Essays and interviews vary in their importance depending on the MBA program. As mentioned earlier, every school is different, so it's critical to know how each target school emphasizes these highly-personalized components of the application.
Ask yourself how you as an individual will contribute to the school. Did you have some kind of unique work experience that will add value to your classmates learning experience? Are you the first in your family or neighborhood to get a college degree? Do you speak an unusual language or dialect? Diversity is a term that often gets limited to mean ethnicity. Let your diversity include your ethnicity, and then stretch beyond it.
Find
ways to become a truly distinctive applicant. One other specific note on the
essays applies if you decide to make use of the optional question that asks
"Is there anything about you that the Admissions Committee should know that
may not have been covered in other parts of the application?". A great
proportion of applicants who answer this question provide an explanation for
less-than-stellar grades or GMAT scores. It's your judgment as to
whether there is a substantive reason for grades or scores that are low; however,
be mindful that admissions officers hear this an awful lot. This reason tends
to lose its impact because it is used so frequently.
Next: Parting Thoughts