I don’t know if it is the modesty of the applicant or if culturally it is looked down on to show ambition, but I have seen quite a large number of international applicants hesitating to quote an ambitious post-MBA goal, at least a long-term goal.

One reason is that they feel the goals are not believable. The fundraising in their country is not spectacular compared to the US.

Frankly, no other country is even close to the US when it comes to risk capital.

So that thought should not bother an applicant. Also, you are not comparing yourself to entrepreneurs and their world-changing goals, unless you are applying to Stanford or Harvard as an entrepreneurial applicant. Then it makes sense to research and dig deep into your start-up idea.

But if you are a typical applicant targeting Columbia, MIT, Chicago Booth, or Kellogg, your long-term goal can be entrepreneurial in nature or as an investor.

The themes for the post-MBA goals essay need not be all about changing the world.

I read essays more closely when the applicant introduced a personal motivation into the narrative – from losing a farm to parents not being able to complete education due to forced migration from war/famine to building an organization that values democracy after the horrors of violence in a dictatorial country.

So, such personal motivations capture the attention of the reader.

The ambition shifts from scale to a personal incentive.

We are incredible social animals.

Our inseparable need to connect with another person, their thinking and mindset, forces us to empathize.

The more personal the goal, the better the believability of achieving it.

Another factor you have to consider before defining the scale of your goal is how relevant the goal is for the school’s community.

If the school is struggling to attract some of the best Generative AI talent, and you have experience in Generative AI and are planning to enter consulting, you could help the school design a curriculum around AI.

Think about all the ways in which your personal experience would be valuable for the school and the community around it.

The more personal the motivation, the more likely you are to pursue it.

The more persistent you are, the more likely you are to achieve a milestone.

The more frequently you achieve a milestone, the more likely you are to succeed.

The more successful you are, the more the schools can promote that you are the Alum that they trusted, and only because you attended the MBA program, you could achieve all that you had planned to achieve.

Schools are desperate to build their alumni pool with entrepreneurial candidates.

They don’t want just career-oriented candidates.

So even if you are a career-oriented applicant, cite ambitious goals within your industry or post-MBA function.

For help defining the scale of your ambition in your MBA goals Essay, contact me, Atul Jose, with F1GMAT’s Contact form