best foot forward. You have 4
stories that MUST be told. It doesn’t matter what the essay questions are—tell
these four stories. At all costs.
• Don’t let the wording of topic of any one question force you to use your seventh or
eighth best story in an app
• The same is actually true with interviews. But we are getting ahead of
ourselves…
And don’t forget, go to the best school you can get into.
-8- PRECISIONESSAY

9. THE ALMIGHTY CAREER GOAL
So we now know that we should apply, how to select schools, we even know a bit
about how to select essay topics to write about.
 Now, let’s talk about career goals. After all, it is BUSINESS school.
 No matter what else you do, if you’re career goals are screwy, you wont
get into a top MBA program.
 What is a good career goal?
YOU MUST CONNECT YOUR PAST EXPERIENCES TO YOUR FUTURE GOALS.
 An example of how it should work (real estate finance into real estate
development, investment management into investment banking)
 An example of how it should not work (IT into non-profit, non profit into
investment banking)
-9- PRECISIONESSAY

10. THE ALMIGHTY CAREER GOAL
“But Jon, how could anyone expect me to know what I actually want to do in life?”
 Good question, I don’t actually know what I wanna do either.
 Never mind that, they are testing your judgment.
 Can you come up with a plan that makes sense?
 Can you come up with a plan that will yield a JOB?
 Do you understand what business school is, and how to use the MBA?
 Don’t get too personal, this is BUSINESS school.
 By the way, most people actually do what they say they will do, including
me. Real estate. Why? Because the best apps will show off your greatest
skills—and that’s what you will get paid to do upon graduation…
-10- PRECISIONESSAY

11. BEYOND THE CAREER GOAL, BEYOND THE ESSAYS
LORs
 Often, applicants write them themselves. This is very, very bad.
 It is obvious. Not a killer, but obvious.
 We leave out a TON of great stuff. Why?
 70-30 rule.
 The role of specifics—there are only so many adjectives.
 The role of…TONE! Versus the role of, well, tone?
Interview Prep
 First, prep the obvious questions. Plenty of sites have lists. Figure
there are 25 of em—90% of the time, that’s all you will be asked.
 Go in with YOUR stories. Ignore the questions. This will be genius,
especially if you run out of stories, or get stumped...
PRECISIONESSAY
-11-

12. TOP TWO MISTAKES WE SEE AT PRECISION ESSAY
*95% of aaaaall the apps we see make two main mistakes.*
1) Jargon
“I convinced my lead designer to utilize a unique hardiboard construction that
allowed load limits to support up to eighteen thousand tons of dispersed force,
far more than OSHA guidelines allowed. When we withstood CAD 5 testing, I
knew we succeeded.”
• Would a 14 year old get what you’re saying? A dentist? My grandmother?
• What about a waitress in a bar…that you’re trying to impress? Quickly?
• If these folks wouldn’t understand what you’re saying, redo it…
The smartest people are the ones who can explain complicated things in simple
terms. Be one of those people—and NEVER hide behind complicated language,
and jargon…
-12- PRECISIONESSAY

13. TOP TWO MISTAKES WE SEE AT PRECISION ESSAY
*95% of aaaaall the apps we see make two main mistakes.*
2) TELLING, not SHOWING.
• TELLING: I earned the buy-in of senior management.
• SHOWING: I reached out to the CFO and COO each in three separate private meetings to
earn their buy-in.
• TELLING: I opened a new restaurant in Chengdu, China.
• SHOWING: I raised $400,000 from friends and family, then met with the local council. At
this meeting, they agreed to support my plans to open a restaurant.
The resume is a great place to TELL what you did. But in the essays, you need to SHOW
HOW you’ve done it.
If you’re paying attention, you’re probably thinking “if I include all that detail my essays
will be too long!” And yes, that is true. So tell FEWER stores. Cover LESS ground. But do
it COMPLETELY instead. If you’re gonna write it, SHOW it to me. Don’t just TELL me.
-13- PRECISIONESSAY

14. WHY IT IS SO IMPORTANT TO BE CREATIVE
A Scary Statistic…
Question: How long does it take an Adcom member (on the first
review) to read your entire application?
Answer: 5-10 minutes!
Why is this significant? Because if your essays are engaging, you
will have a distinct advantage.
So then, what’s the secret to writing engaging essays?
 Dramatic Writing
 Focus today: Organization
-14- PRECISIONESSAY

15. PART 2 OF 5: THE ROLE OF ESSAYS IN A CHINESE MBA
APPLICATION • CREATIVE ESSAY ORGANIZATION
Organization: By the Book.
Example A
I first envisioned my career path while working for Fluor Corporation, the world’s second
largest engineering-and-construction firm. I was developing on a financial for a $1.4 billion
polysilicon facility, producing an ultra-pure semiconductor used in solar panels, for a joint-
venture between a German chemical giant and a local Saudi Arabian chemical firm.
The joint-venture was projected to obtain a return of 500% over ten years, and the facility
created over 1,000 jobs and $20 million in salaries for Saudi workers in Jubail.
-15- PRECISIONESSAY

16. PART 2 OF 5: THE ROLE OF ESSAYS IN A CHINESE MBA
APPLICATION • CREATIVE ESSAY ORGANIZATION
Organization: Creative.
Example B
What if a $1 billion+ investment produced more than just profit? What if it also raised the
standard of living of an entire community across all socio-economical strata, creating
thousands of jobs and providing education at the same time?
While at Fluor, the world’s second-largest engineering and construction firm, I produced a
financial model for a $1.4 billion joint venture that did just that. Projected to earn a 500%
return over ten years, it would also create 1,000 jobs and $20 million in salaries for Saudi
workers. My dream to become CEO of a multinational chemical company, like Dow Chemical
or INEOS, materialized.
-16- PRECISIONESSAY

17. PART 2 OF 5: THE ROLE OF ESSAYS IN AN MBA APPLICATION
• THE ALL-IMPORTANT PITCH
The Hook
[Imagine it’s the year 1996]
What if I were to tell you that within ten years, 30 million people will
all be online, but with no way to keep in touch on the internet? I can
solve this problem.
Itch: Wow, I’m intrigued… what’s the actual idea?
Get creative gang. In just five minutes, you simply have no choice.
-17- PRECISIONESSAY

18. PART 2 OF 5: THE ROLE OF ESSAYS IN AN MBA APPLICATION
• SUMMARY
At this stage, you can’t control your profile—you are IT and
you are Indian. You are a banker from the US. You are a
woman in management. So what will you do about it?
What can you control?
You have infinite control over how you PRESENT it.
Whatever your story, remember to create an itch throughout your
essays. One great and easy way to achieve that is through smart
organization of your story points.
-18- PRECISIONESSAY

19. THE ART OF THE FOREIGN MBA APPLICATION
(BY THE NUMBERS)
 GMAT must be high. Why?
 99.9% of colleges are unknown.
 Even in the top 3, their reputation is that students don’t work.
 And again, China is just so foreign. The GMAT is a powerful equalizer.
EVERYONE must take this test, everyone’s on the same footing.
 And besides, it is just so darn competitive for Chinese applicants; let’s run
through the Stanford math:
 330 accepted students
 110 will be “international”
 55 will be “men”
 This means that 55 men from ALL countries will be accepted.  There
are a lot of countries out there folks…
-19- PRECISIONESSAY

20. THE ART OF THE FOREIGN MBA APPLICATION
(BY THE STRATEGY)
 EXTREMELY SMART PEOPLE. Test scores.
 Lack of creativity.
 In the US we are encouraged to “be ourselves,” at all costs. To
“find ourselves.” But not in China…
 Lack of soft skills.
 “Management science” was born in the “West” (vs. big gvt.)
 Lack of international experience, international perspective.
 Adcoms think that apps are often written by other people (MIT?).
 Why is all this significant? Not because any of it is “true.” But
because must overcome these misconceptions in our applications.
-20- PRECISIONESSAY

21. THE ART OF THE FOREIGN MBA APPLICATION
(BY THE STRATEGY)
 US Companies (Bridging the gap).
 “This applicant GETS the way it works in the US.”
 English skills
 Soft skills
 Comfort with US culture
 International Companies (Bridging the gap).
 The ability to work to an international standard.
 The ability to adapt across cultures.
 Europe, for example, “feels” less foreign than
China/India/South America etc.
 Family Businesses.
 Can be huge for all applicants...especially foreign.
So if you don’t have any of these three benefits in your app, how will you account for that?
“I don’t work for a US company, but here is proof that I know English ANYWAY, etc.”
-21- PRECISIONESSAY

22. IN CONCLUSION
 I already make $100K or more. Will I do better when I graduate?
 Maybe and maybe not. But what about in five years? Or ten? $100K isn’t enough
folks, not for what you wanna do career-wise. Look longer-term.
 Take the case of Jon Frank. With his MBA, Jon has:
o Found investors for real estate deals.
o Made some of the best, closest friends of his life.
o Earned the credibility to get ALL of his jobs post-MBA, get investors to buy
his buildings, and launch Precision Essay. (Ask yourselves, would you be
here if Jon didn’t have an MBA? From HBS? In a way, you are his
investors.)
o As always, friends, we are here to help.  Let’s start by answering a few
questions…
-22- PRECISIONESSAY

23. Precision Essay, LLC
www.precisionessay.com
pechina@precisionessay.com
All rights reserved. No part of this may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Precision Essay.
PRECISIONESSAY