MBA Essay Topics & Analysis 2021-2022

myice

HBS

Essay 1
As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School MBA program? (No word limit)

For several admissions seasons now, HBS has chosen an essay prompt that leaves applicants with a completely open field.  You can start by considering who HBS states they are looking for: students with a habit of leadership, analytical aptitude and appetite, and engaged community citizenship. The first step is for you to assess how you best embody these qualities, and how you may elaborate on them outside of your other application materials, including your recommendations, test scores and undergraduate records.

Of these three categories, leadership should be a priority focus. When evaluating an applicant’s credentials, HBS has traditionally been very focused on leadership qualities as well as the impact that the applicant has had on a project, group, or company. Thus, as you brainstorm potential topics for this essay, it might be useful to think about any quantifiable positive change you’ve created that is not adequately described in your other materials. You might explain the magnitude of a professional or personal accomplishment noted on your résumé, for instance. You could also choose a particularly meaningful activity or project and share why it is important to you, especially given your personal or professional goals.  Keep in mind, however, the only real directive from the committee: sharing “what more” you want the reader to know about your file. For this reason, applicants could do well to review the data fields in the online application, spend extra time fine-tuning their résumés and working with their recommenders in order to ensure that the essay topic does not overlap with anecdotes or qualities already covered in their other materials.

Given the open-ended length, it is possible to cover more than one meaningful activity, project or accomplishment. However, the fact that HBS consistently trimmed down its essay set prior to this single prompt likely indicates that a 1,000-word essay would be unwelcome. Moreover, it may be tempting to draft a lengthy essay on traditional subjects such as your career goals, greatest successes, and interest in the school; however, your need for an MBA or specific career goals may be adequately covered in your other materials. This should help to narrow your focus, select your topic and craft a succinct essay. You should take care to steer clear of simply “recycling” essays from HBS’s peer schools, such as Stanford or Wharton, as the adcom will probably spot such an essay based on the highly unfocused nature of the HBS prompt and will not respond positively.

Career Goals Short Answer
Briefly tell us more about your career aspirations. (500 characters)
In the online application, there is a short section for your post-MBA goals. Applicants are asked to pick their industry group and function from a dropdown menu. There are 11 options in the industry group pick list, e.g. consulting, venture capital/private equity, and nearly 50 under function, e.g. business development, product management, etc. Then you will have 500 characters (about 80-85 words) to elaborate—albeit briefly.
When explaining your goals, make sure they are aspirational while also being realistic. You’ll want to include why they makes sense. Identify your goals and even name a company or two that you are targeting immediately post-MBA. Then, cover how the short term is a stepping stone to the long term. Highlight the impact you hope to make because of what you’ll be doing, too. Remember, leaders have vision—and HBS will be looking for higher-level plans here.

Post-Interview Reflection
Since the 2012-2013 season, applicants who are invited to interview have been asked to write a reflection about their interview experience.

Typically, this essay must be submitted within 24 hours of completing the interview.  Additional instructions regarding the reflection will be sent to applicants who receive interview invitations. HBS will likely ask this of 2020-2021 candidates, so we are including this analysis.

To help draft this reflection, applicants would be wise to jot down some notes immediately after interviewing so that they can later refer to a clear record of what was discussed as well as what, if anything, they would have liked discuss, but did not get a chance to cover. When it comes time to write the essay, applicants should approach their response as if they are crafting a closing argument to their application.

You’ll want to take inventory of the message you’ve conveyed throughout your application materials (essay, résumé, data forms, etc.) and your interview, and then write your reflection with an eye towards emphasizing the key attributes of your candidacy. Lastly, the 24-hour turnaround means that this reflection will require a focused effort from applicants as well as some careful advance planning.

myice

Stanford GSB

Essay A. What matters most to you, and why? (Suggested Word Count: 650 words)

For this essay, we would like you to reflect deeply and write from the heart. Once you’ve identified what matters most to you, help us understand why. You might consider, for example, what makes this so important to you? What people, insights, or experiences have shaped your perspectives?
Stanford’s “What Matters Most” essay is one of the most challenging prompts from a top business school. An answer to this essay has the potential to be profound and reveal a side of an applicant that the admissions committee cannot find anywhere else in the application, which is why Stanford has asked this question for more than a dozen years. However, the question can be quite intimidating in the context of a strategic application.

Part of the reason that so many applicants struggle with this topic is because they opt to begin their brainstorming by searching for a direct answer to the question of “what matters most”–rifling through common themes like ‘helping others’, ‘the pursuit of knowledge’, ‘revolutionizing an industry’, and any number of textbook replies.  With each passing idea, candidates find themselves losing steam and fearful of getting lost in the shuffle of applicants who espouse similar views.  While starting with an answer to “what matters most” and working into the body of the essay does seem tempting (and even quite logical), our years of experience advising Stanford GSB candidates tell us that this is often a dead-end.  The good news is that we have another approach that has been wildly successful for more than 10 years.

The advice we are about to offer here may seem counterintuitive, but we actually encourage applicants to ‘work backwards’ when crafting this essay via a simple exercise (outlined below).  In short, since the purpose of this question is to let the admissions team get to know you better, you should start with who you are and all that you have experienced and accomplished, and then work backwards to find the overarching theme of “what matters most.”  Keep in mind that your direct ‘answer’ to the question here is NOT what is going to make you stand out (it may even be somewhat pedestrian), rather it is the series of anecdotes and supporting evidence you provide around that theme that will help you convey your unique candidacy to the admissions team.

So in short, if you find yourself struggling with how to answer this question, try this simple exercise:
Write down the 15 to 20 most important events, accomplishments, interests, or experiences in your life. Include the good, the bad, the astounding, the ugly, etc.  Also, remember that no time frame is off limits–think of events from your early childhood to the present day.
Look at the list you have generated and try to determine the themes that unify the important events, interests, and ideas in your life.
Select a small number of diverse items from the list that best support a given theme and use them to define your approach and kick off the drafting process for the essay.
This exercise of working backwards allows you to not only arrive at a “what matters most” theme that really resonates with you, but also helps you find specific examples and anecdotes to help you show how you have explored what matters most to you in your life.

Essay B. Why Stanford? (Suggested Word Count: 400 words)
Describe your aspirations and how your Stanford GSB experience will help you realize them. If you are applying to both the MBA and MSx programs, use Essay B to address your interest in both programs.

Stanford’s second essay steps away from the philosophical to focus on the candidate’s career goals and reasons for going to Stanford. Although this essay is more specific than Essay A, the “Why Stanford?” prompt is far less specific than the career goals questions of other top business schools. Instead of mapping out a specific career path in this essay, applicants should focus on defining the broad impact they hope to make on a service, a sector, or society at large through their chosen career. Essay B is strongest when it connects with Essay A. Essay A is your opportunity to lay out a philosophical explanation of what matters most to you, while Essay B gives you the opportunity to show how you would use your time at Stanford and your career to further what matters most to you. In this essay, you need to show the admissions committee that Stanford offers you benefits you can’t find at any other schools. Talk about specific classes, programs, collaboration with other parts of the school, dual degree offerings, clubs, conferences, or other offerings that set Stanford apart from other top business schools. Learning about the school’s curriculum, special programs and extracurricular activities–whether through an online event or conversation with alumni–will help you craft a response to Essay B that really stands out.

Optional Short-Answer Question A
In the Essays section of the application, we ask you to tell us about who you are and how you think Stanford will help you achieve your aspirations. We are also interested in learning about the things you have done that are most meaningful to you. If you would like to go beyond your resume to discuss some of your contributions more fully, you are welcome to share up to three examples (up to 1,200 characters, or approximately 200 words, for each example).
Question: Think about times you’ve created a positive impact, whether in professional, extracurricular, academic, or other settings. What was your impact? What made it significant to you or to others?

Unlike other optional essays, this Stanford GSB essay is clearly an opportunity to showcase your impact, and therefore should be completed. This question is a classic in terms of MBA essays; adcoms are interested in people who make an impact, whether at work, or in other avenues of their lives. They want to know you’ll make an impact while on campus at Stanford and as an alumni, as you pursue your career and life goals.  That said, this is also an optional exercise.  Stanford notes, “The two required essays shed light on who you are and how you imagine Stanford will help you achieve your aspirations. We are also interested in learning about the things you have done that are most meaningful to you. In this section, we provide an optional opportunity to go beyond your resume to discuss some of your contributions more fully.”  So, you will want to be selective and ensure that you are adding meaningful content beyond that in your resume.
Whether you choose an example (or examples) from your professional or personal life, it’s important to share all the background a reader will need to appreciate the story before clearly outlining the actions you took and the results you achieved.  The more detail you’re able to provide about your role in achieving a positive outcome, the easier it will be for you to accurately demonstrate your leadership skills. It would also be worth commenting on why the impact was meaningful to you or others, as this could help you show how you value Stanford’s mission statement of “Change lives. Change organizations. Change the world.” Perhaps you are lucky enough to have a strong example for each—live, organizations and world—but it would make sense to keep this mission statement in mind as you reflect on your impact.

Optional Short-Answer Question B
We know that each person is more than a list of facts or pre-defined categories. We are interested in how your background may have influenced your life experiences. In answering this question, consider how your background, such as your work, education, skills, interests, culture, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, gender identity, race, ethnicity, where/how you grew up, and/or other factors had an impact on your recent actions and choices (up to 1,200 characters, or approximately 200 words).
Question: Tell us about a time within the last three years when your background influenced your participation in a situation, interaction, or project.

In reflecting on what to potentially share, consider what you were able to cover in the required essays. Truly effective applications will find a way to make this response work in conjunction with Essays 1 and 2, reinforcing themes, complementing the ideas already presented, and completing the picture of who you are.  While there is no time limit on the source of your motivation, the situation, interaction or project needs to have taken place in the last three years. With a limit of 200 words, it would behoove applicants to be concise about their motivation, touching on the defining category that Stanford mentioned in the preamble. Then, connect this background information to the recent situation, interaction or project. Be explicit about how your background influenced your recent actions.

myice

Wharton

Essay 1
How do you plan to use the Wharton MBA program to help you achieve your future professional goals? You might consider your past experience, short and long-term goals, and resources available at Wharton. (500 words; Required)

This year’s career goals essay is a bit more focused than last season’s version of this prompt, asking candidates to articulate their post-MBA professional goals and providing some guidance as to the scope of candidate’s responses. Along with describing their immediate post-MBA career goals, applicants should explain their long-term career goals and the broad impact they hope to have on their industry, community, country or region.  A brief career summary can naturally lead to the gaps in one’s professional skill set that the Wharton MBA would fill – and how.

While the new second essay is dedicated to how one may, in turn, contribute to the school, it is still important to balance a sense of gain with giving here. It will require that applicants be very thoughtful and as concise as possible. For instance, if you are interested in consumer goods, do not limit your exploration of the topic to the idea that you would acquire knowledge individually, e.g. in taking a particular course; instead, consider how you may get involved in organizing a conference or bringing a speaker to campus so that you may share this knowledge with fellow students. The key is to define what you need to learn, and integrating a sense of individual growth balanced with knowledge sharing, so that you may be seen as part of a community. Also consider what clubs and activities could help you grow on a professional level—e.g. how would you learn to motivate others by organizing a specific event?

Of course, to craft a truly compelling essay, applicants must also display a strong and specific understanding of how Wharton’s program would enable them to accomplish their goals.  Taking the time to learn about the school’s curriculum, special programs and extracurricular activities—whether by seeking out alumni or current students to engage, or connecting with resources through the Wharton website—will pay dividends here.

Essay 2
Taking into consideration your background—personal, professional, and/or academic—how do you plan to make specific, meaningful contributions to the Wharton community? (400 words; Required)

When announcing this new essay for the 2020-2021 admissions season, Wharton Director of Admissions, Blair Mannix, said, “Our main goal is to get to know you the best that we can, and the change to our second prompt was largely motivated by that desire. We hope to give applicants room to reflect on their unique backgrounds and think about what their value-add will be to the Wharton community. Applicants should remember that the Admissions Committee is looking for candidates who will contribute to all aspects of Wharton life.”

With that in mind, applicants should aim to balance reflections on their past and connect their history with potential future contributions to Wharton.  That said, this second question is another classic in terms of MBA essays; adcoms are interested in people who make an impact, whether at work, or in other avenues of their lives. They want to know you’ll make an impact while on campus at Wharton and then as an alum, as you pursue your career and life goals.  Whether you choose to draw on your professional, personal or academic life, it’s important to create context before connecting to how you would contribute to Wharton.

As you approach the contributions, specifically, think about how you can translate your experience and related lessons into involvement on the Wharton campus. Creating a link between your past and your potential future at the program will enable you to present a consistent and clear picture of your candidacy, as well as your professional and personal interests. The more information you can provide about how exactly you would contribute (playing a certain role in organizing a particular annual event, for example), the more reason you’ll give the adcom to admit you.

Wharton MBA Reapplicant Essay
Please use this space to share with the Admissions Committee how you have reflected and grown since your previous application and discuss any relevant updates to your candidacy (e.g., changes in your professional life, additional coursework, and extracurricular/volunteer engagements). (250 words; required for reapplicants)

Given the narrow word limit for this response, reapplicants will want to offer a straightforward account of the specific steps they’ve taken to strengthen their applications since last applying to Wharton. Candidates should aim to be as exhaustive as possible as they cover improved quantitative records, enhanced professional qualifications, efforts to become more familiar with the Wharton MBA program, and other ways they’ve worked to become a stronger applicant this season.

Optional First-time Applicant Essay
Please use this space to share any additional information about yourself that cannot be found elsewhere in your application and that you would like to share with the Admissions Committee. This space can also be used to address any extenuating circumstances (e.g., unexplained gaps in work experience, choice of recommenders, inconsistent or questionable academic performance, areas of weakness, etc.) that you would like the Admissions Committee to consider.

Consider these five questions before providing additional information (and extra reading) to the adcom.  If you need to address glaring weaknesses or liabilities (as opposed to offering “bonus information” about one’s candidacy), keep responses brief and to-the-point. Offer explanations without making excuses and humbly bring mitigating factors to the reader’s attention.

myice

Kellogg

Kellogg MBA Essay 1
Kellogg’s purpose is to educate, equip & inspire brave leaders who create lasting value.  Provide a recent example where you have demonstrated leadership and created lasting value.  What challenges did you face, and what did you learn? (450 words)

This Kellogg MBA essay question asks the candidate to recount a leadership experience in which they had a substantial impact, and which also involved overcoming challenges and learning something that will continue to serve them in future situations. The word “brave” also stands out, likely a hint that Kellogg welcomes applicants who can demonstrate that they are willing to take calculated risks and look beyond how things have always been done in service of the larger mission or goal.

When Kate Smith, the Assistant Dean of Admissions & Financial Aid at Kellogg, first announced this essay question in the school blog, she also noted “We’re looking for those individuals who have found or plan to find unique ways to demonstrate the Kellogg purpose in their careers. As you consider leadership in particular, keep in mind that Kellogg was the school that pioneered the team-based learning model that is now ubiquitous among the top business schools. We want all of our students to be able to step up when their teams need them.”  With that in mind, you’ll want to choose leadership examples that showcase not only your ability to rally others around you and guide them toward an objective, but also your ability to do so in an innovative way.

Regarding the sorts of recent examples that one might cover, the wording of this Kellogg MBA essay question is technically wide open to personal and professional experiences. Rather than gauging the significance of an experience solely in dollar amounts or percentages, we encourage applicants to attend to the follow up question about the challenges faced and lessons learned. Whether the challenge was logistical (like stretching yourself to coordinate across internal teams while managing a client’s expectations) or interpersonal (such as developing a good working relationship with an adversarial colleague), effective responses will highlight a transferable skill that was formed or strengthened during this process. Of course, the end result must be lasting and positive.

With respect to structure, we recommend a basic STAR approach for this response. Begin by describing the situation, the players, and stakeholders involved before moving into the task: what you needed to accomplish in your leadership goal. You should also lay the groundwork for the challenges you encountered, identifying the factors or relationships you would need to navigate to be successful. You should then move into the action, providing a chronological account of how you moved through the project or process. It would likely make narrative sense to introduce the challenges and how you overcame them as part of this narrative rather than addressing this in a separate section.

Finally, you should comment on the result — the outcome of your leadership efforts and the resolution of the story. Given the focus on “lasting value,” this will likely involve a comment on a positive impact and happy clients, customers, or stakeholders. The response should then conclude with a reflection on the lessons you learned, and perhaps a comment on how they have served you since and/or how they position you to add real value to the Kellogg community.

Kellogg MBA Essay 2
Values are what guide you in your life and work. What values are important to you, and how have they influenced you?

This second Kellogg MBA essay question makes another appearance in the Kellogg application. When first announcing the essay, Smith followed this question with the commentary, “Our goal … is to uncover what motivates and inspires you. What drives you? How will this make you a meaningful member of the Kellogg community?”  This question reflects Kellogg’s interest in identifying students who are in a position to contribute meaningfully to the school’s community. Candidates will be well served by some deep reflection on this topic, with the ultimate goal of offering insight into how they have enacted—and will continue to enact—their defining values.

If you are struggling to determine your defining values, you may try to ‘work backwards’ when crafting this essay via a simple exercise.
If you find yourself struggling with how to answer this question, try this simple exercise:
Write down the 15 to 20 most important events, accomplishments, interests, or experiences in your life. Include the good, the bad, the astounding, the ugly, etc.
Look at the list you have generated and try to determine the values that unify the important events, interests, and ideas in your life.
Select a small number of diverse items from the list that best support a given value and use them to define your approach and kick off the drafting process for the essay.

In short, since the purpose of this Kellogg MBA essay question is to let the admissions team get to know you better, you might start with some notes about who you are and all that you have experienced and accomplished, and then work backwards to find the prevalent values.  Keep in mind that your direct ‘answer’ to the question here is NOT what is going to make you stand out (it may even be somewhat pedestrian). Rather, it is the series of anecdotes and supporting evidence you provide in support of your values that will help you convey your unique candidacy to the admissions team. This exercise of working backwards allows you to not only distill the values that really resonate with you, but can also help you find specific examples and anecdotes that will help you show your values in action.

As the Assistant Dean of Admissions & Financial Aid mentioned, the adcom wants to know how your values will make you an asset to the Kellogg community.  Therefore, it would make sense to wrap this essay up with connections to Kellogg’s offerings. Consider specific classes, programs, potential collaborations with other parts of the school, clubs, conferences, or other offerings that your involvement would enhance. Learning about the school’s curriculum, special programs and extracurricular activities–whether through a visit to campus or conversations with alumni–will help you craft a response that really stands out.

Re-applicant Essay

Since your previous application, what steps have you taken to strengthen your candidacy? (250 word limit)
The framing of this Kellogg MBA essay question suggests that the adcom is more interested in proactive steps toward material improvement of one’s candidacy, as opposed to a reflective discussion of personal growth (in fairness, the growth angle is well covered in the school’s required essays). Applicants should therefore focus on the specific ways they’ve worked to strengthen their candidacies over the past year (e.g. assuming more responsibility at work, attending conferences in line with your long-term professional goals, retaking the GMAT, or bolstering community involvement), and the reasons that they believe themselves to be a better applicant to Kellogg this time around.

Additional Information
If needed, use this section to briefly describe any extenuating circumstances (e.g. unexplained gaps in work experience, choice of recommenders, inconsistent or questionable academic performance, etc.).

The wording of this prompt signals that comments in this section should be limited to explaining potential liabilities or inconsistencies in one’s application. While applicants are free to write as much as they like here, we recommend a straightforward approach that uses as few words — and as little of the reader’s scarce time — as possible. Applicants who chose to respond to this essay should adopt a humble tone, acknowledge the issue without making excuses, and gently suggest other aspects of his or her candidacy that may help to compensate for this weakness.

myice

Chicago Booth

Booth MBA Essay 1
How will the Booth MBA help you achieve your immediate and long-term post-MBA career goals? (250-word minimum)

This Booth MBA essay is a fairly straightforward career goals essay.  To address this question fully and in detail, candidates will want to identify the position that they hope to hold immediately after graduating from Booth, naming both a job title and 1-2 organizations for which they would most like to work. They will then want to discuss their longer-range 5-10 year plan, explaining not just what role they hope to occupy, but also commenting on the broader impact they hope to have in this position. It would then make sense to touch on the ways an MBA would facilitate progress toward these goals, and describe the factors that make Booth an especially good next step. To underscore this fit, name some curricular or programmatic offerings that are relevant to these objectives. Conducting thorough research on the program—whether by attending an info session, or speaking with students and alumni—will help you achieve maximum impact.

Given the open-ended length of this Booth MBA essay, it may be tempting to introduce accomplishments or details outside of the scope of the question, or include unnecessary details about your plans, but stay focused on the prompt! While the application says to “use your judgment,” you can take a hint on preferred length from the 300-word limit of the optional essay.  Of course, you are welcome to exceed 300 words—just make sure they count. 400 words would be concise and pack a punch. If you must exceed 500 words, which is fairly standard, make sure every word is necessary to address the prompt. Finally, considering how many applications the adcom must go through, you’ll want to avoid bogging them down with a 1,000-word essay.

Booth MBA Essay 2
An MBA is as much about personal growth as it is about professional development. In addition to sharing your experience and goals in terms of career, we’d like to learn more about you outside of the office. Use this opportunity to tell us something about who you are… (250-word minimum)

Start by reflecting on your past experiences outside of the office and a broader theme that defines who you are.  In other words, you do not need to discuss every time you volunteered in your community, but rather the most influential experience in this Booth MBA essay.

You might also try the following exercise to help you focus:
Write down the 10 to 15 most important events, accomplishments, interests, or experiences in your life. Include the good, the bad, the astounding, the ugly, etc.
Look at the list you have generated and try to determine the themes that unify the important events, interests, and ideas in your life. How have you dedicated your time? What values have you fought for? What appears to define who you are?
Select one or two items from the list that best support given strengths or values and use them to define your approach and kick off the drafting process for this Booth MBA essay.
Once you establish your values—based on your experiences, interests and passions—connect to what you will contribute to Booth.   Ultimately, the adcom wants to see how you will fit with the community based on your attitudes and experiences.

Additional Information
Is there any unclear information in your application that needs further explanation? If so, please use this section to clarify. (300 words)

The response to this Booth MBA essay will be an appropriate place to address any elements of one’s application that need further explanation (e.g. recommender choice, low GMAT score, questionable undergraduate performance, expected promotions, etc.). The wording of this Booth MBA essay is fairly open and inviting, and so it might also be an appropriate place to share an additional anecdote or highlight an impressive accomplishment. Applicants should aim to demonstrate good judgment in deciding whether to respond to this prompt, and should take care not to introduce information that appears elsewhere in their materials or that could have been covered in response to one of the above essays or in the data form.

myice

Columbia Business School

Short Answer Question
What is your immediate post-MBA professional goal? (50 characters)

For the 11th year in a row on the CBS application form, this question asks applicants to speak directly about the job they wish to have upon graduating from business school. The adcom offers several sample answers to illustrate the sort of direct response they’re seeking. Given a short and strict limit of 50 characters, you’ll want to clearly and concisely describe your short-term goal, making sure that it aligns with what you write in

Columbia MBA Essay Question 1
Through your résumé and recommendations, we have a clear sense of your professional path to date. What are your career goals over the next 3-5 years and what, in your imagination, would be your long term dream job? (500 words)

Appearing for a fifth year in a row on the CBS application, this first essay prompts applicants to focus almost exclusively on their career goals. We say “almost” here because a bit of context will be important. For example, applicants might remark on how their professional experiences to date have informed their interest in their post-MBA path, and might also comment on transferable skills they’ve gained on the job that will apply to their future posts. In short, make sure that your comments build on rather than repeat material that the adcom can find in your recommendations or résumé. Also, the reference to a “dream job” stands out here. In light of this language, your long-term plans should be aspirational, as top programs want to admit folks who will make an impact in the world. That said, they should be realistic, based on your short-term aspirations, an MBA and career to-date.

Columbia MBA Essay Questions 2 and 3
Please respond to two (2) of the three (3) essay questions listed below:
Option 1: The Phillips Pathway for Inclusive Leadership (PPIL) is a new co-curricular program designed to ensure that every CBS student develops the skills to become an ethical and inclusive leader. Through PPIL, students attend programming focused on give essential diversity, equity, and inclusion skills: Creating an Inclusive Environment, Mitigating Bias, Communicating Across Identities, Addressing Systemic Inequality, and Managing Difficult Conversations. Tell us about a time you were challenged around one of these five skills. Describe the situation, the actions you took, and the outcome. (250 words)

New to the CBS application, this essay option asks applicants to reflect on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in their lives. As CBS will be introducing PPIL in spring 2021, all first-year MBA students will be required to attend at least one PPIL-approved session and submit a post-event reflection form. Before getting started with the essay, it could help to read through the PPIL website to get a greater sense of the school’s vision for the programming and more.

No matter the DEI skill selected, applicants should ensure they were active participants in achieving a positive outcome. When tackling this option, note that CBS offers a structure at the end of the prompt, akin to the STAR method:
Situation – Set the stage or identify the situation and related challenge.
Action – Describe the actions you took related to DEI, including how you communicated your solution.
Outcome – Summarize the (hopefully positive) result.
Indeed, this structure should help you convey your story concisely and directly.

The door is wide open for examples, but the key is to ensure you touch on each element of the prompt to show how you are an ethical and inclusive leader. It will be important to connect to how a situation has influenced you—ideally shown through some related actions—as the adcom will want to get to know you and how you think and evolve. Action would also strengthen a response here—think beyond comments or campaigns shared on Facebook, and reflect on advocating actively. This can be a lot of ground to cover in 250 words, but if you have room, concluding with a brief example of how you applied what you learned would show that you learned from the challenge.

Option 2: Why do you feel Columbia Business School is a good fit for you? (250 words)
Because people applying to Columbia are often also considering other leading schools like Wharton, Chicago Booth, and NYU Stern, it’s especially important for applicants to convince the Columbia adcom of their sincere interest in their program. To get as much mileage as possible out of this essay, you should aim to develop a very detailed response that explains how lessons from key classes and participation in certain student organizations will position you to accomplish your professional and/or personal objectives. The adcom will also be interested in hearing about how you see yourself contributing to the community and enhancing the experience of other students, so naming some events that you would like to help organize or a club you would hope to lead will also bolster your case. Also keep in mind that CBS sees New York City as an extension of their campus, so you’ll want to comment on why that is significant for 有.

Covering all of this ground within a 250-word essay is no easy task, so zeroing in on the aspects of the CBS MBA program that are most closely aligned with your goals will be important to developing an effective response; an in-depth review of the program website, conversations with current students and alumni, or admissions events, are all viable sources of the information you’ll need here.

Option 3: Tell us about your favorite book, movie or song and why it resonates with you. (250 words)
This prompt reflects a desire to get to know applicants on a more personal level. While applicants have a myriad of options in choosing a book, movie or song to discuss, the most important part of a candidate’s response will be to showcase their self-awareness by articulating why they connect with the content in just 250 words. It’s also worth noting that selecting an item that isn’t currently ubiquitous can help one stand out from other applicants and showcase a tendency to follow your own path. At the same time, selecting something that’s too obscure may create a missed opportunity to connect with the admissions reader over a shared favorite. We therefore recommend selecting a book, movie or song who several of your friends or family have at least heard of. (That said, if you believe that something by an unknown local artist is truly your best and most authentic answer to this question, we wouldn’t rule it out — and maybe you’ll win them a new fan in your admissions reader.)  Given that CBS prides itself on its New York City location, you may immediately think of Frank Sinatra’s classic song, “New York, New York.” However, try to push past the obvious to ensure that you stand out in the admissions process.

No matter which you select, applicants should not presume that the admissions reader will be familiar with your choice. Effective responses to this question will highlight specific details about the selection and explain in detail why they resonate with one’s own character or personality. Remember that the selection is a vehicle for sharing information about yourself — and hinting at your fit with CBS — in this essay.

As a final note, applicants should review the entirety of the book, movie or song they choose to ensure that the message they want to convey is supported. It would also be wise to consider the entirety of a writer’s or creator’s oeuvre and public image, and to steer clear of the controversial or over-exposed.

Optional Essay
Is there any further information that you wish to provide the Admissions Committee?  If so, use this space to provide an explanation of any areas of concern in your academic record or your personal history. This does not need to be a formal essay. You may submit bullet points. (Maximum 500 Words)

The admissions committee offers a rather direct prompt to address liabilities in one’s application, e.g. gaps in employment, a weak quantitative record, etc. In such cases, applicants should keep their responses brief and to-the-point, offering explanations without making excuses and humbly bringing mitigating factors to the reader’s attention. That said, it’s possible that there are other elements of one’s background that would be appropriate and not covered elsewhere in one’s application, for example an anticipated promotion or an element of one’s identity not covered in the program’s data forms. While applicants should make an effort to fully represent their candidacies within the required elements of the application, this leaves a bit of room for short exceptions.

myice

MIT Sloan

myice

Berkeley Haas

Preamble
Within the application, Berkeley Haas has the following above the essays:
Essays help us learn about who you are as a person and how you will fit with our community. We seek candidates from a broad range of industries, backgrounds, and cultures. Our distinctive culture is defined by four key principles – Question the Status Quo, Confidence Without Attitude, Students Always, and Beyond Yourself. We encourage you to reflect on your experiences, values, and passions so that you may craft thoughtful and authentic responses that demonstrate your fit with our program – culturally, academically, and professionally.

Berkeley MBA Essay 1
What makes you feel alive when you are doing it, and why? (300 words maximum)

While an adrenaline-fueled answer like skydiving or race car driving may come to mind first, the response to this Berkeley MBA essay should be kept in the context of business school admissions.  Essentially, the Haas adcom is asking what you are most passionate about and, ideally, you would ultimately connect to one of their defining principles.  Though there are myriad potential topics to discuss here, applicants should consider the balance of subjects they cover across their essays and choose a topic that provides new insight into their overall candidacy. For example, if the majority of content in the next essay is focused on your professional life and accomplishments, this would be an opportunity to showcase and highlight your extracurricular passions or interests.

As you approach this Berkeley MBA essay, be sure to think broadly about themes in your background and the forces behind your decisions and involvements.  This should allow you to arrive at a topic that is true to your passions and enables you to show the reader a side of yourself not covered in your other essays while tying your goals and/or previous experiences together to some extent.

Berkeley MBA Essay 2
The definition of successful leadership has evolved over the last decade and will continue to change. What do you need to develop to become a successful leader?  (300 words max)
First, reflect on how the definition of successful leadership has evolved, over the last decade. The heart of this Berkeley MBA essay is to show Haas that you have the ability to lead others, as well as insight into your own leadership abilities and the motivation to improve these skills. This question calls for a careful balance between the individual and external, and can be seen as a “why MBA” question with the nuanced focus on adaptability.
Defining your leadership skills and then accounting for how you have demonstrated them with specific examples could make for a strong opening here. Then, you may touch on where you feel you have room for improvement before dedicating more space to how a Haas MBA would enable you to address these areas. Applicants will need to demonstrate knowledge of the Haas MBA program, as well as thoughtfulness about how their potential leadership roles and community contributions align with Berkeley’s values. Speaking with students and alumni or attending information sessions will prove helpful on this front.

Berkeley MBA Essay 3 (Optional)
We invite you to help us better understand the context of your opportunities and achievements.
1.What is the highest level of education completed by your parent(s) or guardian(s)?
Did not complete high school
High school diploma or equivalency (GED)
Associate’s degree (junior college) or vocational degree/license
Bachelor’s degree (BA, BS)
Master’s degree (MA, MS)
Doctorate or professional degree (MD, JD, DDS)

2.What is the most recent occupation of your parent(s) or guardian(s)?
Unemployed
Homemaker
Laborer
Skilled worker
Professional

3.If you were raised in one of the following household types, please indicate.
Raised by a single parent
Raised by an extended family member (grandparent, aunt/uncle, niece/nephew, cousin)
Raised in a multi-generational home
Raised in foster care

4.What was the primary language spoken in your childhood home?
If you have you ever been responsible for providing significant and continuing financial or supervisory support for someone else, please indicate.
Child
Spouse
Sibling
Parent
Extended family member (grandparent, aunt/uncle, niece/nephew, cousin)
Other

Please elaborate on any of your above responses. Alternatively, you may use this opportunity to expand on other hardships or unusual life circumstances that may help us understand the context of your opportunities, achievements, and impact.
(300 words maximum)

Overall, Haas is trying to get a better understanding of the context from which a candidate has evolved, both professionally, and personally.  Moreover, these questions invite a sense of your attitude and resilience through adversity.  While the opening five questions establish potential jumping off points, you are free to delve into another personal experience that defines you. The key to this essay is to quickly establish context and then elaborate on how you handled the situation and grew because of it.  An important thing to keep in mind is to avoid a “blame game” and simply establish the circumstances that influenced you. Most importantly, you’ll want to account for your actions (to show) and briefly comment on why the situation was difficult for you. After all, resilience entails a struggle with an outcome of success.

Given the highly personal nature of the opening five questions, candidates should reflect more on circumstances that have informed their character, as opposed to digging into a setback at work in this Berkeley MBA essay.  You may be able to incorporate how the lessons you learned from hardships and unusual circumstances have informed your approach to your career, but professional setbacks should not be the main focus of this essay.  Also keep in mind that this Berkeley MBA essay is optional—do not feel pressure to make a mountain out of a molehill to deliver more content in your application.  Take some time to reflect and tell the adcom how the circumstances from their queries or other situations influenced 有.

Berkeley MBA Essay 4 (Optional)
This section should only be used to convey relevant information not addressed elsewhere in your application. This may include explanation of employment gaps, academic aberrations, supplemental coursework, etc. You are encouraged to use bullet points where appropriate.

Applicants should exercise discretion when responding to this prompt, as providing an optional essay creates extra work for the admissions reader. This will be a good place to address extenuating circumstances that have influenced one’s academic or professional history, to address weaknesses in one’s application, or to explain an unusual choice of recommender. The wording of this question is open enough that applicants may also choose to discuss an element of their background that is not reflected in their other materials (including data forms and résumé), though they will need to demonstrate sound judgment in doing so – i.e. the nature of the content should be such that it makes a material difference to one’s application – and should summarize the information as concisely as possible.

Short Answer
The Berkeley Haas application has not been released as of June 14, 2021; however, in past applications, the following short answer has been required and we are including it here for reference.
Briefly describe your immediate post-MBA career goal. (150 words maximum)
Haas has moved this from the work experience section to the personal data II section within the application.  Still, it is a fairly standard career goals essay, requesting one’s post-MBA plans.  Applicants should open this essay by describing their plans upon graduating from Haas.  Due to the short length, the response should be concise in covering the particular role and responsibilities you are interested in. Next, identify your long-term goal so that the adcom knows where you are heading from the start.  Then, you can delve into material that bridges the two goals together.  It would be wise to close your response by tying together the Haas principles with your plans, and end on a note of enthusiasm about the program.

myice

Dartmouth Tuck  

Tuck MBA Essay 1
Tuck students can articulate how the distinctive Tuck MBA will advance their aspirations. Why are you pursuing an MBA and why Tuck? (300 words)

This Tuck MBA essay question is a fairly straightforward career goals essay, asking applicants to explain 1) their professional aspirations, 2) why they’re interested in pursuing an MBA, and 3) why they’d like to do so at Tuck in particular.

Given the tight word limit, applicants will need to address each of these three elements directly and concisely.  For your career goals, be as grounded and direct as possible—identify a position and target industry, and explain what draws you to this role and how it connects with your previous experience. If you have space after drafting your response, you may also want to highlight the impact you hope to have through your work.

Then, consider first what skills you need from an MBA; this can inform what you need from Tuck and how this program will help you accomplish the growth you’re seeking.  With respect to how the MBA would help you achieve your goals, it would make sense to briefly comment on your work experience to date in order to establish the skills you already possess; this helps to establish the gap in your skill set that a Tuck MBA would fill.  

This phase of your discussion should establish the skills and knowledge you hope to gain from a Tuck MBA while integrating details about the program. Forging specific connections between the skills you hope to gain (whether in the classroom or through involvement in student clubs or other outlets) and your future plans will show the adcom that you’ve researched the program and have a sound understanding of how a Tuck MBA will prepare you for success. Finally, given Tuck’s remote location, you may wish to acknowledge in this section why getting an MBA away from the bustle of an urban environment is important to you.

Tuck MBA Essay 2
Tuck students recognize how their individuality adds to the fabric of Tuck. Tell us who you are. (300 words)

In this Tuck MBA essay, paint a clear picture of who you are, while considering the following. In the 2018-2019 admissions season, Tuck released new evaluation criteria for their admissions decisions.  It would behoove applicants to review Tuck’s most sought after student attributes (smart, accomplished, aware and encouraging) to see what resonates and to reflect on how to demonstrate these qualities through this response.  Reading through the evaluation criteria should give you a greater understanding of the program’s culture, help you determine your fit with Tuck, and kick start your brainstorming for this essay.

After reviewing these criteria, applicants may want to identify which elements of the student culture are already evident in their activities and accomplishments to date. It would be ideal to touch on one to two examples that illustrate one’s skills and potential to make a positive impact. Consider this in light of the idea that past behavior supports future success.

You might also try the following exercise to help you focus:
Write down the 10 to 15 most important events, accomplishments, interests, or experiences in your life. Include the good, the bad, the astounding, the ugly, etc.
Look at the list you have generated and try to determine the themes that unify the important events, interests, and ideas in your life. How have you dedicated your time? What values have you fought for? Considering your actions will help you connect to values outlined in Tuck’s evaluation criteria.
Select one or two items from the list that best support given strengths or values and use them to define your approach and kick off the drafting process for the essay.

Once you have established content exemplifying who you are, you should then consider forging (likely brief) connections to how your individuality would add to the unique Tuck culture and community.  It will be important to develop a good sense of the opportunities available at Tuck; attending information sessions, or speaking with students and alumni would pay dividends here.

Tuck MBA Essay 3
Tuck students are encouraging, collaborative and empathetic, even when it is not convenient or easy. Describe a meaningful experience in which you exemplified one or more of these attributes. (300 words)

This prompt invites applicants to share challenging situations that align with Tuck’s evaluation criteria—in this case, being encouraging, collaborative and empathetic. Given that Tuck is seeking students who “actively celebrate and support others,” it would make sense to choose an example in which you directly engaged and supported someone (rather than, for example, helping an employer succeed by improving their bottom line). With this in mind, applicants may want to reflect on managerial or mentoring relationships that yielded positive results. You may even have a peer teamwork experience to discuss. No matter the nature of the relationship at the heart of the story, it will be important to discuss one’s actions, interactions, and results. What challenges did you face? How did you address them? How were you generous? What did success look like? What did you learn in the process? Perhaps you took time out of your day to mentor a new intern, who then moved on to a full-time position at your firm; perhaps a team member had a problem with time management, and you stayed late to help meet a deadline. Other examples may include investing in your local community in some way, like by joining the local Boys and Girls Club and working with youths. Once you dig into these details, conclude with a connection to how this experience could translate to your time at Tuck.

Optional Essay
Please provide any additional insight or information that you have not addressed elsewhere (e.g., atypical choice of evaluators, factors affecting academic performance, unexplained job gaps or changes). Complete this question only if you feel your candidacy is not fully represented by this application. (300 words)

The admissions committee provides some clear guidance about “allowable” topics for this Tuck MBA essay, indicating that it will be best used to address liabilities in one’s application. It’s possible that there are other elements of one’s background that would be appropriate and not covered elsewhere in one’s application—for example an anticipated promotion or an element of one’s identity not covered in the program’s data forms—though the wording of this prompt suggests that it should be used sparingly (i.e. that applicants should make an effort to fully represent their candidacies within the required elements of the application).

Reapplicant Essay
(To be completed by all reapplicants) How have you strengthened your candidacy since you last applied? Please reflect on how you have grown personally and professionally. (300 words)

This response asks repeat applicants to comment on the concrete steps they have taken to enhance their applications–for example, retaking the GMAT, taking on more responsibility at work, or stepping up their involvement in a community organization–while also providing some more introspective commentary on how they’ve grown since they first applied to Tuck. Reapplicants will, therefore, want to offer a balance of commentary in this essay, remarking on how they’ve proactively taken measures to become a stronger applicant, as well as on how their skills, career goals, and (if applicable) appreciation of the Tuck MBA have evolved in recent months.

myice

Yale SOM

Post-MBA Career Interests
How did you arrive at these career interests? How have you or how will you position yourself to pursue them? (250 words maximum)

Required Essay
Describe the biggest commitment you have ever made. (500 words maximum)

Optional Information
If any aspect of your candidacy needs further explanation (unexplained gaps in work experience, choice of recommenders, academic performance, promotions or recognition, etc.), please provide a brief description here. (200 words maximum)