Accepted

Over the last month several excellent podcasts have been produced on MBA admissions:

From MBA Podcaster: Your Application Essays: Strategic Recommendations for Writing Your Essays. I admit that I am interviewed extensively for this podcast, along with Thomas Caleel, Director of Admissions at Wharton, and Graham Richmond of Clear Admit. With little objectivity and less humility, I must say that we provide excellent advice on approaching your application essays.  I am only embarrassed that it took me this long to recommend it.

"Dean Joss & Prof. Saloner, Stanford Graduate School of Business, are interviewed in this podcast from the iinovate blog. While it is kind of cool to hear what Drs. Joss and Saloner say is most important to them and why, the true value in this podcast lies in the discussion of Stanford's new curriculum and of the qualities and ideas Stanford values. Critical information for Stanford applicants.

"Leading Through Innovation" by Dr. Richard K. Lyons, Executive Associate Dean at the Haas School of Business. Probably the most over used term in MBA admissions literature is "leadership." Among the top 5 is "innovation." These are classic "umbrella words", as Maxx Duffy calls them (See MBA BlastOff: 45 Terrific Tips to Launch Your MBA Application to Acceptance for more details) in MBA admissions circles. Broad terms, abused and tired, that have many meanings to different people. Dean Lyons breaks them down into their component parts at Berkeley.

The first podcast serves as an excellent introduction or review of MBA essay writing principles. The second and third podcasts clarify values and concepts that are important to Stanford and Berkeley respectively.  If you are applying to those two schools you really must  listen to these podcasts. They will show you the qualities and values these schools hold dear and allow you to demonstrate those attributes through your essays.

Please note that I didn't write "mimic the words spoken in the podcasts"; I wrote "demonstrate the qualities."  That's the key to showing fit at the schools of your choice.