Prepare a cover letter seeking a place in the xxxxxx MBA Program. Describe your accomplishments and include an example of how you had an impact on a group or organization. Your letter should conform to standard business correspondence and be addressed to Mr. Rod Garcia, Director of MBA Admissions. (500 words or fewer)
Dear Mr. Rod Garcia,
I am writing this with the hopes of earning a spot in the Fall 2012 entering class at the xxxxxx School of Management, and through this letter and my essays I hope to provide an added dimension of insight and understanding into who I am, what I’ve been through, and why me being at xxxxxx would be one of the best things that’s ever happened to either of us.
A quick scan of my resume and you will see that it doesn’t exactly scream out “future entrepreneur,” but that’s exactly what I want to become, and while I could certainly try to do it without going through business school, I think a xxxxxx MBA would help immensely. Boston itself is obviously an academic Mecca and home to the second biggest entrepreneurial ecosystem in the world after Silicon Valley. At xxxxxx I would be within walking distance of all the mentors, resources, and fellow aspiring entrepreneur peers that I could ever want. And having visited and done my research on other business schools in the area, it’s clear that xxxxxx would be a much better fit for my aspirations, with its “mens et manus” credo, strong engineering culture, and huge emphasis on experimenting, failing, and iterating in order to create practical solutions to the world’s problems. This point was driven home for me when I visited xxxxxx's Entrepreneurship & Innovation Center this past summer and got to see firsthand the passion, energy, and excitement that the staff there exuded.
My entrepreneurial aspirations are driven by an almost-pathological need I’ve had since childhood to make this world a better place in a large and scalable way, and inspire others to scale and replicate what I started even after I’m gone. This desire also explains my almost comical love of superhero mythology, because like the fictional superheroes that I idolize, I too am ready and willing to sacrifice my own personal pleasure and hopes of living a “normal life” in order to dedicate my life to “fighting injustice.”
Since graduating college, I have been lucky enough to have two major challenges/opportunities which have allowed me to truly test myself and prove to myself that I have what it takes to succeed in the future. The first was successfully becoming a top performer at a large Korean company despite the never-ending stress of working in a foreign language every day and in what to me is (still) a very counterintuitive working culture. The second was when I was put in charge as the product manager of a game-changing new online banking app called “Wishlist” that would make saving for one’s various financial goals aka “Wishes” amazingly fun, simple, and easy
In both of these situations, I had to work with zero prior relevant experience or knowledge, lots of resistance and opposition from people around me, and too many obstacles to name here. The only thing that got me through both of these challenges was good old-fashioned hard work, humility, and a willingness to make mistakes and dive headfirst into uncomfortable and potentially humiliating situations
This type of mental toughness is the result of some major growing pains and internal psychological battles I had to fight during my college years, including an on-and-off gambling addiction and a bout with depression that had me on the brink of not even being here today to write this letter.
If I do end up joining the xxxxxx community, what I would hope to impart and contribute to my esteemed peers is not anything from my resume or work experience, but rather my many experiences having thrived in the harshest of new and foreign environments, and the strength and indomitable spirit I’ve gained from having fallen over and over in the past and having had to pick myself back up, each and every time.
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