Today, I want to tell you about something really important.
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But before I do that, I need to take a quick detour.

Only humans need apply

Last week, I came across an article by one of my former MBA professors at Babson. Some of you might even know him - Tom Davenport. He’s widely recognized as a leading authority in analytics and AI. He’s co-authored nearly 30 books, published over 240 Harvard Business Review articles, 70+ in MIT Sloan Management Review, and more in Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, you name it.

In short: Tom is the real deal. A big thinker and someone I was lucky to learn from.

One of his most recent books has a title I can’t stop thinking about: “Only humans need apply”.

Just days ago, I was at the AIGAC conference, the annual gathering of admissions directors from every top 25 MBA program in the U.S. and Europe.

This year, we were hosted by UC Berkely Haas, Stanford GSB, and UCLA Anderson.

If you’re not familiar, AIGAC is the Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants, and it’s one of the few spaces where AdComs and a small group of vetted consultants come together for open, real conversations about what’s happening inside MBA admissions.

Fewer than 50 consultants worldwide attend this conference each year. That’s a tiny slice of this industry and it’s not a coincidence.

The consultants who show up invest in staying on top of the most important and most current trends in MBA admissions - and we do it in direct, candid conversation with the people actually making the decisions, at Stanford, Haas, HBS, Kellogg, Booth, Columbia, INSEAD, LBS, and beyond.

And this year, one theme came up again and again: What AI is doing to MBA candidates and especially to their essays.

You know what word kept coming up?

Human.

That’s a message I heard again and again from every single AdCom. AI has made MBA essays more polished but far less human.

Essays that read well on the surface but have no heartbeat. No voice. No sense of the person behind the application.

And that’s a problem. Because the bar has shifted again.

MBA essays were never about writing.

They’ve always been about clarity, substance, and personal insight.

But now, more than ever, the way to stand out is through unvarnished authenticity. Not the curated, performative kind. Not the canned “lessons from hardship” and “aha” moments that sound good but say nothing.

The un-orchestrated authenticity (which has always been THE only kind).

That doesn’t mean baring your soul in dramatic fashion. It means showing the AdCom what you are all about - not simply what you’ve done, but why it mattered, how it happened, how it changed you, what you carried forward.

Showing them how you were part of something bigger than yourself.

It means writing with insight, not just information.

Because in the end, the strongest MBA essays don’t sound like they were written to impress, to dazzle with a clever AI-minted turn of phrase. They sound like they were written by a person with clarity, conviction, and something meaningful to say.

Which brings me to the most important part of my message today:

How do you actually access that authentic version of yourself?

How do you find the clarity, the courage, and the specificity to tell the AdCom something real - something that no AI could write for you?

Here’s the good news: there’s a process for that.

Over the past few months, I’ve completely overhauled the curriculum inside MBA ABC, my group coaching service for serious MBA applicants. And one of the things I’m most proud of, which came directly from a suggestion by last year's MBA ABC cohort, is a whole new layer of support around essays.

Not just school-by-school advice for the top MBA programs (though yes, you’ll get that too). But something deeper.

A structured, proven framework to help you uncover the stories that actually matter. The ones that reveal what shaped you, how you think, what you value, and where you’re going.

I call it your Narrative Vault.

And you’ll use it again and again. In your essays, interviews, short answers, and even future job applications.

Because once you build it, you’re not guessing anymore. You’re not staring at a blank page. You’re working with real material - the raw substance of who you are and where you’re headed.

But what is MBA ABC?

It’s the coaching program I created four years ago to do what traditional MBA admissions consulting rarely does: Make expert support accessible without watering it down.
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It’s not just another course. It’s a guided process with community, tools, 10 weeks of live sessions I personally lead, and equally importantly 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥, 𝐢𝐧-𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐡 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤, 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐦𝐞, 𝐨𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐬.​
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𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢-𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐡𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐌𝐁𝐀 𝐚𝐝𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐮𝐦 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐠.
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Actually, scratch the "like". This is how one HBS admit put it: "𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘐 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘐 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘗𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘢 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘔𝘉𝘈 𝘈𝘉𝘊 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘥𝘰 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘯𝘦-𝘰𝘯-𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘧𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘦."​
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On June 12, 𝑰’𝒎 𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒐𝒓𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝑴𝑩𝑨 𝑨𝑩𝑪 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏, 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝑹𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 1 𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒔. (And the people who will receive the enrollment link first are the ones on the invite list.)
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And if you’ve been curious about what it’s like to work with me inside MBA ABC and want to get a taste of the kind of strategy, depth, and clarity I bring to the admissions process, this is for you:

🎯 On June 13, I’m hosting a free Career Vision Workshop.

In this live session, I’ll walk you through one of the most critical and often misunderstood parts of the MBA application: how to frame your post-MBA career goals in a way that’s specific, credible, and deeply connected to who you are and what you’ve done.

You’ll see exactly how I teach this inside MBA ABC, using the same tools and frameworks my cohort members get. And you’ll walk away with a clear roadmap for how to craft a strong career vision, whether you decide to join MBA ABC or not.

​You'll also understand how conceptual framing can be the game-changer for your MBA career vision. ​

The workshop is free. It’s live. And if you're applying in Round 1, you should absolutely be there.

📅 Free Live MBA Career Workshop, June 13, 2025​
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I hope you’ll join me. It's the best first step you can take toward building an application that doesn’t just check boxes but actually resonates.

Onwards and upwards,

Petia

P.S. Did you catch the insights into what MBA AdComs scan for in your MBA admissions resume?
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