Writing about hobbies, interests and extracurricular activities in MBA application essays

Detailing your interests and extra-curricular activities in MBA application essays can be bit tricky. Further, your essays will be read by people who will have no other insight into your personality, skills or potential than what is laid out before them. Your academic skills, professional achievements and other potentials will be evident from your resume, but the MBA admission officers want to assess you wholly as a person, so they want to know about your interests beyond your mentioned skills. A captivating list of free-time pursuits can also make up for lack of work-related experience, gaps in your knowledge, or even missing qualifications. 

The admission officers seek for a diverse group of graduates as possible. You can enthrall them by stating your varied interests, as the interest part of your essay is the ideal opportunity for you to prove that you have a life. A wide range of interests always looks good because the members of the admission panel will want to see that you can fit into different environments with ease. A broad spectrum of interests suggests the admission officers that you are able to get on with other people from different backgrounds and of varying levels of ranks. 

Your community activities and your interests to work in a community can make it easy for the admission officers to understand you, your values and your motivations. This also provides an insight of how well you can work as an individual and as a team member. Specific detail is what makes it interesting to the reader, so give examples and emphasize any significant experiences related to your interests. For example, a passion for, say, 19th-century English literature sounds much more positive than an interest in "reading." Focus on your interests in a way that should point out your interpersonal and leadership skills. Writing down "Captain of the hockey team" is not as good as "While captain of my university hockey team, I organized practices and led the team to a national final." 

Remember, the admission officers lay emphasis on your diverse interests and community activities, as they want to find out what you can contribute to the diversity of the MBA program and the class you would be admitted to.