Why Polished MBA Essays Underperform
How clarity, tension, and restraint outperform rhetorical excellence
Applicants are often told to “polish” their MBA essays. Many interpret this as writing more elegantly, sounding more confident, or tightening language until nothing feels uncertain.
This instinct is understandable—and frequently wrong.
At top MBA programs, highly polished essays often underperform not because they are poorly written, but because they remove the very signals admissions committees are trying to detect.
This article explains why polish can backfire, what committees actually reward instead, and how restraint and tension create stronger advocacy than rhetorical excellence.
What Committees Mean by “Polished”
In committee language, “polished” usually means:
Over-edited
Conflict-smoothed
Confidence-performed
Optimized for impression
Polish becomes a problem when it erases decision-making texture—the uncertainty, tradeoffs, and imperfect reasoning that reveal judgment.
Committees are not anti-good writing. They are anti-writing that hides thinking.
The Hidden Cost of Over-Polish
When applicants over-polish, several things happen:
Ambiguity disappears
Stakes feel artificial
Growth looks pre-scripted
Risk-taking vanishes
The essay may read smoothly, but it no longer answers the committee’s real question:
How does this person think when outcomes are not guaranteed?
Harvard Business School: Clarity Over Craft
At Harvard Business School, essays are evaluated for clarity of judgment, not literary sophistication.
HBS readers favor:
Direct language
Clear ownership of decisions
Transparent reasoning
Essays that feel engineered to impress—through elegant phrasing or dramatic arcs—often lose force. HBS prefers writing that explains what you did and why, plainly.
Stanford GSB: Tension Signals Insight
At Stanford Graduate School of Business, tension is not a flaw—it is a signal.
GSB values essays that:
Sit with unresolved questions
Acknowledge internal conflict
Resist tidy conclusions
Over-polished essays that resolve everything neatly often feel superficial. Stanford expects applicants to wrestle honestly with meaning.
Wharton: Substance Before Style
At The Wharton School, polish is tolerated only if it rests on substance.
Wharton committees look for:
Logical structure
Evidence-based reasoning
Clear link between action and outcome
When style outpaces substance—through buzzwords or strategic language without execution—the essay loses credibility.
Booth: Thinking Beats Eloquence
At Chicago Booth School of Business, over-polish often suppresses the most valuable signal: thinking on the page.
Booth readers reward:
Belief revision
Analytical honesty
Comfort with uncertainty
Essays that feel rhetorically flawless but intellectually closed tend to underperform.
Kellogg: Human Texture Matters
At Kellogg School of Management, polish can flatten relational insight.
Kellogg values:
Specific interpersonal dynamics
Emotional awareness
Learning through collaboration
Overly smooth essays often minimize conflict and emotion, making leadership feel abstract rather than lived.
MIT Sloan: Precision Without Ornament
At MIT Sloan School of Management, clarity is valued—but ornamentation is not.
Sloan prefers:
Precise language
Clean problem framing
Evidence-backed reflection
Overly stylized prose without analytical grounding reads as noise rather than signal.
What Strong Essays Do Instead of Polishing
Strong MBA essays prioritize:
Clarity — the reader understands what happened and why
Tension — the outcome was uncertain, and that uncertainty is visible
Restraint — the essay does not oversell or over-resolve
They allow readers to see the applicant thinking, not performing.
The Role of Tension in Credibility
Tension shows up when applicants:
Admit doubt
Describe tradeoffs
Acknowledge imperfect outcomes
Avoid premature lessons
Tension signals authenticity because real decisions rarely feel clean in the moment.
Why Committees Distrust “Perfect” Essays
Perfect essays raise implicit questions:
What is being hidden?
Who actually wrote this?
How will this person respond when things go wrong?
Admissions committees are selecting for environments that demand humility, adaptability, and judgment. Perfection undermines those signals.
How to Edit Without Over-Polishing
Effective revision focuses on:
Removing clutter, not conflict
Clarifying reasoning, not sanitizing emotion
Tightening language, not flattening voice
A useful rule: edit for understanding, not approval.
Strategic Guidance for Applicants
Applicants should:
Preserve moments of uncertainty
Use simple, direct language
Let conclusions emerge, not announce themselves
Trust specificity over style
Applicants should avoid:
Writing for applause
Eliminating all ambiguity
Using frameworks as substitutes for reflection
Confusing confidence with certainty
Strong essays feel grounded, not glossy.
Closing Perspective
At HBS, GSB, Wharton, Booth, Kellogg, and Sloan, essays are not scored on elegance.
They are evaluated on credibility, judgment, and insight.
Applicants who resist the urge to over-polish—and instead write with clarity, tension, and restraint—consistently outperform those who aim for rhetorical perfection.
