why an mba essay

“Why Do You Want to Pursue an MBA?” Essay Examples

Featured Expert: Nirusan Rajakulendran, MBA

“Why do you want to pursue an MBA?” essay is one of the most common supplemental or optional essays. Whether you are looking to apply to Harvard Business School or the Kellogg Business School , you will need to prepare to answer this question via essay or an MBA interview question .

Some schools may indeed state that the essay is optional, but any serious candidate would be well-advised to write it.

In this post, we will help you write the “Why do you want to pursue an MBA?” essay and increase your chances of landing that seat in the coveted program.

>> Want us to help you get accepted? Schedule a free strategy call here . <<

Article Contents 9 min read

“why do you want to pursue an mba” essay: why business schools ask for it.

At this point, you’re probably wondering why business schools even bother with such an essay. Well, there are many reasons, including:

#1 How an MBA will help your career goals

Universities don’t want to waste their time and resources on candidates who can’t fully commit to their studies. They need to select candidates who will graduate and pursue careers that will become a testimony to their alma mater.

Your essay will show them how much mettle and commitment you, the applicant, have. You can use this essay to show what getting an MBA will do for your career. It allows you to tell the admissions committee about why you’re going after an MBA – What are your motivations? What are your goals?

They can gauge your academic achievements by looking at your transcripts and GRE scores, for example. But, with this essay, you get a chance to reveal what drives you forward and what an MBA can help you with.

#2 Insight into personal character

Personal character is an important indicator of what the candidate is “made” of. The essay gives them an insight into your eligibility as a well-rounded and reliable individual.

They are looking for characteristics that make a candidate a dependable, even honorable, individual that can be relied upon to make smart decisions both in life and in their career.

Most importantly, it offers a chance for you to show the admissions officers what it is that makes you stand out from other candidates who have similar or better academic achievements and extracurricular activities.

This essay is another chance for you to stand out and remind the admissions committee of your unique skills and experiences.

#3 Shows how much the candidate wants the spot

More importantly, the admissions officers will be able to see how much you want to join the MBA program. A good “Why do you want to pursue an MBA?” essay conveys an applicant’s eagerness, passion, and even future dedication to a career in the business field.

There are some points to consider before you start writing. To begin with, don’t veer off-topic – the essay needs to lie within the school’s word-length requirements. For example, Harvard Business School has set its application essay length at 400, Yale asks for three required essays of 300 words or less, while Kellogg School of Business asks for two essays of 450 words each. This means that every word needs to contribute towards answering the question “Why do you want to pursue an MBA?” and nothing more.

Before you even start brainstorming, you need to do some research:

#1 School history

Do thorough research on the school. Find out as much as you can about its history, alumni, awards, commendations, and recognition it may have earned.

Are there any courses and classes the business school is known for and that you are interested in? Are there any faculty members lecturing at the school with whom you would like to work?

Are there any famous internship programs that can help you with achieving your career goals? Do they have a curriculum you know will teach you about a specific niche of business?

You can openly express your interest in these aspects of your future education in your essay. Showing that there is something specific that interests you in your chosen program demonstrates that you have made a careful and calculated decision. For example, you can say that a lecturer at this school is a role model with whom you would like to study. Or you can express that a specific course curriculum interests you because it is directly tied to your future career goals.

If you know someone who has graduated from your chosen MBA program, reach out to them! Send them an email or try to meet in person to ask any questions you may have. Alumni can be a great insight into the inner workings of a program. They can indicate what qualities you may want to showcase in your application and interview. Having someone on the inside is a great advantage!

#3 Extracurricular activities

University life doesn’t only involve life in the classroom. There are various on-campus activities for students to partake in. If your essay shows that you will contribute to life outside of the classroom, this may be your chance to stand out.

Business schools offer a wide range of sports, clubs, musical ensembles, theater groups, and student organizations. They always strive to enroll students with diverse interests so that they can effectively contribute to their collegial community.

What to Include in a “Why Do You Want to Pursue an MBA?” Essay

Let us move on and delve into what makes up a “Why do you want to pursue an MBA?” essay. We will have a look at important components that help create a well-rounded essay.

Some suggestions include:

#1 Achievements

Your essay should demonstrate to the admissions officers the different accomplishments you have achieved in your education, profession, and other aspects of your life.

Proof of accomplishments can include academic awards, professional recognitions, or contests that you have entered and placed in, such as essay contests, art competitions or science fair competitions, work diplomas or awards.

To show a track record of excellence, initiative, and ambition. ","label":"Aim","title":"Aim"}]" code="tab1" template="BlogArticle">

#2 Strengths

Your essay must demonstrate, via examples, that you can indeed be “creative”, “mature” or “skilled.” The key is to show, rather than tell the admissions committee what relevant strengths you possess that make you the perfect candidate for an MBA program. Make sure to include details and demonstrate, with examples, what makes you the right fit for your chosen MBA program and the business world in general.

To show with examples that you are a strong and suitable candidate for your chosen program. ","label":"Aim","title":"Aim"}]" code="tab2" template="BlogArticle">

#3 International experience

If you are an MBA candidate looking to pursue a career in international business, you might want to emphasize what steps you took to prepare yourself for this path so far.

You can use the “Why do you want to pursue an MBA” essay to demonstrate your exposure to a wider world beyond your country’s borders. Whether it’s an educational or a professional experience, you can include it in this essay to show that you are serious about a global career.

Additionally, your experience abroad will demonstrate that you can get along with, learn from, and grow with peers from various countries.

To show that you have taken the necessary steps to prepare yourself for a career in international business. ","label":"Aim","title":"Aim"}]" code="tab3" template="BlogArticle">

#4 Extracurricular activities

A healthy individual will have a well-rounded life outside of the office. Your essay can demonstrate that you have hobbies and commit to non-work-related activities. Do not make the mistake of thinking that your extracurriculars are not interesting to the admissions committee! These may be precisely the details that make you stand out from the crowd. So, if you love dancing or tutoring children in math or science, you can feel free to incorporate this in your essay!

To demonstrate commitment and dedication to your community, as well as well-roundedness and curiosity.  ","label":"Aim","title":"Aim"}]" code="tab4" template="BlogArticle">

Admissions officers want to know what the candidate is aiming for. They need to have a clear picture – even if you don’t exactly have one yet – that you are at least aiming for a few milestones in your career. Remember, you do not have to be specific. However, you can mention what aspect of the business world you want to grow in.

You can be as specific as you want to be about your goals post-MBA.

The candidate demonstrates that they have plans of putting their education to good use both in the short and long run. ","label":"Aim","title":"Aim"}]" code="tab5" template="BlogArticle">

Do’s and Don’ts of the "Why Do You Want to Pursue an MBA?" Essay

Ok, we have come this far and the “Why do you want to pursue an MBA?” essay is almost complete. But, we also need to see what to do and not do in the essay.

Let’s have a look:

Include major milestones \u2013 draw a clear picture of the progress you made in education or a career. "}]" code="timeline1">

Don\u2019t use clich\u00e9s and generalizations or include controversial topics in your essay. "}]" code="timeline2">

Now, let’s have a look at a sample “Why do you want to pursue an MBA?” essay:

As a child, I was interested in how businesses were run. The idea of owning and growing a small business into an international conglomerate thrilled me. It is this passion that led me to want to join this esteemed institution.

My journey to pursue an MBA started during my first year in college, when I joined one of the largest banks in Canada as a Cash Counter Clerk.

Immediately, I loved that the work was demanding and required extra hours and even coming in on weekends. I learned and thrived in this environment. My communication and organizational skills that I applied in my role soon made me a reliable colleague. I managed to become Employee of the Month three times in a row without it affecting my college work. As a matter of fact, the experience at the bank helped me with creating a schedule for managing my time in college. I received several promotions at the bank while I was at college, and after graduation was also immediately offered a Supervisor position at the bank.

In my new role, I continued to develop my leadership abilities, which culminated in the $1billion move of our Finance and Auditing business from Memphis to Toronto – right in the middle of a financial system meltdown.

As a Supervisor, I used feedback from my team to make effective changes in my style of management. I allowed workers who wanted to work from home to do so as long as the deliverables and deadlines were met. This cut down on overhead in the office while also creating more relaxed, happier, and more efficient team members. My versatility and self-awareness resulted in a positive response from my team members, which was reflected in their attitudes and the quality of their work. They started putting in more hours and were more creative with their contributions. We cut costs but increased productivity.

Having worked as a Supervisor for over 4 years now, I have made the decision to pursue an MBA program to further develop my leadership and management skills. I have found that your MBA program, with its faculty and curriculum, is the exact tool I need to achieve my career goals. I hope to graduate and join the ranks of alumni like [INSERT NAME] who, after graduating from your business school went on to create ACME Intl. – one of the leaders in the business finance field. I am sure that with Professor [INSERT NAME], who teaches Leadership, Teamwork, Management, and Organizational Behavior, I will be able to build upon my experiences and take a step closer to making my dreams come true.

Want to see more MBA essay examples from top business schools?

• Harvard MBA personal statement examples
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• Columbia MBA essay examples
• Yale MBA essay examples
• Kellogg MBA essay examples
• Haas essay examples
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• Cornell MBA essay examples
• Stanford MBA personal statement examples

Want to learn the secret to any admissions essay?

Writing the “why do you want to pursue an MBA?” essay might understandably seem like a daunting task – after all, it is only your future career that is hanging in the balance. But, the trick to use is to imagine oneself telling a story and then trying to capture that story in writing. It is all about conveying the story intact.

Make sure to give yourself at least 6 weeks to draft and redraft your essay. Consider reaching out to an MBA essay consultant to help you. These professionals can help you brainstorm, edit, and finalize an essay that will perfectly reflect your strengths and suitability.

The rule of thumb is to avoid using fancy fonts. The best options are Times New Roman, Arial, or Calibri in 12-point type. Also avoid using bold, italics or emojis.

Always check the university’s guidelines first. If there are none, make sure to structure your essay as an academic essay, with an introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. Additionally, make sure that your essay includes A 1” margin on all sides with 1.5 or double line spacing and left alignment with no justification.

Use transitional sentences to connect paragraphs. As you read your essay, it should flow from one paragraph to the next.

Always check the university’s guidelines for specific length requirements. DO NOT write more than the word limit. If there are no guidelines, stick to 400 words or so. . Remember, it’s always best to write a concise essay, so writing less than the word limit is a good strategy.

The best way to gauge if a story belongs in your essay is to imagine telling it to someone you just met a few minutes ago. How would they react? That’s probably exactly how the admissions officer reading it would react too.

If there is a teachable moment you have experienced or a lesson was learned while trying to right a wrong, then you should, by all means, include them to show that you can learn from your mistakes.

Only as much as necessary. Remember, you are submitting your essay alongside other educational documents. The admissions committee will have access to them. You, therefore, don’t need to dwell on it unless it helps with your essay – “I passed with distinction…” or “I graduated top of my class…” should be enough information.

A good way to edit your essay fully would be to spellcheck, use third-party apps to have a second run through it, read it aloud, and finally have someone else read it. 

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How to Answer the "Why an MBA?" Essay Question

A common essay and interview question of top business schools, admissions committees want to know why you're choosing to get an MBA. Here is one expert coach's insight into crafting a compelling response.

By  Cyrus H.

Posted March 17, 2023

Featuring Andy P. and Geri T.

Applying to Top MBA Programs as a Consultant

Wednesday, april 24.

11:00 PM UTC · 60 minutes

Table of Contents

There are a lot of things to think about when preparing your business school applications, but one stands out more than the rest: why do you want to get an MBA? It may seem like the question is obvious, but it’s often neglected and it’s important to have a cohesive answer before starting to put together your application.

Why It’s Important to Know Your Motivations for Business School

You may be wondering why you need to have an answer to this. Isn’t it sufficient that you’re motivated enough to apply? The answer is no, it’s not. Admissions committees want to admit students who really want to be there and will contribute to the program. Business school is a huge investment–both in terms of money and time–so you need to ensure that it makes sense in your long-term goals.

The word counts for application essays are pretty limited and understanding why you want an MBA will help you make the most of every letter. You’ll have an easier time sharing relevant past experiences, learnings, and stories that all tie into your future goals.

Also, thinking about “Why an MBA?” will help you understand a lot of your previous decisions in context, like why you picked the jobs you did, where you see yourself in five years, and what values are important to you.

It’s easier to be more confident in your decisions, and convey that confidence to the AdComs, if you know why you’re pursuing business school in general and the particular program specifically. You’ll have an easier time telling a compelling story and conveying a unique candidacy.

The Most Common Interview Questions of the Top 10 MBA Programs

Every MBA program looks for different qualities and characteristics when interviewing applicants. To help you prepare for each individual interview, we've compiled all the most frequently asked questions for the top business schools. Drop your email below and we'll send it straight to your inbox.

How to Start Answering this Question for Yourself

At the end of the day, getting to know your motivations for pursuing an MBA is an exercise in getting to know yourself. You can start from either the past or the future, whichever you find the most helpful.

From the Past

First, ask yourself why you made the choices you have so far. Write out some of the most impactful decisions in your life and what they show about your values and aspirations. Think about common themes and patterns that connect the different points in your work experience and educational journey thus far. Don’t be afraid to go all the way back to childhood; this should not be a 15-minute exercise, but rather a days-long process.

From the Future

Picture yourself at age 80 in a rocking chair contemplating your life. What are the most precious memories and achievements that you would want to share with your grandkids? What will you reminisce about the most? What would make you think that you’ve made the most of your time on Earth? Is it a financial, social, or political goal? There is no wrong answer, as long as it remains true to who you are.

If you’re not certain, it’s okay. You don’t need to have a completely solidified twenty-year plan; simply give the AdCom an idea. It’s more important that you show initiative and ambition than a step-by-step roadmap of your career path.

Whatever you choose to write about, make sure that you are being vulnerable. Personal elements help the reader get to know you and your story. The essays are the one part of the application that is completely within your control and portray a human, rather than a list of accomplishments.

Almost everyone applying to an M7 degree program will have a stellar resume and it will be a lot more difficult to stand out there than in your essays. Remember that your essay may be the fiftieth one that the admissions committee member is reading that day. How can you make yours remain interesting and stand out, even when the reader is tired and at the end of a long day? Dig deep, and spend a lot of time reflecting on your story.

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Be comfortable with knowing that your “why” is not set in stone and can change. In fact, it will very likely evolve entirely throughout your MBA program and after graduation. It doesn’t need to be grandiose, but rather what uniquely motivates you.

My grandma used to say, “I don’t care that much what path you pursue; but, whatever you do, be passionate about it and try to excel.” This advice applies perfectly to your business school applications.

Don’t seek pity or sympathy and don’t try to come off as the smartest or most accomplished applicant. Neither of these tracks is likely to translate into a compelling application. Stay true to yourself and write from the heart, rather than focusing on what you think the AdCom wants to hear.

Understanding why you want to get a business graduate degree is the first step toward submitting a cohesive application, and the importance of spending time on reflection is not to be underestimated.

If you’d like personalized guidance on any part of the MBA application process, I’d love to work with you on Leland. I’ve been coaching for ten years and am passionate about helping others become the best versions of themselves. Head to my profile and book a free intro call to get started.

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20 Must-Read MBA Essay Tips

Business school admissions committees care about more than (just) your  GMAT scores and GPA —they want to know who you are and why you belong in their program . Your MBA essays are your best chance to sell the person behind the résumé. They should tie all the pieces of your business school application together and create a comprehensive picture of who you are, what you've done, and what you bring to the table.  Here's a roundup of our best MBA essay tips to keep in mind as you begin to write.

How to Write an Unforgettable B-School Essay

1. communicate that you are a proactive, can-do sort of person..

Business schools want leaders, not applicants content with following the herd.

2. Put yourself on ego-alert.

Stress what makes you unique, not what makes you number one.

3. Communicate specific reasons why you're great fit for each school.

Simply stating "I am the ideal candidate for your program" won't convince the admission committee to push you into the admit pile.

Read More: Find Your Business School

4. Bring passion to your writing.

Admissions officers want to know what excites you. And if you'll bring a similar enthusiasm to the classroom.

5. Break the mold.

Challenge perceptions with unexpected essays that say, "There's more to me than you think."

6. If you've taken an unorthodox path to business school, play it up.

Admissions officers appreciate risk-takers.

7. Talk about your gender, ethnicity, minority status or foreign background....

But only if it has affected your outlook or experiences.

8. Fill your essays with plenty of real-life examples.

Specific anecdotes and vivid details make a much greater impact than general claims and broad summaries.

9. Demonstrate a sense of humor or vulnerability.

You're a real person, and it's okay to show it!

BONUS: Don't Make These MBA Essay Mistakes

1. write about your high school glory days. .

Admissions committees don't care if you were editor of the yearbook or captain of the varsity team. They expect their candidates to have moved onto more current, professional achievements.

2. Submit essays that don't answer the questions.

An off-topic essay, or one that merely restates your résumé, will frustrate and bore the admissions committee. More importantly, it won't lead to any new insight about you.

Attend UNC's top-ranked online MBA program without putting your career on hold. See how.

3. Fill essays with industry jargon.

Construct your essays with only enough detail about your job to frame your story and make your point.

4. Reveal half-baked reasons for wanting the MBA.

Admissions officers favor applicants who have well-defined goals. However unsure you are about your future, it's critical that you demonstrate that you have a plan.

5. Exceed the recommended word limits.

This suggests you don't know how to follow directions, operate within constraints or organize your thoughts.

6. Submit an application full of typos and grammatical errors.

A sloppy application suggests a sloppy attitude.

7. Send one school an essay intended for another—or forget to change the school name when using the same essay for several applications.

Admissions committees are (understandably) insulted when they see another school's name or forms.

8. Make excuses.

If your undergraduate experience was one long party, be honest. Discuss how you've matured, both personally and professionally.

9. Be impersonal in the personal statement.

Many applicants avoid the personal like the plague. Instead of talking about how putting themselves through school lowered their GPA, they talk about the rising cost of tuition in America. Admissions officers want to know about YOU.

Read More: How to Ace Your MBA Interview

10. Make too many generalizations.

An essay full of generalizations is a giveaway that you don't have anything to say.

11. Write in a vacuum.

Make sure that each of your essays reinforce and build on the others to present a consistent and compelling representation of who you are, what you've done, and what you bring to the table.

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MBA Resources

Top Insightful Strategies to ace your “WHY MBA essay”: A consultant review

MBA & Beyond Team

14/11/2023 | 8:18 pm

Essays are vital in your business school application, serving as a key gateway to convey your aspirations and suitability. The ‘Why MBA’ Essay Answers specifically provide the admissions committee with a detailed understanding of your reasons for pursuing an MBA, your career objectives, and how an MBA from their school aligns with your goals. This essay also signals to potential employers your readiness and fit for the business world, underscoring the importance of clarity, conviction, and alignment in your response.

An excellent ‘Why MBA’ Essay requires many strong aspects to weave your story together. That is why, together with our experts, we are here to provide some premium tips on how to develop a killer ‘Why MBA’ story.

Here is the Snapshot of the article:

WHY SHOULD YOU ACE THIS ESSAY?

This question addresses the majority of the questions that the adcom may have about you, which is why ‘WHY MBA’ is critical to answer in order to gain the attention of the adcoms that are reading your essay.

While the question is good, the information provided by applicants is generic. The goals they mention are vague and ineffective. You want to make money, learn new things, and become a leader. So, who doesn’t like it?  The question is w what motivates you to pursue an MBA?

Now, what are the reasons why you should ace the ‘WHY MBA’ essay?

Control/Responsibility

Control and responsibility come only when the firm’s top management is confident that you understand the business principles and can handle them; this comes from prior experience and knowledge obtained while pursuing the MBA; this is ” WHY MBA. “

Connections

An MBA connects you with a diverse and intellectual group beyond your everyday work environment, thereby fostering valuable networks, especially in fields you’re passionate about. Consequently, high-quality MBA programs assemble individuals from varied backgrounds, offering unmatched learning experiences.

While applicant motivations differ, the core of the “WHY MBA” question is to explain how an MBA promotes personal growth and fills educational or experiential gaps uniquely, requiring thoughtful reflection before you articulate your response.

While answering the why MBA question, it is critical to consider the post-MBA objectives and get to know them. We have a full essay on Strong Post-MBA Goals Essay Sample.

How to frame practical post MBA goals essays? 

STRUCTURE OF A WINNING ESSAY FOR “WHY MBA”

Crafting a well-defined structure proves invaluable in compiling comprehensive information about a candidate’s background, MBA and beyond designed this basic structure for individuals wishing to write a killer MBA essay

1) Strength

The admissions committee evaluates your personality, credibility, and alignment with their b-school community based on the strength of your stories. Thus, conveying your authentic self in essays is both vital and challenging. This segment aims to support you in articulating your strengths in a captivating and compelling manner, resonating with admission officers.

How to address your strengths? Click here to know more!

2) Achievements

The primary reason many strong applicants are not admitted to top business schools is their inability to effectively communicate the significance of their stories. This segment is designed to help you choose your most compelling stories and articulate them in a manner that optimizes your potential across all your applications.

3) Weakness

Addressing your weaknesses proves to be the most challenging aspect of your application. Many candidates falter in this area because they often misunderstand what admissions authorities seek to learn about their weaknesses. Weakness stories should focus on how you navigated a situation rather than dwelling solely on the context or the events that transpired.

How to address your weaknesses? Click here to know more!

Incorporate no more than one or two weaknesses, ensuring you go beyond mere acknowledgment. It’s crucial to offer a reasoned justification rooted in your future aspirations. Ask yourself why you seek to change a particular aspect and consider how this transformation aligns with your goal of personal growth.

Do you realize there’s a fine line between weakness and failure? What is that fine line, and how can you explain your shortcomings so that you project a good and influential personality in your essays? Weaknesses are dynamic and evolve over time, while failure tends to be more fixed. It showcases the challenges you’ve overcome and highlights your distinctive qualities.

5) International experience

In a business school, the learning extends beyond professors to encompass valuable insights gained from classmates. Hailing from diverse backgrounds, these peers play a crucial role in shaping your educational experience. Admission authorities are keen to understand your ability to showcase your value in such a varied and dynamic setting.

Suggested Reading: What do Business schools mean by International Experience?

6) Extracurricular activities

The extracurricular area provides a chance to demonstrate the colorful, dynamic personality that b-schools want. However, what should you highlight in this section if you’re not engaged in organizational activities? Even if you have, which ones should you choose to make the greatest influence on the admissions committee? 

Extracurricular activities should have two characteristics: For starters, it personally enriches you. Second, your ECs should have some communal effect.

What is the role of Extracurriculars activities in your MBA applications? Click here to learn more

Your post-MBA short-term and long-term ambitions are critical in creating a cohesive picture for the admissions committee.

If you are unable to establish clear connections between your job experience, short-term goals, and long-term ambitions, there’s a potential risk of compromising your admission prospects to a top MBA program, even with an otherwise stellar profile.

Suggested reading: How to frame practical post MBA goals essays? Strong Post MBA goals essays Sample

Every business school asks “Why MBA?”—a question many candidates struggle with. We’ve broken it down: Checklist 1.0 focuses on your current skills and role, while Checklist 2.0 envisions your future post-MBA. The MBA serves as the bridge from 1.0 to 2.0, shaping your answer to “Why MBA?” and outlining the skills you’ll gain to evolve into your future self.

Suggested Reading: How to build your MBA application ?

Let’s look at an example with a table

Our product assists applicants in writing a powerful essay with impactful “Why MBA” Essay answers by filling in the holes that applicants overlook. Additionally, our product is free to use and provides a framework that anybody can use.

DO’S AND DON’T WHILE WRITING THIS ESSAY

Crafting essays, particularly “Why MBA” Essay answers, is vital for articulating your thoughts and shaping the admissions committee’s perception of you. Moreover, these essays go beyond academic achievements, authentically reflecting your response to the ‘Why MBA’ question, helping to paint a comprehensive picture of your motivations and aspirations for pursuing an MBA before your interview.

1) Tell your own story – Everyone aims to stand out and make a memorable impact, particularly through “Why MBA” Essay answers. Remember, this essay should reflect your unique voice, a trait only you can genuinely convey.

2) Be truthful-  Admissions officials, like it or not, are like lie detectors. They have a keen ability to discern the distinction between an authentic candidate and one attempting to deceive.

3) Tell them about the Goals – Share your objectives and elucidate how an MBA can contribute to realizing those goals as your “Why MBA” essay answers.

4) Why you are the best fit for the school –  Admissions officers will want to know why after you’ve selected to attend a specific business school.

5) Research – Research provides a distinct advantage, and numerous expert guidance websites (such as MBA and Beyond) offer essential information and recommendations for crafting a ‘WHY MBA’ essay.

6) Practice your essay- Don’t be concerned about the word limit while composing your essay. Initially, put down all your thoughts on paper without worrying about refinement.

DONT’S 

1) CV is not your essay. – Transforming your CV into an essay is not advisable. The admissions committee is already aware of your academic and professional achievements through your resume. Now, they seek to gain deeper insights into your personality and understand your motivations for pursuing an MBA.

2) A sob story is not always an option – Using a sob story to elicit sympathy is not an effective strategy for gaining attention unless it directly addresses the question. Otherwise, it may create a negative impression of you in the eyes of the admission committee.

ESSAY EXAMPLES

Despite highlighting the do’s and don’ts, applicants often make errors in their essays. To assist, we provide examples of successful candidates admitted to top B-schools. These examples can guide you in assessing your standing and applying the mentioned principles systematically.

INSEAD Success story essays

This is an example in which we requested candidates to compose the essay without any aid and then assisted them in identifying gaps and filling those gaps with appropriate remarks. Click here to access

Different colleges pose distinct essay questions, and responding uniquely to each is key to navigating the process successfully. For instance, Kellogg, INSEAD, and Darden each emphasize different aspects in their requirements.

EXAMPLES OF GOOD “WHY MBA” ANSWERS

*An MBA will help me grasp how firms operate and are controlled. My long-term objective is to become a company’s CFO with a whole perspective of the entire firm. My Undergraduate degree has given me a solid foundation in accounting and finance. An MBA will teach me strategy, marketing, international business, law, and the necessary soft skills to be a successful corporate leader.*

Though grades, courses, and test scores are crucial, essays, particularly “Why MBA” Essay answers, can distinguish you in your application. They offer a direct connection with admissions officers, addressing critical questions like “Why MBA?” and why you choose a specific school. Consequently, these essays significantly impact Adcoms, showcasing your commitment and aligning your aspirations with the MBA program’s offerings, thereby illustrating your dedication to the school once admitted.

We believe in every applicant’s ability to complete the application process, which is why we developed a product designed to aid applicants in essay writing. Our experts help identify gaps and guide them in crafting a compelling essay that stands out.

So, schedule a call with us today and have our experts point out your gaps so you can fill them with something concrete. Book a free evaluation call with our experts now.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are you doing an MBA answer?

This is a question that every business school asks, and only a few MBA applicants can answer it. This has been broken into two sections: checklist 1.0 and checklist 2.0. MBA is necessary to bridge the version 1.0-to-version 2.0 gap. This gap serves as your answer to the question, “Why MBA?” This response will help you realize the necessity for an MBA and acquire the skills needed to become version 2.0.

How do you conclude an MBA essay?

– Link your conclusion and your introduction.

– Include a surprising twist.

– Be unique to stand out.

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Essential MBA Essay Tips

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• Start writing your MBA admission essay early and carefully proofread before submitting.
• Clearly communicate the qualities that will lead you to success in an MBA program.
• Use a sound storytelling structure and avoid relying too much on sample MBA essays.
• Stay on topic, write succinctly, and never exceed the word limit.

With a great essay, you can gain entry into the top MBA programs across the country. An advanced degree gives you a big advantage in the business world, as a Bloomberg Businessweek survey found that MBA degree-holders can increase their salary by as much as 80% after graduation.

Although grades, standardized tests, and work experience can play an important role in your admission status, your MBA essay gives you an opportunity to clearly demonstrate exactly what you would bring to your desired program.

How Important Are MBA Admission Essays?

An MBA essay is perhaps the most important part of the admissions process. You should therefore spend a considerable amount of time on your essay to ensure you showcase your skills, characteristics, and experiences as clearly and effectively as possible.

When evaluating essays, admissions departments look at applicants' writing abilities, personal characteristics, and business experience they have gained so far. An essay gives you a chance to share your background, any unique experiences you have had, and why you believe you will succeed when seeking an MBA degree.

MBA programs typically look for applicants with strong creativity and critical thinking skills, along with a drive to achieve clearly defined goals. They also seek well-rounded individuals who have made an effort to interact with people from outside their own community or culture.

Five Essential MBA Essay Tips

Start writing early.

While you may not need to write thousands of words for your MBA admission essay, writing requires a great deal of thought, reflection, and creativity. Give yourself plenty of time to overcome potential writer's block and ensure your essay truly represents what you would bring to an MBA program.

Demonstrate Your Qualities

Go beyond simply listing your skills by providing anecdotes that demonstrate exactly why you have the qualities necessary to succeed when seeking your MBA degree. Include an example or two of how your experience or dedication paid off for an employer or how you overcame challenges to succeed on a project.

Clearly Define Your Goals

Every MBA essay should include a series of clearly defined goals. Explain what you want to achieve while enrolled in the MBA program and how you will leverage the knowledge you gain to reach your career goals. Detail why you possess an interest or passion for the specific area of business you wish to pursue.

Be Succinct and Stay on Topic

Take some time to learn the fundamentals of good business writing and persuasion. Write concisely and avoid unnecessary filler words.

Address the specific prompt or question directly and as early on in your MBA essay as possible. Admissions departments tend to favor applicants who demonstrate strong writing skills.

Proofread Your Essay

You may need to go through several rounds of revisions before you reach a final draft of your MBA admission essay. Carefully proofread your draft for clarity, word choice, grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Ask someone you trust to edit and proofread your essay before you submit it.

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Five MBA Essay Mistakes to Avoid

Focusing only on your accomplishments.

Your MBA essay should go beyond simply listing your accomplishments. Dive deeper by sharing your values, perspectives, and what you learned through your experiences. Doing so can show admissions departments how your accomplishments have led to you becoming a well-rounded individual focused on success.

Using a Sample Essay

Make your MBA admission essay your own. While you can look at examples online to get you started, avoid modeling your essay too closely to them. You want your essay to stand out and reflect who you are and what you would bring to an MBA program.

Lacking Structure or Storytelling

The best MBA essays tell a story. Your essay should start with an overarching theme and use stories of your experiences to support that theme. If you do not know what an effective story structure looks like, search for examples online. Admissions departments are drawn to essays that tell them a story.

If you do not know what an effective story structure looks like, search for examples online. Admissions departments are drawn to essays that tell them a story.

Making Too Many Generalizations

Including too many general statements in your MBA admission essay can make it uninteresting. Instead, use real-life examples and specific reasons for the claims you make in your essay. Tell the readers exactly why you believe you will succeed when seeking your MBA degree.

Exceeding the Word Limit

Some students believe exceeding the word count limit makes them look like overachievers. That's not the case. In fact, writing too much may signal to admissions departments that you cannot write succinctly. You can keep your MBA essay within the requested word count through sound proofreading and editing.

Frequently Asked Questions About MBA Essays

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Do MBA essay questions change every year?

Most MBA programs change their essay questions each year . While some may ask completely new questions, others may simply tweak what appeared on their application the year before. Therefore, you may find yourself answering different MBA essay questions as you apply to various programs.

How do you end an MBA essay?

The end of your MBA essay gives you a chance to demonstrate your career goals beyond your degree program. Wrap it up by summarizing how your master's degree will prepare you for what you hope to achieve once you have completed your education. Be as specific as possible and connect your goals to the offerings of the specific MBA program for which you are applying.

How long should MBA essays be?

While the length of your MBA admission essay depends on the program, most are 750-1,200 words. While it may seem counterintuitive at first, falling short of the word limit is better than going over. Using fewer words to get your point across demonstrates you can write concisely, a key skill in the business world.

How do you write a good MBA essay?

Start writing early on and clearly outline your goals. You should also be as succinct as possible and proofread your essay numerous times to ensure it truly reflects who you are and what you would bring to an MBA program.

Is an MBA difficult?

Earning an MBA degree requires significant time and effort. Some programs feature more demanding course loads than others. However, if you work hard, maintain an interest in business, and focus on always building your skills, you can increase your chances of success.

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Top Five Tips for Writing Compelling MBA Admissions Essays

Erin Wand - Personal MBA Coach

Erin Wand is an mba.com Featured Contributor and the Vice President of Marketing and Operations for Personal MBA Coach , a boutique MBA admissions consulting and tutoring firm.

For many of the business school applicants I work with, the MBA admissions essay is the part of the application they dread the most.

Does that sound like you? It doesn’t have to be! If you’re unsure about how to start on your MBA admissions essays, don’t worry. This is your opportunity to move beyond your GMAT exam scores , GPA, or resume and reveal something deeper about yourself to the admissions committee. Read along for my best MBA admission essay tips.

Crafting winning MBA admissions essays

The question is: how to you write MBA admissions essays for top-tier programs that stand out from the stack and effectively tell your story? Here are five tips for compelling essays that will stick in the minds of the admissions committee and help you get into your top choice business school program.

1. Stay focused and answer the question asked

It’s surprising how often candidates write beautiful essays but do not answer the question. While I certainly endorse thinking outside of the box and considering the “why” behind an essay prompt, first and foremost you must answer the question.

Business school applicants like you are often highly accomplished, and it can be tempting to try to include as many of the details of your accomplishments as possible into your essays. It’s crucial that you avoid this urge and focus on the specific question at hand.

2. Less can be more: be succinct

A trend I’m seeing at many leading full-time MBA programs is shorter essay word limits. Michigan Ross , Stanford GSB , UCLA Anderson , and Duke Fuqua are just a few of the programs that have reduced their essay word counts in recent admissions cycles. This trend underscores a key piece of advice: be succinct!

Remember, your essays and short answers are just one part of your application. In addition to the details you’ll provide on the application form itself, you’ll also submit an MBA resume ( check out my resume tips here! ). This allows admissions committee members ample opportunity to read about everything you have accomplished, all the roles you have held, and the awards you have won. There is no need to fit every detail into your essays.

Instead of squeezing in as much as you can, focus on sharing a few key highlights, peppering in some interesting details, and convey your authentic voice through your writing. This is your chance to explain your choices, show your accomplishments, and share your passions. The fewer things you try to cover in your essays, the more you will be able to achieve this objective.

3. Be authentic, not what you think schools want to hear

I can’t emphasize this enough: do not write what you think admissions committee members want to read! The qualities and experiences that make you unique are your greatest selling points. Each essay should paint a clear picture of who you are, what motivates you, and what you’re passionate about.

Related to this, don’t feel compelled to show how you fit the mold that seemingly makes up the “ideal” candidate. If you have no desire to run a non-profit, that’s okay! If you’re not motivated to save the planet, don’t pretend you are! The admissions committee will see right through this, and you could end up doing more harm than good. Instead, focus your energy on simply being authentic.

4. Keep your language approachable and focus on the “so what?”

The terms you regularly use at the office may be foreign to others, including admissions committee members. When in doubt, do not assume the reader is familiar with everything about your job. Admissions directors come from all backgrounds and fields and are not assigned to candidates with similar backgrounds. They do not know the ins and outs of your industry and do not need to. In fact, details and accomplishments that are significant only to someone in your industry are less compelling than understandable results and transferable skills.

Everyone from your grandmother to a professor of microfinance should be able to understand your essays. So even if your accomplishment would be extremely impressive to another engineer or investment banker, if the reader doesn’t understand the “so what,” you’re wasting your words.

5. Limit the amount of flowery prose

Remember: You’ re not submitting your essays for a Pulitzer Prize. All you’re trying to do is tell your story. While of course you want your essays to be well-written and free of grammatical mistakes and typos, you also want them to be relatable and easy to follow. They should also convey why you are someone others would want to study with, learn from, and eventually be inspired by. That type of person is human and down to earth. Your essays should show this. 

Erin Wand is an mba.com Featured Contributor and the Vice President of Marketing and Operations for Personal MBA Coach , a boutique MBA admissions consulting and tutoring firm.

Founded by a Wharton MBA and MIT Sloan graduate who sits on the Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants Board of Directors, Personal MBA Coach has been guiding clients for 14 years and is consistently ranked #1 or #2, currently holding the #1 ranking in the US on Poets&Quants.

We help clients with all aspects of the MBA application process including early planning, GMAT/GRE/EA tutoring, application strategy, school selection, essay editing and mock interviews. Our team includes a former M7 admissions director and former M7 admissions interviewers.

Last year, our clients earned more than $6M in scholarships!

GMAT Prep Online Guides and Tips

7 tips for writing a winning mba application essay.

Nervous about your MBA admissions essay? You’re not alone! Many applicants wonder how to put their best foot forward in a business school entrance essay.

In this article, I’ll tell you what admissions committees look for in application essays and offer MBA essay tips on how to make yours stand out. We’ll also take a look at the different kinds of business school essays and a few examples of MBA essay prompts.

Why Do Business Schools Ask for Essays? What Do They Look For?

Business schools ask for essays for several reasons, all of which help admissions committees determine whether you have the skills and traits to succeed in an MBA program.

First, MBA admissions committees want to see how you write. Communication skills—including concision, clarity, style, and fluency in English—will be essential to your success in business school. One way of discerning your level of writing ability is to require an original writing sample. In an MBA essay, you have to get your point across straightforwardly, elegantly, and concisely; being able to do this is a key element of succeeding in business school and the world of business in general.

Also, MBA admissions committees want to get a sense of who you are on a more personal level. MBA application essays tell admissions officials about you not only through what you say, but in how you say it. Are you self-aware, for example, and can you reflect on past challenges or mistakes in a thoughtful way? Do you demonstrate insight into who you are and your goals? How you answer questions about yourself, your career, and your journey can help MBA admissions officials discern your level of critical thinking and personal insight.

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You can have countless accomplishments, but to succeed in business school, you’ll also need to fit in with the campus climate, work well with your peers, and contribute to campus diversity in a meaningful way. The MBA essay is a place for you to talk about the background or experiences you have that are unique to you and that you believe could differentiate you from your colleagues and/or provide a fresh perspective to campus.

Finally, essays are a way for you to showcase the qualities that most MBA programs say they are looking for in applicants, such as leadership skills, community involvement, problem-solving skills, communication skills, clear goals, and a strong sense of ethics. Some of these traits might not be readily apparent from a resume alone, and an MBA essay can be a place for you to elaborate on how you’ve cultivated them in yourself.

MBA Entrance Essay Sample Prompts

Most MBA entrance essays ask you about one of several things. Many of them are variations on similar questions: the open-ended question, the leadership question, the personal growth question, questions on short- and long-term academic and career goals, and the diversity question. For each one, I’ll give an example of a real MBA essay prompt from 2016 or 2017.

#1: Open-Ended

The open-ended MBA application essay question is just that: open. It allows you to tell your own story, giving you quite a bit of freedom but also little to no guidance. For that reason, many applicants find it to be the most challenging MBA essay prompt.

Harvard Business School has only one essay for its MBA application, and it’s the quintessential open-ended MBA essay question. This is the prompt for 2017-2018 applicants.

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?

Note that, as in other open-ended MBA admission essay prompts, this question asks you to decide what you’ll write about. Successful Harvard applicants and HBS admissions counselors have advised applicants to use the prompt as a chance to demonstrate their past use of an especially desired trait, such as problem-solving skills. For example, many successful applicants use the prompt to describe a scenario in which they faced and overcame a challenge, especially as a leader or alongside a team.

Notably, Harvard also doesn’t list a word limit, so you can decide the appropriate length for your essay. However, most admissions counselors will advise you to keep it concise and straightforward.

#2: Leadership

Another common MBA essay prompt asks you to demonstrate your experience and skills as a leader. Leadership qualities are listed by nearly all MBA admissions counselors as fundamental to a career in business and, thus, to a successful business school application.

Let’s look at a sample leadership MBA essay prompt from Kellogg.

Leadership and teamwork are integral parts of the Kellogg experience. Describe a recent and meaningful time you were a leader. What challenges did you face, and what did you learn? (450 words)

In a response to this kind of prompt, you should be as specific as possible. Name the company you were working for or specifically describe the project you were heading. Who was on your team? What were your objectives? Did you meet them? How could you have done so more effectively?

While you shouldn’t be overly self-deprecating, don’t be afraid to address the challenges you met and how you overcame them (or would overcome them now, with more experience and knowledge). Remember that one important aspect of leadership is accountability, so if there were problems, don’t solely blame your team for them. Instead, reflect on how you successfully worked with your team to solve the problems, and/or on how you could have done so more effectively or efficiently.

#3: Personal Growth

The personal growth MBA admission essay prompt will ask you how you’ve changed in the past and how you want to grow in the future. Here’s one example from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management.

Pursuing an MBA is a catalyst for personal and professional growth. How have you grown in the past? How do you intend to grow at Kellogg? (450 words)

Don’t be afraid to get a bit personal with these kinds of prompts . They’re meant to gauge something about your personality and who you are, rather than only what you’ve done.

Many successful MBA admission essays that respond to these kinds of questions follow a past/present/future format. Ask yourself what traits you’ve gathered over the years that have benefited you personally and professionally, how you’ve improved, and what you’ve learned. What experiences have shaped you? Be as specific as possible.

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Then, take stock of yourself now: your career, your education, and where you see yourself in the future. What do you need in order to get there?

Finally, most essay MBA prompts in this vein (like Kellogg’s) will ask you how they can help you move towards that personal or professional goal. Be as specific as you can, focusing on the particular strengths of the prospective MBA program and how they match up with what you want to improve about yourself as a person, colleague, and leader.

#4: Your Plan

Some MBA application essay prompts will ask you about your career goals and how attendance at a particular business school will help you to achieve them. Let’s look at one from the USC Marshall School of Business.

Essay #1 (Required) – What is your specific, immediate short-term career goal upon completion of your MBA? Please include an intended position, function, and industry in your response. (word limit: 100)

As you can see, questions like these often request brief responses. So get straight to the point, and give details. Name a specific job you’d like to hold, what you’d like to do there, and even particular companies if you can.

Questions like this one will require some research. Research alumni from your prospective business school who’ve ended up in positions comparable to ones you’d like to hold in the future, particular companies and positions that match up with your personal and professional goals, and specific coursework or industry experiences offered by your prospective business school that would help you get there.

#5: Diversity, Culture, and Community

Finally, some MBA essay prompts will ask you how your unique background and experiences would contribute to the overall diversity and collegial atmosphere of a school’s campus climate and community. Here’s one example from USC.

Essay #2 (Required) – At Marshall, we take pride in the fact that our students work collaboratively, both inside and outside the classroom, to create a culture, a community, and an environment that truly defines what we call the Trojan Family. Please describe the contributions you expect to make to your classmates during your time at USC. How will they benefit from your presence in the program? (word limit: 500)

You can respond to questions like this, depending on the wording of the original prompt, by discussing your cultural background, identity, and/or personal experiences that have given you particular insight into a given community or that have lent you a unique perspective that could be valuable to your colleagues as you collaborate.

You can also discuss past community service projects or issues you’re passionate about and how you plan to carry those experiences and passions into your work at your prospective MBA program.

7 MBA Essay Tips

Writing MBA essays takes a particular skill set. Let’s go over the top seven MBA essay tips for making your application essay shine.

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#1: Write Early and Often

Even though MBA entrance essays are brief, they take a lot of polishing. Writing MBA essays takes time.

Don’t expect to write yours at the last minute or knock out a quality essay in a day. Most students need several drafts to make sure they’re getting their points across as elegantly and clearly as possible.

Start your essay well before the application deadline, when you don’t yet feel any pressure. For several weeks, don’t try to write at all. Instead, before crafting your essay for MBA admission, take notes on your past, present, and future. What have you learned? What unique experiences have you had? What have been the most meaningful projects you’ve undertaken? Ask friends, family, and mentors to tell you what they value most about you or what they see as your greatest personal and professional assets.

Only once you’ve gathered this material should you begin your first draft of your MBA application essay. Start with an outline for each one that includes the story you want to tell and the main points you want to get across.

Once you have a clear outline, you can start drafting. Taking the writing process seriously from start to finish will give you a much better product in the end than trying to write something hastily right before the deadline.

#2: Show, Don’t Tell

MBA admissions committees want to be able to tell that you have the qualities that are necessary to succeed in business school, such as leadership skills and integrity.

Your MBA admissions essay can be a great place to showcase those qualities. However, remember to show, not tell. Saying “I have strong leadership skills” doesn’t tell an admissions committee much. Through an anecdote about, say, meeting a difficult deadline or overcoming an obstacle, a reader should be able to tell that you have the qualities of a strong leader without your having to say so explicitly.

#3: Research Your Goals

When describing your future goals, be as specific as possible. Business schools know that your goals may change in the future, but stating specific goals now will show that you’ve done your research and have an idea of what you want and how an MBA program can help you get there.

Before writing your essay for MBA admission, research the ins and outs of the industry you want to enter, the position you’d like to have, companies you might like to work for, and coursework and internships or fieldwork that could aid you on your way to those goals.

#4: Keep It Concise

Never, ever go over a stated word count limit when you’re writing your essay for MBA admission. It might be tempting, but business schools want to see that you can get your point across concisely and straightforwardly.This rule goes for MBA essay prompts that don’t have specific word counts, too: sometimes, less is more.

One of the biggest mistakes applicants make in writing an essay for MBA admission is to use too much flowery language to come across as more professional. If you do this, it can be distracting and cause the admissions committee to miss the main points you’re making.

Bottom line, trim anything extraneous from your essay —that is, anything that doesn’t actively support the main point(s) you’re trying to get across.

#5: Show Self-Awareness

It might feel tempting to use the MBA admission essay as a space to list all of your accomplishments (and since your resume is already part of your application, this is unnecessary), but MBA admissions committees would rather see that you have insight into both your strengths and weaknesses. No one is perfect, and in your essay for MBA admission, you shouldn’t try to come across as if you’ve never made a mistake or faced a challenge that you’ve had to learn from.

Also, in business school and the business world at large, bouncing back from failures, being flexible, and problem solving are all essential skills. All of them require a thick skin and awareness of what you could do better.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t showcase your achievements, but if you’re asked about personal growth or an obstacle you’ve overcome, be clear about what you could have done more effectively in the past (at a job or in your education, for example) and the steps you’ve taken or will take to sidestep that mistake in the future.

#6: Share Your Personal Journey

Many applicants would prefer to focus only on their professional backgrounds and goals in their MBA essays, but you shouldn’t be afraid to get personal in your essay. You don’t need to tell your whole life story, but especially in response to questions that ask about your growth over time, you should showcase your personality and give the admissions committee an idea of your personal background and experiences.

#7: Ask for Edits

It might seem obvious, but many applicants don’t do it: proofread your work! When writing MBA essays, revision is key. Turning in an MBA essay with typos and other errors will come off as thoughtless and unprofessional.

You should also get a second (and, perhaps, a third and fourth) pair of eyes on your essay to make sure it’s coming across as you want it to. Going through several rounds of drafts is a necessary part of the writing process to ensure that you’re putting your best foot forward in your MBA entrance essay.

What’s Next?

Worried about how your GMAT score matches up to other applicants’? Find out more in our list of average GMAT scores by school.

Concerned about your chances of getting into an MBA program? Our guide to business school acceptance rates will help.

Ready to apply to business school? Check out our top eight tips for applying to MBA programs here.

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Author: Laura Dorwart

Laura Dorwart is a Ph.D. student at UC San Diego. She has taught and tutored hundreds of students in standardized testing, literature, and writing. View all posts by Laura Dorwart

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MBA Essay Examples, Tips, and Analysis

Y our MBA application essays are your best opportunity to share meaningful life experiences that hide in the “white spaces” of the resume and to tell admissions officers not only “what” you have achieved but also “why” those achievements are meaningful to you.

Your MBA application essays are going to be crucial if you are competing for a spot at one of the world’s top business schools.

These resources will show you how to excel in the rigorous MBA essay writing challenges ahead of you, provide you with the guidance to create MBA essays that will impress admissions officers, and share MBA essay examples that illustrate our advice in action.

Second, we survey the five most frequently asked MBA essay questions. We preview video essay questions and link to detailed guidance on how to tackle this emerging class of application essays.

Third, we will teach you how to choose topics and stories for your essays and share a story-outlining technique to help you tell those stories.

Common MBA Essay Forms: Persuasive versus Narrative Essays

There are two primary forms that MBA application essays take: persuasive essays and narrative essays. In a persuasive essay, you must persuade your reader that your argument is a sound one. An op-ed column in a newspaper is one example of a persuasive essay.

The classic “What Will You Contribute to the Class?” question is an excellent example of a persuasive essay question that MBA programs like to ask. The essay you write must persuade the admissions committee that you will enrich next year’s class. You will generally present evidence from past experiences and achievements to support your claims about what you can offer the MBA community.

The other style of essay you’ll encounter in your MBA applications is the narrative essay. Certain MBA essay questions don’t sound like questions at all; they are, in fact, an invitation for you to tell a story. We refer to these as narrative essays – but others call them behavioral essays or expository essays.

The Leadership Story Essay is a perfect example of a narrative essay. It’s one thing to claim to be a leader – but it’s quite another to show the admissions committee that you’re a leader by telling a captivating leadership story in which you played the starring role.

While MBA essays often fall into these two categories, the actual prompts will differ from school to school. Let’s discuss the five most frequently asked MBA essay questions. ↑ To the Top

The Five Most Frequently Asked MBA Essay Questions

Every business school application requires you to answer one or more MBA essay questions. Although the essay prompts differ from application to application, we identified five types of MBA application essay questions that appear again and again.

Career Goals Essays

A career goals essay question regularly appears in one form or another on just about every MBA application. Even if you aren’t required to write this type of essay, you will almost certainly be asked about your post-MBA career goals during an admissions interview.

Admissions committees ask about your career plans because they want to understand what you aspire to do after your MBA and how the MBA degree fits into your career plan. As it turns out, a strong career goals essay is one of the best tools in your application to stand out from MBA candidates who don’t have a compelling career vision or haven’t effectively articulated their professional goals in their MBA application essays.

Leadership Essays

Leadership essays are your absolute best opportunity to convince MBA admissions committees of your leadership abilities. Remember that MBA admissions officers will be interested in your leadership achievements both inside and outside of work.

You probably won’t be asked directly, “Are you a leader?” Instead, you’ll be asked to tell stories about your leadership achievements. When given the opportunity, you need to supply evidence that you can rally other people and motivate them to work together to achieve an important shared vision or goal. Therein lies the objective of a great leadership essay.

Why MBA? and Why Our School? Essays

The “Why MBA? Why Our School?” essay is your chance to convince admissions officers that their school is the perfect fit for what you need from an MBA program. The best answers to these types of questions are both personal and specific. You need to effectively convey what you are looking for in an MBA program and tell the admissions committee why their school will best satisfy your learning goals and help you achieve your career development objectives.

“What Will You Contribute?” Essays

The “What Will You Contribute?” essay presents you with an opportunity to tell the MBA Admissions Committee why you would be a valuable addition to their incoming class. The schools are looking for candidates who can put in just as much as they take out. One critical thing to understand when preparing to answer these questions is that concrete and tailored answers about what you can contribute to each MBA program are crucial.

Professional Experience Essays

The professional experience essay is an executive summary of your career thus far. A resume is a record of jobs and achievements — a Professional Experience Essay provides the connections and interrelationships between those jobs and brings your resume to life. An effective Professional Experience essay will give the admissions committee a sense of the career decisions you’ve made, your major achievements in each step of your career, and the skills and knowledge you’ve acquired along the way.

MBA Application Video Essays

MBA admissions committees are increasingly relying on technology to help them evaluate and manage their growing applicant pools. MBA application video essays are becoming a popular tool, as MBA programs can use them to learn far more about candidates than the traditional application permits. In recent years, leading MBA programs including Kellogg Northwestern , MIT Sloan , and Chicago Booth have incorporated a video component into their evaluation process. Video essays are excellent screening tools that allow admissions officers to assess candidates’ professional presence and communication skills.

Free MBA Essay Writing Course

Please enter your email below to gain 30 days of free access to our MBA Essay Writing course. Learn about the five most frequently asked MBA application essay questions and access our brainstorming tools and sample essays.

No matter which type of MBA essay question you are tackling, your primary objective is to provide evidence that proves you possess the qualities that admissions committees value most. By doing so, you will move one step closer to an acceptance letter from a top business school.

Now that you have a better picture of the classic MBA essay questions you’re likely to face, let’s cover selecting the strongest stories to present in your MBA application essays.

How to Choose the Best Stories for your MBA Essays

Story selection is something all MBA applicants wrestle with. When you first read the MBA application essay questions, it may be hard to figure out which topics to cover or which of your stories to tell. We’ll explain how to go step-by-step to choose your best stories. Here are the steps:

Research the School’s Fit Qualities

Categorize the question.

• Brainstorm Topic/Stories

Choose a Topic or Story

To choose your best stories, you need to know what qualities MBA programs truly value when evaluating applicants. You want to tell stories that prove to the admissions officers that you possess the attributes they seek in MBA candidates. We refer to these as the school’s Fit Qualities . You might think of them as the highest-common denominators among the candidates who are accepted.

Early in your MBA essay writing process is the time to make some strategic choices about which qualities and strengths you will put front and center in your MBA essays. If you attempt to feature all of your strengths, you run the risk that admissions officers will finish your essays with no clear idea of any of them. Instead, select three or four of the qualities that your research tells you the school you are applying to prizes most of all.

Second, study the essay question to determine if it falls into one of the five essay categories discussed earlier in this article.

By categorizing each question, you’ll have a better idea of what the admissions committee will be looking for in your response. You’ll know the criteria for scoring top marks in that essay style, which will guide your application essay design decisions.

Brainstorm Topics/Stories

Third, you are ready to start brainstorming potential topics and stories. Remember that your central objective is to find opportunities to feature the key elements of your application strategy .

Here are some questions you can ask yourself to help you to choose your best topic or story:

Are you the star of the story or supporting cast?

With very few exceptions, you need to write stories where you play the starring role. Don’t make the mistake some applicants make of writing a thrilling story about their parents’ hardships and triumphs, leaving little room for their own.

Did the experience occur recently?

It is usually best to choose stories that happened within the last three years. If an older story is incredibly compelling, then keep it on your list. However, bear in mind that admissions officers are rarely interested in reading about your high school glory days.

Does the essay feature several Fit Qualities?

Review your topic ideas objectively and ask yourself if they exemplify the school’s Fit Qualities. Because you’ll be limited to telling only a few stories, you’ll want to choose the ones that feature a few different Fit Qualities if at all possible.

Once you have selected your best stories, it is time to create an outline to organize your thoughts before jumping into the writing process. ↑ To the Top

How to Outline Your MBA Essay Stories

The persuasive essay writing style is prevalent in university and work settings, so it may have been some time since you were asked to write a story. For that reason, we want to share a powerful outlining technique called the STAR framework that will help with the “story-telling” essays you may be asked to write in your MBA application.

The STAR framework is designed to help you tell a concise story with a beginning, middle, and end.

The “S” in STAR stands for Situation .

The Situation is the time, place, and context of the story; you can think of it as the setting, but it might also include the broader challenge or conflict you or your organization faced. In essence, this is the set-up of the story.

“T” in the STAR acronym stands for Task . The Task is your role and goal in the story. What were you expected to accomplish by the end of the story? An effective story has built-in conflicts and complications.

The Action of the story is what admissions officers are really interested in because this is their chance to see your strengths and qualities in action. While it won’t be necessary to write down every step you took at the outlining stage, you’ll want to jot down the highlights.

Below is an MBA essay example told using the STAR framework. It outlines a story written by a candidate who served as a donation chair for a fundraising event for a non-profit organization.

Task: Assigning specific jobs to committee members, checking on their progress, helping teammates meet agreed-upon deadlines for obtaining the donations, and offering other assistance

Action: Motivated my team by having them meet Literacy Now children. Assigned tasks and checked in regularly. Successfully mediated team disputes. Visited 20 restaurants and called 12 wineries. Ensured deadlines were met.

Sample MBA Essays: MBA Applicant Beware!

MBA Prep School’s guide is replete with essay writing tips, and we do provide excerpts from sample essays to illustrate the most common MBA essay categories. However, while you will find page-after-page of helpful advice and building blocks for constructing your own original MBA essays and stories, we don’t publish an extensive catalog of MBA essays written by MBA Prep School’s past clients.

The problem with collections of sample MBA application essays is that they can mislead you into thinking that if you can just replicate one of those sample essays, you’ve got your golden ticket into business school. Unfortunately, the opposite can be true. The reason those essays “succeeded” is because they were an integral part of a complete story about an impressive human being whom the admission committee concluded belonged at their business school.

And the scary truth is that reading MBA essay examples might even harm your chance of admission for several reasons:

1. They might stunt your creativity and ability to express yourself. If you are trying to mimic someone else’s essays – the content, the style, or the approach – your story and voice are likely to get lost in the process. Admissions committees want to be impressed – but they want to be impressed by you. Feature the traits and tell the stories that depict “you” at your best.

2. Sample MBA essays can undermine your confidence in your MBA candidacy. The essays that get published as samples are often truly eye-catching, dramatic, and sensational – stories of exceptional accomplishment, rare feats, or extreme obstacles. It may seem, in comparison, that none of your stories stack up. The good news is that the whole package is what matters, not a single defining moment in a candidate’s life.

The last thing you need is to doubt your abilities or have a crisis of confidence when you’re trying to put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard). Trust in your own experiences and tell stories about what you – and only you – will bring to the MBA program.

3. Admissions officers can tell when you’ve “sampled” from sample MBA essays. The pesky thing about MBA admissions committees is that they’re filled with brilliant people who know how this game is played and what resources are available. They can spot themes and clichéd stories inspired by sample essay collections. More importantly, they can sense when you’re telling someone else’s story or when the story doesn’t ring true to your MBA application’s other elements. Don’t give an admissions officer reason to doubt your authenticity by risking even the appearance that you “sampled” from MBA sample essays that are swirling around on the Internet.

At MBA Prep School, we work with clients we believe in and help them tell their stories, not someone else’s. Remember that the MBA application process is not a storytelling contest; even if it were, the winners would be chosen based on the authenticity, originality, and integrity of the stories they tell!

Final Thoughts

Critics of MBA essays often wonder if they still have a place in the application process when admissions committees can rely on quantitative data points to choose among applicants. However, your transcripts, test scores, and resume are historical documents that only tell a fraction of the story. Your MBA essays represent a powerful opportunity to communicate your goals, strengths, reasons for applying, and potential contributions to the class.

The process of writing MBA essays provides you with a rare opportunity for self-examination and self-expression. Many applicants value the introspection required of them in the MBA essay-writing process and find they can better articulate their strengths and goals during their subsequent MBA interviews as a result. By putting ample thought and effort into brainstorming and writing your MBA essays, you will almost certainly increase your odds of being accepted to a top MBA program.

Related Articles: Essay Examples

• Career Goals Essay Example
• What Will You Contribute? Essay Example
• Why MBA? and Why Our School? Essay Example
• Leadership Story Essay Example
• Professional Experience Essay Example
• MBA Video Essays
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Write a why MBA essay that makes the admissions angels sing

• April 26, 2021

Successful MBA essays showcase brilliant future goals, detailed future positions that inspire, and intimate and tangible school fit. Here’s how to achieve that in your own why MBA essay and MBA admissions process.

What is MBA school fit?

Fit is a really important thing. Have you ever worn shoes that were just a half-size too small? Or a suitcoat that wasn’t quite right and pulled in the shoulders?

Oh yes. Now imagine being in an MBA program that just doesn’t quite fit —the culture doesn’t align with your values, or the career placement, approach towards teaching and pedagogy, or the student clubs are a swing and a miss for the experience you want to have. That would suck.

School fit is mutual: you’ve got to fit the school, and it’s got to fit you! Showing school fit is your key to an amazing MBA personal statement and career goal essay.

When you’re creating your business school application, you need to

• choose programs that will support you with your personal and professional goals, and
• show these schools that you’d be a stellar addition to the program and your future classmates.

Let’s talk about what “school fit” really means.

Prefer video? Watch this:

The word “fit” causes a lot of heartburn for MBA applicants because when schools say, “showing fit with our program is important,” candidates often mistake it to mean “showing you’re good enough .”

And remember, we’re not playing the good enough game here. You ARE good enough to get into business school .

But even if you put “good enough” aside, the concept of fit seems vague and unactionable.

So let me demystify it for you.

The admissions committee has a very short and precise list of questions about you that they’re contemplating as they evaluate whether their program is a fit for you.

1. Are you going to business school for the right reasons?

2. have you done your research, 3. will you leave the place better than you found it, 4. is this school your top choice.

That’s it. Plain and simple. Notice that these four questions are all about YOU.

Notice also how practical and commonsensical they are. They’re questions you need to ask YOURSELF first before you can even decide to apply to a school in the first place.

In other words, here’s the question to keep in mind:

“How do I SHOW school X that THEY’RE a fit for ME in my business school admission essay?”

Whereas  storytelling  is an art form, exhibiting MBA program fit is more like a science.

Let me iterate just once more: “fit” is really not the same thing as “qualified to attend our program.” That is a separate calculation.

Table of Contents

Calculating your mba odds and determining your school fit are two totally different things.

The first place most people’s minds go when they think about school fit is GMAT, GMAT GMAT. But the GMAT and GRE don’t play a role in school fit.

Each school WILL evaluate your GMAT or GRE score, your GPA, your resume (i.e. your accomplishments and career progression) and those will determine whether you’re qualified  to attend the school.

To understand how competitive you are from the standpoint of these stats, be sure to look at  school acceptance rates and the average class stats vis-à-vis the class profile links above and the rankings:

• Economist MBA Rankings
• Forbes MBA Rankings
• US News MBA Rankings
• Poets & Quants MBA Rankings
• Bloomberg MBA Rankings

(Sidebar — does it also strike you as odd that there are more than 6 different MBA school rankings? Do we really need that many? Try to keep in mind that the purpose of rankings is to sell subscriptions to the publisher’s service, not to actually help you get into b-school. So take them with a huge mound of salt.)

Or even better than consulting the MBA rankings, go get your personalized MBAmo MBA Calculator report . Just enter your GMAT, grades, and a little other data. And in 60 seconds you’ll get a 20-page readout on your MBA candidacy and fit with your favorite schools.”

MBA admissions calculator, MBAmo.

Get your customized school odds and strategy report & kick off your MBA application sprint!

Calculate your odds

Your stats do matter, but  fit  is an entirely different calculation. A candidate who is barely qualified can still get in if their fit with the school is strong. I could share dozens of case studies from my own client roster to prove this. People who were 10 years older than average. People with weak GMATs or GPAs. People with no community service or short careers to date.

It’s not the best MBA candidates that gain business school admission, it’s the best fit candidates

By some calculations, 70% of applicants  qualify .

Fit, therefore, will play a huge role in determining whether you’re actually admitted from the huge pool of qualified hopeful students.

Just like bathing suits (or those shoes and suitcoats I mentioned earlier),  MBA program fit is mutual. You fit the program and it fits you.

You’d never buy a bathing suit that doesn’t fit you, so why buy a $200,000 MBA that doesn’t?

Not everyone belongs at every school.

Although any MBA education is going to propel your career forward, school cultures, your fellow students, and the campus experience vary so widely that you’re unlikely to be truly happy at more than a few programs. Figuring out which ones are really for you is a part of the process.

Every year exceptionally qualified candidates get rejected because they don’t show MBA program fit. The most important thing you can do for your MBA applications is demonstrate fit .

So let’s dig in and talk about the first component of MBA program fit.

Step 1: Show the admissions committees you’re going to business school for the right reasons

There is really only one reason people go to business school: because they want more..

In fact, this is the only reason people do anything. Because they want more… more money, more stuff, more knowledge, more freedom, more happiness, more love, more sex, more joy, more power, more whatever. We all want certain things in life. That’s part of what defines us.

If you’re considering business school, it’s because you want more from your career. You want to do more of the stuff you love and less of the stuff you find boring. You want to have more impact at a higher level. You want more leadership experience. You want more authority, expertise, and regard. You want your career to matter more — to you and to the world. (We’re not your everyday MBA Admission Coches, but this is why we focus on MBAs at Career Protocol. Because we LOVE people who want that stuff.)

If this is the only reason people go to business school, then how could you fail to show that you’re getting an MBA for the right reasons?

People make two big mistakes in this regard.

MBA Application Mistake #1: People don’t do the work to figure out who they really are and what they really want.

Stanford gives you a great opportunity to do this in their application essay. “What matters most to you and why?” they ask.

Inherent in that question is an invitation to reveal who you truly are and what you truly value – your personal traits and personal experience, what makes you you. Remember, everyone wants more — in that way we’re all the same. Further, all MBA applicants want to make a bigger difference, achieve more impact, and help more people (including themselves and their loved ones) have better lives.

We’re all the same in that way, too. So keep this in mind:

What makes you unique isn’t what you want or even what you value, it’s the choices you’ve made in service of those values.

When it comes to any given pool of MBA applicants, one facet of diversity that stands out among the thousands of essays the admission committees read is the choices made. Some people took jobs in banking, others took jobs in nonprofits. Some people chose to mentor their peers, others chose to invest time in developing themselves further. Some stayed close to friends and family, some charted new courses in new geographies.

Who you are today is the reflection of all the choices, big and small, that you’ve made in your life, and the best way to launch your MBA application process is to explore, own, and celebrate those choices . In doing so, you’ll not only uncover your best stories for your MBA essays (more on how to craft winning MBA essays and write your Life Story ), you may also discover in a new and inspiring way the course you want the rest of your life to take. And please don’t write like these terrible MBA sample essays .

How to AVOID mistake #1: Construct clear and well-motivated career goals when you talk about why you want to go to b-school.

There is no substitute for deep self-awareness as the foundation of your MBA application process. This is why our application services begin with the You Discovery Process™. Taking the time to explore and honor your life choices will get you a long way in this direction. If you want to home in even further on your motivations…

Ask yourself some hard, deep questions, and answer them as honestly as you possibly can.

Here are some useful avenues of exploration to help you build a compelling essay:

• What are the core values you strive to uphold in your daily life?
• List 2-3 times in your life when it was very hard to live up them, but you did it anyway. What did you learn?
• List 2-3 times you failed to live up to those values. How did you change after those experiences?
• If you could be known for only one thing in your career so far (a value, a choice, an accomplishment, whatever), what would it be?
• What one thing must you tell the admissions committee about who you are as a person to feel like you have helped them make a fair and good decision about you?

Here are some more tips to build a strong future career goals, a solid long-term objective, and strong reasons why you need an MBA for your essays based on those insights from our Career Guru, Aziz

If you want to chat through these questions — or any other part of your MBA applications with a seasoned savvy MBA Admissions consultant Professional Development Coach — apply for a free MBA strategy session.

Now let’s look at one more way applicants go wrong in answer the why they want an MBA essay question?

The misconception about goals is that you have to have a certain goal or a certain subset of goals in order to be an attractive candidate for a given school. And this is just patently untrue. There is literally an infinite array of MBA application career goals that you could have that both necessitate an MBA and that make you an attractive candidate for business school. And which goals or set of goals is right for you depends on you. It depends on your background, your experiences, your ambitions and your vision for the future. It depends on where you want to have an impact. It depends on the kind of work that you want to be doing post MBA based on the experience that you've had pre-MBA. You’ll submit a unique MBA application that is tailored to you and your personal experiences. I can't tell you how many times I've had my clients go and speak to their friends who are alumni, their alumni friends tell them “You need to destroy this entire essay and you need to talk about wanting to have goals in finance.” or “You can't say that you want to go into consulting, everybody says they want to go into consulting.” or “You have to have an entrepreneurial goal or the school isn't going to accept you.”. The problem with taking advice in general from alumni is that they have a data set of one. They have their own application process and what they believe made them successful in getting into business school. It's only natural to think that whatever worked for you is definitely what's going to work for everyone else. But this is crazy and it's wrong because for the most part, there's a very good chance that those alumni got into school, not because of their essays or their goals, but in spite of them.

This was definitely the case in my case. When I look back on all the horrible mistakes I made in my MBA essays, I can't even believe how lucky I was to be admitted because frankly, I was admitted not because of my essays, but in spite of them. So, taking advice from anyone who has a single data point is always a risky proposition. And where I see this most going wrong – with alumni in particular – is advising you to have a certain set of MBA application goals that they think the school is interested in or that they themselves met success with. But that has nothing to do with you or your specific ambitions or your unique MBA application. And I'm picking on alumni here, but if you go to the internet, you're going to find a lot of misinformation about what goals you should and should not have when you apply to business school.

Mistake #2: People have the wrong expectations for what an MBA program can provide.

Yes, any MBA will help you get more from your career by helping you develop better professional knowledge, some technical knowledge and a whole slew of soft skills: communication skills, interpersonal skills, leadership skills, managerial skills, team management skills, and an international perspective. Read more about why you should get an MBA in this article.

But no MBA is a magic wand . It is not a substitute for hard work, self-awareness, questioning, networking, relationship building, appetite for learning, willingness to fail, or an  understanding of how the world really works .

Here’s an example of what I mean:

Venture Capital is a tiny, competitive niche industry relative to many other business positions. Very few people get the chance to work in Venture Capital and those who do check many boxes. They have a demonstrated track record of entrepreneurial thinking and acting, they have elite relationship building and management skills, they have a highly advanced financial analysis skillset, and they ALREADY have at least the start of a strong network in the field. They frequently have already held technical roles or a position as a management consultant, investment banker, private equity analyst, or serial entrepreneur.

If someone like me — an English teacher with a little Human Resources exposure and a professional network based entirely in South Korea at the time I applied to bschool — claimed I wanted an MBA so I could get my first post-MBA job in Venture Capital in Silicon Valley, that would be magic wand thinking.

The MBA cannot grant any possible career wish.

That doesn’t mean you can’t have absolutely anything you want in your career. It just means that no degree is going to magically make it happen for you. And schools know this.

If the school admitted me believing it could magically make me a Venture Capitalist, I would have ended up a very unsatisfied customer indeed. Nobody wants that, and that’s why your application MUST reflect an accurate understanding of what the MBA offers vis-à-vis what you need to fulfill your goals .

How to avoid mistake #2: Have credible goals that are achievable with your specific background and knowledge (and a little bit of an MBA goose).

Create a tactical plan to get to where you want to go. What this really boils down to is

• Share an inspiring Long-Term Vision, and
• Have a credible Medium-Term Strategy to get what you want (i.e. a plan for your internship and immediate post-MBA job). Understand what it actually takes to get one of those jobs, and make sure your post-MBA goal makes sense given your business experience and current position.

Do you want to work at an e-learning company after school? E-learning companies do not tend to recruit en masse on MBA campuses. So how will you build your own network in that industry, leveraging your and school resources to create such opportunities? And then, of course, what skills, learnings, and experiences do you need from the school to prepare yourself for your target roles?

Check out our Comprehensive MBA Career Report for much more insight into which companies recruit at which MBA programs.

Pro Tip: If what you REALLY want isn’t achievable immediately post MBA, make it your second step or longer-term goal.

(Entrepreneurship falls into this category for 95% or more of applicants.)

Finally, and crucially, you have to understand what your dream schools actually facilitate in terms of recruitment . Where do alumni of your favorite MBA universities actually go to work?

Want to work in Silicon Valley? Stanford and Haas can help you out a lot by providing direct interaction with companies just down the street. Columbia Business School and London Business School will struggle more since they’re geographically so much farther away. How will you compensate for that with your own efforts, knowledge, and multi-disciplinary creative approach to recruiting?

Step 2: Show schools you’ve really done your research

School research is so important that we’ve actually got multiple articles explaining how to approach it.

When you’re constructing your career goal essay, be sure to research all aspects of the school: the learning environment, key classes and professors, the alumni network, the experiences of classmates and current students. Business schools aren’t just teaching business. They’re creating a two-year 360 degree experience in the type of environment that fosters learning both in an out of the classroom. Be sure you get to know it well.

Here are some ways to do that:

• Figure out which MBA programs are best for your goals
• Show your target schools the love
• Visit campus when you can
• Research the learning experience
• Ask good questions of current students

And since things aren’t so normal lately, here’s how to network with schools during a pandemic.

Step 3: Show them you’ll leave the place better than you found it.

Showing you’re going to have a positive impact on your MBA community and classmates goes beyond what you write in your personal statement. Your MBA resume should show a track record of contributions to the communities you’ve been a part of. Your story essays should reflect the values of inclusivity and service, character, empathy and kindness.

But I talk a lot more about showing school’s you’re going to be a contributor to the campus community in this article about showing showing MBA Program Committees You’re Worth Investing In

Step 4: Show them they’re your first choice.

SHOW (don’t tell) schools they’re your Number 1 choice.

This last one is tricky, and it’s basically the sum of everything we’ve discussed so far. As I mentioned at the start, you’re asking a school to invest in you — they have, let’s say, 575 seats in their program, and you’re asking them to give you one.

Schools have legitimate concerns about yield due to the pressure of rankings.

In other words, the higher the percentage of admitted students who matriculate , the better it is for their ranking. Harvard Business school is king here, then Stanford Graduate School of Business. The rest trail by a wide margin. So programs want some assurance that their choice to invest in you (i.e. give you one of their coveted seats) is a good one.

The best way to show them that their investment in you is safe is to invest in them first.

Important sidebar here: Don’t lie . Please don’t write “Wharton / Harvard Business School / Columbia Business School / Chicago Booth is my first choice school because blablablabla.” It will seem disingenuous even if it’s true , because schools know that you are almost certainly applying to multiple schools. Talk is cheap anyway. Remember, MBA admission is not about pandering.

This is part of why Harvard Business School doesn’t have a formal personal statement essay question. They don’t put a strong emphasis on school fit until the interview because they know they’re your first choice, so they don’t even bother asking. They will, on the other hand, note if you have visited campus, visited their website (multiple times and for how long), and engaged with their media.

So if you want to seal the deal on showing a school that you’re worth investing in…

Take as many actions as you can (big and small) to get to know your target schools and their communities.

Information about your web activity is being recorded at all times. The technology to track your behavior on websites isn’t even that new, and you can bet at least some schools are tracking your activities on their site. So get over there!!

Visit your favorite schools’ sites on a regular basis, click around, read stuff. It’s part of research, but it’s also part of your investment in the program. You’re investing your time, after all, in getting to know them.

Go to local events in your area hosted by target schools and their alumni community.

Go to the  Forte Forum ,  QS MBA World Tour , the  Poets&Quants Centre Court Event , and/or  the MBA tour  in your area and rub elbows with adcom members. Ask good questions and make sure your attendance is registered (i.e. sign the sign-in sheet).

Once again: When it’s possible to do so, go to campus. Even if you do it in the summer when students are away, make sure your presence is registered .

Finally, if the school includes a “Creative Essay” option — you know, the videos, PowerPoints or other multimedia  that takes a lot more work and commitment —  do it if you can tell your best story through that medium. Engaging with this alternative option shows your commitment and investment. Use one of these  10 cool tools to create it .

If you do all these things, your Why MBA essay should knock their socks off, blow their minds, and make the angels sing.

Or at least, it will give the very best chance at MBA admission at your favorite schools.

If you’d like a partner for your MBA journey and a team of MBA Admissions Coaches who’ll help you find your authentic voice and shine in your MBA applications in the most inspiring way, that’s what we’re here for.

Let’s have a conversation!

Talk to us..

Angela Guido

Student of Human Nature| Founder and Chief Education Officer of Career Protocol

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2 MBA Admissions Essays That Worked

These outstanding MBA personal statements resulted in admissions offers.

2 MBA Essays That Worked

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MBA admissions officials say they prefer personal statements that convey personality and demonstrate grit.

There is no secret formula to writing a compelling personal statement for an MBA application, university admissions officials say.

The key, they say, is to write a statement that feels authentic and makes your case.

Bruce DelMonico, assistant dean for admissions at the Yale University School of Management , is wary of personal statements that tell dramatic stories and stretch the truth. He says he is not looking for students to have exotic experiences, but for evidence of resilience, introspection and initiative.

Yale's business school recruits students identified as unselfish leaders – those who strive to improve the circumstances of others and help themselves rather than those who exploit others for personal gain, DelMonico says.

"We are looking to bring in students who will be inclusive leaders and who will bring people together," DelMonico says.

William Rieth, former senior director with the Fox School of Business at Temple University , says applicants sometimes struggle to write a memorable personal statement, but being memorable is vital.

"Students need to remember their audience," he says. "Schools are reading thousands of essays."

He says a solid personal statement requires a "compelling story" and an honest writing voice. "It should reflect your personality and sound like you."

How to Write an MBA Application Essay: A Few Tips

MBA admissions experts say a business school application essay should offer a convincing argument about why a candidate belongs in an MBA program at that particular school.

Wayne Hutchison, managing director for the MBA program at Michigan State University’s Eli Broad College of Business , urges prospective MBA students to explain their reasons for applying to B-school and to describe whatever incidents spurred their interest in graduate business education.

"In addition, applicants should discuss the skills and abilities they have that will translate to academic and professional success," Hutchison wrote in an email, noting that failing to include this information can lead admissions officers to question an MBA hopeful's competitiveness.

Aaron Burch, who earned his MBA degree from the University of Texas—Austin's McCombs School of Business , says MBA essays should address the following questions:

• "What do you want to accomplish career-wise that either requires an MBA or will be accelerated by an MBA?"
• "Why is this the exact point in your career where an MBA would be most impactful?"
• "What about this particular school is especially important for your career plans?"
• "How will you contribute?"

Burch, owner of DiscoverContainers.com – a website that provides information about shipping container houses – suggests that MBA students convey that they are at a point in their careers where they can "pivot without being pigeonholed" while having meaningful accomplishments, including "real responsibility."

It's also essential for MBA candidates to showcase what they have to offer a B-school, Burch wrote in an email. "You want to demonstrate that you're not just a taker and you want to add to the prestige and reputation of the school, add to the experience your future classmates will have, etc."

MBA alumni say it's crucial for prospective MBA students to describe how they intend to use an MBA .

"Admissions officers will want to understand your vision behind why an MBA might help you, so it's incumbent upon you to articulate the plan you have for yourself, and how their institution is going to help your journey," MBA degree recipient Taylor Constantine – the partner channel lead with Rain, a financial services company – wrote in an email.

Margo Bell, senior assistant director of admissions with Pepperdine University's Graziadio Business School in California, notes that MBA essays are influential factors in the MBA admissions process. Application essays help B-school admissions committees gauge the compatibility of a prospective student with the culture and values of the institution.

"As applicants begin to write their MBA applicant essays, it’s important for prospective students to share who they are as an individual," Bell wrote in an email. "The essay allows MBA admission officers to get a better understanding of who you are, what you wish to accomplish and why you deserve to be accepted."

Michal Strahilevitz, associate professor of marketing with St. Mary's College of California , advises MBA applicants to view the application essay as an opportunity to provide context for deficits in their admissions profile. "For example, if your undergraduate grades were not great because you worked full time to pay for school, write about it," Strahilevitz explained in an email.

What to Keep in Mind About MBA Essay Prompts

MBA admissions consultants note that business schools often have distinctive essay prompts, so it's important for applicants to tailor their essay to every school where they apply.

"Each school asks a specific question in the essay, and one of the most important things you can do as an applicant is to answer that question – not the question you wished we asked or the one you want to answer," DelMonico wrote in an email. "The various elements of the application fit together, and we’re looking to get very specific pieces of information from the essay. So please follow the essay instructions you’re given and don’t feel as though you need to or should make the essay broader in scope."

Barbara Coward, founder of the MBA 360° Admissions Consulting firm based in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area, notes that the first step in the essay writing process should be meticulously reading the question prompt. Think about the question for a few days while going about routine tasks so that ideas can "marinate."

Coward says that once prospective students have decided what they'd like to write about, they should let the words flow without filtering them because too much self-editing at the beginning of the creative process can interfere with productivity. Revisions and tweaks can come after an applicant has fully expressed his or her ideas.

Admissions experts note that MBA hopefuls who are struggling to figure out how to describe themselves may want to ask friends and family for advice. Prospective MBA students can also gain self-awareness by keeping a diary or creating a storyboard of their life.

Mistakes to Avoid in MBA Admission Essays

Taking too long to express the main idea or central thesis of an essay is a no-no, Coward says. Applicants should directly respond to a question and ensure that their essay is easily understood by an admissions officer. "Keep in mind that somebody is not reading a novel," she says. "They're going to be glancing through."

Excessively verbose essays don't make a good impression, Coward adds. Applicants should respect word limits and be concise, because doing otherwise creates extra work for admissions officers under time pressure, she explains.

Two other errors to avoid in MBA essays, Coward says, are being monotonous or melodramatic . It's important to have an introductory sentence that strikes the right tone, she adds. "You're not trying to create drama, but you don't want to put the person to sleep either," Coward says.

Examples of Outstanding MBA Essays

Here are two MBA essays that made the cut. The first is from the Fox School of Business and the second is from Yale. These essays are annotated with comments that explain why the essays charmed admissions committees.

Searching for a business school? Get our complete rankings of Best Business Schools .

Tags: graduate schools , business school , MBAs , students

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Which program are you applying to?

Mba personal statement examples.

Get accepted to your top choice business school with your compelling essay.

MBA Personal Statement Sample Essays & Tips

Your academic record, GMAT scores, and GPA are important factors in the MBA application process. But, more than that, business schools ultimately care about who you are and whether you would be a good fit for their program. This is where your application essays come in. The goal here is to complete the picture that your scores and stats began sketching. Take your time when writing these essays. They will form the image the admissions committee will see before they meet you at your interview. Write, edit, and edit again. Be sure there are no spelling or grammatical errors in your essay. You want your portrait to be clean and clear. Once you are satisfied with your essay, ask a trusted friend, mentor, or admissions pro to read it. A fresh pair of eyes can often see things that you can’t.

7 tips for creating the best MBA essays

Here are some important things to remember when writing your MBA essays.

• Show who you are in a background essay Use this opportunity to reveal your values and personality, the obstacles you’ve overcome, and the seminal experiences that have shaped you into the person you are today. No two people have the same history. Use stories and examples to make your background bright and stand out to demonstrate what makes you special. Discuss how your history has brought you to this point. What is there in your background that compels you to pursue an MBA at this time?
• Show your direction in the goals essay Use this opportunity to show that you have clear direction and purpose based on experience and planning. Business school is not another opportunity to “find yourself.” Even if you have had one career path and will use your MBA to launch another career, this essay must describe the reasons behind your career-change, your new goals, and how the program will help you achieve them.
• Use your optional essay to explain negatives in your stats If your GPA was lower than you would have liked early in your undergraduate education, use your essay to show how you learned from this experience. Everyone makes mistakes. How you deal with your mistakes shows a lot to the admissions committee – determination, discipline, success, resilience, and breadth of experience are qualities that will serve you well in your MBA studies and later in life. Be sure that you explain your negatives and don’t try to justify them. Show that you understand the mistake you made, learned from it and changed as a result of processing the experience. That response shows maturity. Justifying – instead of learning or changing – is a sign of immaturity. MBA programs want mature adults. Almost all of them have made mistakes.
• Say what you mean, and mean what you say Admissions committees read thousands of essays during each admissions round. A concise, well thought-out essay will have them reading yours to the end.  You need examples and stories to support your statements and make your essay interesting and readable. Each of these needs to be to the point. These professionals are trained to spot an essay that is full of fluff and without substance.Avoid rambling and the use of keywords that you think the reader wants to see. A non-substantive essay will lead the reader to conclude that you, too, are without substance.
• Find your passion This relates to tip #4 above. You want to grab the reader right away and create an essay that will keep their attention to the very end – and leave them wanting to meet you and get to know you even better. In other words, offer you a coveted interview! Find a theme, and weave it throughout your essay. If you can identify a passion that you had from an early age and follow it through the different stages of your life, you will have an interesting, readable essay. Connect your passion to your childhood and you professional and extracurricular experiences and accomplishments. Demonstrate how your passion will influence your future career and serve the community at the school you want to attend.
• Focus on your professional experience and achievements Not everyone has a passion that they have carried with them throughout their life. However, since you are planning on attending an MBA program, you must have had professional and personal achievements. Highlight your professional skills and successes, as well as personal accomplishments. Show how these experiences and achievements have brought you to this point, and how they have influenced your long-term plans and reasons for pursuing an MBA.
• Highlight your experience in your EMBA essay An applicant to an Executive MBA program is an executive or manager currently in the workforce, usually with at least eight years of business experience. As an EMBA student you will be expected to excel in your coursework while continuing to hold down your full-time job. You must demonstrate significant leadership, impact, potential, and the legitimate need for the degree to be accepted. Highlight your current responsibilities and recent achievements, as well as your skill sets. Discuss your goals and how an EMBA will help you reach them. Include how you will positively impact the community at the program you are applying to.

Read MBA Personal Statement Examples

Now that you have the tools to write your compelling essay, check out our sample MBA application essays to see what you will be able to accomplish.

GET ALL THE SAMPLE ESSAYS IN ONE CONVENIENT PDF!

BONUS: You'll also receive a free copy of our popular guide,  5 Fatal Flaws To Avoid in Your MBA Applications Essays.

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A STRONG BUSINESS SCHOOL APPLICATION ESSAY WILL MAKE YOU STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD

You want to get into a top business school, but you need to stand out from the tens of thousands of other impressive applicants. According to US News, the average top 20 b-school acceptance rate is 12.37%, but our MBA clients enjoy an 84% ACCEPTANCE RATE . How can you separate yourself from the competition successfully? By crafting an excellent application essay.

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How to write powerful MBA essays that actually work

Candidates often wonder what it takes to write strong MBA essays that work. It can be a scary and confusing process. Let’s try to figure out a step-by-step process to write a great MBA essay.

For many of us, writing an essay brings back memories of a hot, stuffy classroom on a sleepy summer afternoon, a strict English teacher keeping watch with hawk-like eyes, a mostly blank sheet of paper with the words “My Best Friend” written on top.

And in the middle of it all, you looking desperately at your friend seated next to you, hoping for some inspiration to strike. Or at the very least, for the school bell to strike, lest the English teacher see your as-yet blank sheet of paper and strike first.

In other words, you think of essays as boring. Perhaps even traumatizing, depending on how strict your English teacher was, and how inspiring your best friend was.

We’re here to tell you that that’s not what an essay should be.

An essay should be educating, entertaining, inspiring, thrilling, humorous, and heartbreaking.

Basically, anything but boring.

So if you’re writing boring essays, or if you think essays are boring, you’re doing them wrong.

What is the purpose of writing an MBA essay?

Everybody has seen The Wolf of Wall Street . Remember that famous scene where Leonardo di Caprio pulls out a pen from his coat pocket and tries to sell it to a spellbound, captivated audience hanging on to every word of his?

That’s how an essay should be.

Instead of the pen, you’re trying to sell your story. Your audience is the MBA admissions committee of your dream B-school, and at stake is your MBA dream.

But first, a word of caution – channelling your inner wolf of Wall Street does not mean that you throw form and formality to the wind. This is a B-school, and you’re still expected to wear a suit and tie.

An essay could be like a piece of classical music with multiple layers that merge seeamlessly. Or it could be like hip-hop with a catchy vibe and an impactful message.

But if you can demonstrate that you possess an aesthetic palette eclectic enough to accommodate both Beethoven and Busta Rhymes, that is impressive.

If however, you’re more of a Bollywood and Bhangra person with no appreciation or flair for classical music or hip-hop, you can still write a rocking MBA essay.

The point being, there’s no formula to create successful MBA essays. But you can still improve your odds of creating an essay that you’re proud of, if you follow these simple tips.

Here are 6 steps to writing an impressive MBA essay.

• Start early
• Understand the MBA essay prompts
• Demonstrate your fit with the MBA program
• Stick to the word count
• Add a little X factor to it
• Get someone to look over your essay

Let’s delve into each of them to understand the finer nuances.

How to write powerful MBA essays

1. start early.

Writing takes time. A slow cooked dish brings out the flavors of the food being cooked by allowing the spices to percolate, the aromas to emerge, and the textures to develop.

It’s the same with writing.

You need to let the thoughts in your head marinate on low simmer for days for them to develop into well-formed sentences that will delight your reader. Even if you think you’ve got it all sorted out in your head, putting it on paper is a different challenge altogether.

You’ll need a few days of contemplation to come up with points you want to put in. Jot these down as they strike you. Next, brainstorm with friends, foes, family – anyone willing to provide feedback, and whose judgement you trust.

Next, organize your ideas in a structured framework. What this means, in plain English, is that you need to be able to weave your ideas into a story your readers would love.

No, you don’t need a degree in creative writing to be able to do that.

It’s actually pretty simple. Every story has 3 parts – a beginning, a middle, and an end. In theater and film-making jargon, this is called the 3-act structure.

Act 1 is the set-up.

This is where we get to meet the protagonist (you!), and what is called the “inciting incident”, which is something that incites our protagonist into action. ( the need to do an MBA/ get into your dream B-school)

At this point, the stage is set for an exciting journey. The reader is now expecting an adventure of Tolkien-esque proportions. ( we’re kidding, this is an MBA application, not the Lord of the Rings)

Act 2 is the conflict

This is where our protagonist runs into challenges and obstacles. Their attempt to overcome these is the beating heart of the story. It’s the action that the reader started reading the story for, in the first place.

In your MBA essay, this is where you explain why you want to do an MBA, and why specifically from the B-school you are applying to, and how this will help you in achieving your career goals.

Act 3 is the resolution

This is the happy ending of the story. This is where you tie all the lose ends together, and the reader realizes that the protagonist has been transformed by the quest.

Remember that the journey from act 1 to act 3 is not any series of random actions strung together – it needs to be transformative. At the end of the story both the protagonist and the reader of the story get a sense of a change that has happened.

In the case of MBA essay, what this means is that your essay should convey a clear sense of how the MBA (and only this particular MBA from this particular school) will help you overcome the challenges you foresee in your career, and will thus be transformative.

Also keep in mind, that while it is important for your essay to be engaging, this does not mean by any stretch of imagination, that you invent incidents merely to spice things up. Always state facts and facts only.

Remember, facts are stranger than fiction, and the simplest stories are the most beautiful The novelist John Updike once said that the purpose of art is to give the mundane its beautiful due.

Any story can be made beautiful and exciting with the 3-step act. The journey of the caterpillar from egg to butterfly is a classic 3-step act.

There is no need to go chasing fantastic beasts and inventing imaginary islands; all the magic ingredients you need to write that rockstar MBA essay are already within you in the form of your own unique and wonderful life journey. Let the world hear it.

In the interest of time, some applicants may be tempted to use ChatGPT to write their MBA essays. Find out what should and shouldn’t be done if you are planning to use it, here .

2. Understand the MBA essay prompts

Most things in life come with user manuals. It’s the same with B-school essays.

Your school will usually provide instructions of what kind of essays they want, and what they are looking for in an essay. Make sure you follow these instructions to a T.

For instance, some B-schools might want one long essay, while others might want two to three shorter essays.

Often the essay would come with a question, or an essay statement, such as “state your short-term and long-term career goals, or “why do you want to pursue an MBA at this particular stage in your career”, and so on.

Pay close attention to what is being asked as what you write will depend on the question.

Unfortunately, most of us have a habit of tossing the user manual into trash unopened, and then call customer care when we can’t figure out how to operate the washing machine. Let this not be the case with your MBA essay.

Here’s an introduction to the most commonly used MBA essay questions

Why MBA now? MBA Essay question: Why this school? Long-term and short-term career goals essay Leadership in MBA essays Optional MBA essays – Career failure essay – career break , education gap, low GPA or any other aspects.

3. Demonstrate your fit with the MBA program

This is an exercise you need to perform as much for your own benefit, as for the admission committee’s. First and foremost, convince yourself that the particular MBA program is exactly what you need to meet your career goals.

Because MBAs are expensive, and confirmation bias is real.

Just because someone put it into our heads when we were 16 that xyz is a great B-school, it is entirely possible that we will psych ourselves into believing that this school is the perfect fit for us, even if it is not.

Then, at the other end of the spectrum are the cases where we just want to get into any B-school at all, and never really give a good thought into why we want to do an MBA.

If you’ve got USD 150,000 lying around the house, and all you want is to make more money, you’d be better off opening a post office savings account and living off the 7.5% interest you get on it.

An MBA is a different beast. It’ll take from you not just your money, but also two years off the prime of your life, a lot of energy (read pulling off all-nighters trying to crack case studies and making presentations), and time spent away from your loved ones.

If you’re going to be investing all this into an MBA, you need to be very sure of two things – why you want to do an MBA, and why you want to do it from the particular school you are applying to.

Once you have it all figured out, put it down in your MBA application. Remember, if you’re not convinced yourself, you will most certainly not be able to convince the admissions committee either.

Our MBA MAP process is a helpful tool used by many applicants to select the right business schools.

Read this: – How to write business school specific MBA essays – How to evaluate ‘Fit’ with MBA program

4. Stick to the word count

There’s an old bit of Jewish wisdom which says that a proverb has 3 characteristics – few words, good sense, and a fine image.

While the adage may be about proverbs, it is the hallmark of all good writing.

There’s a reason people remember proverbs but forget stories. Proverbs speak to us less with words, and more with sense and images.

Word counts exist for a reason. One of which, of course, is that admissions committees have to wade through a ton of applications, and their time is limited.

But, equally importantly, a word count tests your ability to communicate ideas effectively. If you can’t get your message across in a 1000 words, you definitely will not get it across in 10,000.

And a good manager is nothing if not a good communicator. So take the word count of your essay as another test that you must pass on your way to your dream B-school.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that you obsessively start counting words after every sentence you type. A margin of (+/-) 5% to 10% is acceptable in most cases.

But even if the b-school’s online application form does not enforce a hard cut-off, we’d recommend erring on the conservative side and staying below the word count.

Try to fit in all you need to say within this. You really don’t need anything more than that to tell your story. You’re writing an essay, not an autobiography.

Oscar Wilde famously said that brevity is the soul of wit, and we have since come to accept that brevity is pretty much the soul of most forms of communication, MBA essays included. Be frugal with your words and fathomless in your meaning.

Read: How important is the word count for MBA essays

5. Add a little X factor to it

This one is a little difficult to pin down, since what this X factor means will differ from one candidate to another.

That little magic dust that you sprinkle on your application to make it stand out from the crowd.

This become more important when you’re fighting in very competitive applicant pools and your resume doesn’t have much that automatically grabs the admission officer’s attention.

Here are some examples of what you can look at.

A small aspect of your life-story that you may have overlooked could provide that X factor that converts a regular story into a memorable masterpiece.

Or it could be related to your extracurricular activities where you achieved or experienced something remarkable.

Or it could be your unique writing style, or the way you use analogies to bring your ideas to life.

With the right, structured introspection, you’ll find that there are several avenues to highlight that makes the essays unmistakably reflect the real you.

This is one of the reasons we strongly discourage MBA applicants from using sample MBA essays that worked for others.

At first glance, they may look impressive to a new applicant, but they weren’t designed for recycling.

Using sample MBA essays will kill the uniqueness of your essays and consequently the crucial X factor.

Read why sample MBA essays don’t work .

Before we share our 6th and final tip, let’s first delve a little into the reasons we kept it for the end.

Despite their best efforts, even the strongest applicants tend to make mistakes in their application. We invited a special guest from a top school to list them down.

Top 5 mistakes to avoid while writing MBA essays

By rebecca loades, director, career accelerator programs, esmt berlin.

Unfortunately, the following 5 mistakes are all too common:

• Not being authentic . No matter how qualified you may be on paper, authenticity counts. The biggest mistake we see is when applicants tell us what they think we want to hear, rather than showing us who they actually are.
• Not answering the question or going beyond the word count . There’s a reason we ask the questions we do and limit the word count. Ignoring the prompt makes you stand out for the wrong reasons
• Not trying . You might have stellar credentials and a super high test score but that doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed a place. Being successful in an MBA program requires more than pure academics. The essays are where you can help us see beyond your CV so that we get a sense of you, the unique perspective you will bring, and what you want to achieve.
• Spelling and grammar errors . Spellcheck is there for a reason, use it! Ditto for making sure that you’ve spelled the school’s name properly and/or are calling us by our name vs the last business school you applied to.

  With that context, it becomes apparent why this final tip is so important.  

6. Get someone to look over your essay

Once you’re done writing, take a break and get some one you trust to have a look at your essay.

Having a fresh set of eyes go over your writing is always helpful. This is the reason why editors even exist.

Even the most gifted writers – the madcap literary geniuses and the Nobel Prize winners – relied on editors to polish their rough drafts into the enduring literary classics we know them as today.

The thing with writing is that when you’ve been living with the ideas in your head for so long, and then you begin the long, slow, painful process of putting those ideas on paper, you become just too familiar with them to be your own critic.

Those words have been a part of you for so long, you can no longer tell whether they’re good or bad.

It’s like how when we stare at a screen too long without blinking we begin to see the fine pixels and dots that make up the picture, but lose sight of the picture itself?

That sort of a thing.

A good editor can make that draft shine like a lapidary polishes a rough diamond to brilliance.

A “good editor” does not mean you need to get in touch with the New York Times to ask if they can loan out their literary editor for a day.

Here’s a candidate who got a USA MBA admit despite a big mistake in application .

A friend or a mentor with the experience and knowledge of the admissions process can help.

If you don’t have anyone like that in your life, and if all this sounds a little overwhelming, consider hiring a good MBA application consultant .

MBA Crystal Ball has highly experienced admission consultants who can help you polish your application. Read more about our MBA essay editing services .

Drop us an email when you’re ready: info [at] mbacrystalball [dot] com

That’s all folks. Make sure you follow these steps, and we’re confident that you will be able to write an amazing MBA essay that with the potential to impress the admissions committee and to get you that elite MBA seat that could change your life.   Also read: – Top MBA application tips – Sample Harvard Stanford MBA essays using ChatGPT

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How to Write a Killer MBA Essay

Introduction.

Writing a great MBA essay is a crucial component of applying to business school . According to Lisa Koengeter , the Director of Admissions at Booth School of Business , your essay provides them with “a better understanding of you, your self-assessment and your aspirations.” 

This article will outline what MBA admissions committees look for in your essays, show you how to write a killer MBA essay, and tell you what mistakes to avoid.

Types of MBA Essays

There are a few different types of MBA essay questions you will answer as part of your MBA application. The type of essay can be determined through the keywords used in the essay question. Each type of essay will have its own length requirements, depending on the business school.

This type of essay asks you to detail your personal and professional goals and how attending business school will help you achieve them. An essay question that asks about your aspirations or what you hope to gain from an MBA program is classified as a goal essay.

For example, Wharton is one of many schools that ask for a goal essay from applicants using the question: “What do you hope to gain professionally from the Wharton MBA?” Columbia , NYU Stern , Darden , Dartmouth Tuck , and McCombs are some of the many other schools that ask about your goals.

Self-Reflection

A self-reflection essay is an opportunity for you to showcase the values and characteristics that make up your personal identity. It also requires you to discuss how you handled a failure at some point in your life or how you would approach an ethical dilemma.

Yale School of Management is one business school that uses self-reflection questions in its MBA essays . They want to know what the biggest commitment you have ever made is, including why you chose it and how you went about making it. 

Answering this question will require you to do some deep reflection in order to answer it thoroughly. 

Contribution

The objective of this type of essay is to show an admissions committee how you will add value and contribute to their MBA program. 

Booth School of Business poses this question: “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.” 

Booth clearly wants you to elaborate on who you are, what you value, and how you live those values in your everyday life.

Some business schools want to know about the impact you will have on their program and pose a question that asks you to describe a time when you demonstrated leadership. This will involve discussing why you took on the leadership role in your chosen situation and your leadership impact.

Darden School of Business poses essay questions designed to gauge your leadership capabilities and the impact you’ll have on the program. As Dean of Admissions Dawna Clarke states, they are interested in “cultivating high impact leaders.” 

It’s no surprise that one of their essay questions from a recent application cycle was, “Darden strives to identify and cultivate responsible leaders who follow their purpose. Please provide an example of a situation in which you have made a meaningful impact.”

Instead of writing a traditional essay, some business schools ask you to submit a video essay. The types of questions asked for a video essay can range from a short introduction to longer, multi-component questions.

Kellogg is one business school that uses video essays . They will ask you three questions. First up is an introduction, and the second is about your career goals and how Kellogg will help get you there. 

The third question varies annually and is generally more randomized, so you and all the other applicants won’t necessarily respond to the same question. 

How to Write a Great Business School Essay

Successfully writing business school essays is tricky. Many factors go into constructing a successful one. However, the top tips we’ve provided below outline how to write an MBA application essay that stands out from the crowd. 

Pay Attention to Your Essay Structure

Blair Mannix , the Admissions Director at Wharton, noticed successful essays all had the same structure: the setup, the pivot point, and the future. 

The setup is the opening of your essay, where you tell the admissions committee about who you are, what you do, and what you have learned so far. 

The pivot point is where you shift from discussing what you already know and do to talking about what you would like to learn and how that will help you succeed. Mannix also describes this as a lightbulb moment, where something clicks, and you realize that if you had more education in one or two areas, you would be better at your job. 

The final section of your essay is your opportunity to describe how gaining knowledge and skills in the area(s) you identified in the pivot point will help your career and why that specific MBA program will make this possible.

For essays that ask you to describe how you will contribute to the institution’s MBA community, Mannix states successful essays are personal, set up as a story, and show how your experiences resonate with the community.

Consider the Tone You Use While Writing Your Essay

It’s important to be genuine in your essay. Admissions committees want to know about you as a person and know if you’re being insincere or simply writing what you think they want to hear. 

As Laurel Grodman from Yale School of Management states, your essay is an “opportunity to speak in your own voice about something meaningful and distinctive in your life.” Don’t waste this opportunity by writing about something you think will make you look better. 

Write something that actually matters to you.

Authenticity is another key element to incorporate in your essay. Clarke recommends integrating aspects of your personality into your essay. For example, she suggests showcasing your creativity, humor, or any other attributes you possess. This allows admission committees to get to know you even better.

The Best MBA Essays Are School-Specific 

At first, this seems like an obvious one; of course, writing a business school essay means writing about the business school itself. However, this is a great opportunity to show off your research and explain why you specifically want to attend this institution. 

Have you looked into the school’s curriculum? Have you found which extracurricular opportunities you want to pursue if you are admitted? Are there any research centers that you want to become involved in? 

Show how this school is the ideal stepping stone to help you achieve your future ambitions. The University of Cambridge Judge Business School provides two MBA application essay examples that highlight the importance of this: 

Example 1 - “The programme will equip me with an entrepreneurial toolkit, allowing me to efficiently evaluate and capitalise on future business opportunities, further bolstering my credibility with future stakeholders.”

Example 2 - “Upon completion of the MBA programme at Cambridge Judge Business School I want to be a decisive and successful business professional.”

The first example is far more compelling; it explains what the student will gain from the program and how they will use it to achieve future success. 

Pick an Event or Situation That Matters to You

When you select your topic to write about in your MBA essay, you need to make sure it is something that had a significant impact on your life and resonates with you personally. This will help ensure your authenticity shows through.

Kellogg Director of Admissions Jennifer Hayes , says that “the best essays [she has] read have heart, are not over-edited, and let the applicant’s personality emerge.” This is best done when you do not force yourself to write something you think admissions directors want to read, but rather tell an organic story that carries significant personal meaning.

The Importance of Storytelling in MBA Essays

Business school admissions officers want to see how you approach traits like leadership and commitment in your MBA application essay. Yet, if you describe an experience and don’t reflect upon it, you will not highlight your mindset, dedication, and motivation. 

The best writers outline the traits that business schools want to see by telling personal stories and anecdotes. But how can you do that? It’s simple — show how your experiences impacted you. Don’t just tell us about it. 

Indeed, to use the idea of commitment as an example, Yale’s admissions committee “cares less about the commitment you choose and more about the behaviors surrounding the commitment.” They want to “come away learning something new about you as a person that helps us understand your values and motivations.”

Illustrating how your experiences affect your values and motivations is difficult; this process requires a lot of introspection and self-reflection. The trick is to use plenty of real-life examples and explain how they embody your values. 

One way to successfully do this is to use the STAR technique . The STAR technique is split into four distinct steps: 

• Situation - Describe the situation and when it took place.
• Task - Explain the task and what was the goal.
• Action - Provide details about the action you took to attain this.
• Result - Conclude with the result of your action.

Using the four steps outlined above, you can create concise, compelling answers to your essay prompts. Let’s use one of the Berkeley Haas essay prompts as an example for an MBA essay outline:

What makes you feel alive when you are doing it, and why? (300 words maximum) . 

We can split this prompt into two sections: 

• Describe an activity, hobby, or anything that makes you “feel alive” when you do it. 
• Explain why you find so much enjoyment in this one thing. 

Storytelling is key here, and the STAR technique can help you break down exactly what you want to say. Remember, it is important to reflect upon your experiences and, in this case, show why you enjoy something. 

If you manage to do this in your essays and show how you achieved results along the way, you will submit a strong MBA application essay. 

Plagiarizing Your MBA Essay 

Plagiarism is a big deal. 

Even if a student doesn’t intend to plagiarize someone’s work, colleges can and will detect it. If colleges detect plagiarism, they will likely reject the application outright; UCLA’s Anderson School of Management rejected 52 MBA hopefuls for application plagiarism. 

Applicants can easily and accidentally plagiarize someone else’s work by following MBA essay examples too closely. Essay examples are useful, as they can inspire you and give you an idea of how you can reflect upon your experiences. However, someone has written that example about their own experience in their own words, and you can’t copy it. 

If you are worried about plagiarism, the simple fix is to be original. After all, admissions committees want to hear about your experiences, motivations, and opinions. 

Authenticity is also an extremely important part of writing well; you will come across as more genuine writing about your genuine thoughts and experiences. If you want to check your work, you can use reliable and low-cost plagiarism checker tools like PrePostSEO and Copyscape .  

MBA Essay Examples

US News wrote an article on what makes for a successful MBA essay. They provided the following MBA entrance essay sample essays written by applicants recently admitted into highly reputable business schools.

This sample was written for Fox School of Business at Temple University .

This essay was well-received by the admissions committee because it was written clearly and concisely, free of grammatical errors, and told a story. The candidate showed their personality and explained why a Fox MBA would help them achieve their career goals. 

This particular candidate was honest in their essay about their weaknesses and professional growth, which is generally well-received by admissions committees. The candidate detailed the initiative they had taken in learning about the MBA program at Fox and why they decided to apply.

This next successful essay sample was written for the Yale School of Management.

Similar to the previous example, this essay told a compelling story through a clear narrative. This particular essay began with an anecdote that demonstrated the candidate’s work ethic, initiative, leadership, and resourcefulness.

This show-don’t-tell essay displayed what was important to the applicant and offered the admission committee insight into their personality and values. It also provided as much detail as was possible, given the 500-word limit.

Don’t Rely Too Much on MBA Essay Examples 

While MBA essay examples are valuable tools to see what got applicants into business school, they all have one problem: They are not yours. Other peoples’ essay examples don’t focus on your achievements, values, motivations, or experiences. 

In their essays, originality and authenticity are two critical themes that business schools look for because your life is unique. Remember, MBA essay writing is all about getting to know you , and your essays should truly reflect who you are as a person. 

MBA essay examples are useful. They can provide you inspiration, an idea of what can work, and outline how to discuss your own experiences. However, you need to draw a line in the sand and write your own essay at some point. 

People are admitted to particular schools for a wide variety of reasons. While their essays are one of those reasons, what works for one person might not work for you. Try not to overthink it — write about your experiences, background, and, most importantly, opinion. 

Mistakes to Avoid While Writing Your MBA Essay

In addition to following the steps for writing a great MBA essay outlined above, there are also some common mistakes you’ll want to avoid while writing your essay. These mistakes are listed below, along with solutions to fix them.

Submitting an Overly Complex Essay

Admissions committees don’t want to know how many buzzwords and how much industry-related jargon you know. They’re looking to find out about you as a person, not solely as a business person. 

Committees may become frustrated if they have to decipher what you’ve written in your overly complicated essay, especially since your application isn’t the only one that needs reviewing.

The fix : Use your own words and write as if you were talking professionally to a coworker. That way, your essay will sound more straightforward and personal and allow you to make a better connection with your reader.

Not Reading the Essay Question Closely or Misunderstanding the Question

You need to know how to answer MBA essay questions. Misreading or misunderstanding the question will lead you to write an essay that completely misses what the admissions committee wants to learn about you. 

This can lead to your application being discarded.

The fix : Find the keyword(s) in the question first. This will provide you with what the admission committee hopes to learn about you in the essay. 

In the Types of MBA Essays section above, identifying terms such as “contribute,” “gain,” and “lead” shows what the admissions committee is looking for you to answer. It is also a good idea to seek clarification if you find the question confusing. 

Restating Your Resume or Letters of Recommendation

Admission committees don’t want your essay to be a restatement of what’s already outlined in your business school resume and letters of recommendation . Your MBA essay should be unique and should tell a story that can’t be found elsewhere in your application.

The fix : Take some time to think about what you want to write about that answers the essay question and isn’t detailed anywhere else in your application. But suppose the moment or experience you want to write about is already included. 

In that case, you could instead focus on a particular project and describe some of the challenges you encountered, how you overcame them, the project’s outcome, and what you learned from the experience. 

Starting Your MBA Essay Close to the Deadline 

Starting too close to the deadline means you won’t have enough time to put together a clear, concise, and expertly written narrative. If you’re rushed, you’re more likely to make simple mistakes.

The fix : Start planning your essay(s) as soon as the essay questions are made available. Take time to create an outline for each essay so you have a solid plan for when you start to write your draft. 

By starting well ahead of the application deadline, you’ll give yourself plenty of time to write and revise without being crunched for time and stressed.

Giving Half-Baked Reasons for Attending Business School  

Business school admissions committees use your essays to gauge your interest in their program and institution. So, if you are vague about your career plans and why you should get an MBA at a specific school, take the time to outline them. 

Admissions officers want to see applicants who demonstrate clear and well-defined goals. So, do your college research and explain why you want to attend their program. 

1. How Long Should My MBA Application Essay Be?

The length of your MBA essay will depend on the specific school; some schools allow up to 500 words, while others want a very short and to-the-point response of 150 words. 

The length set out by the MBA program you’re applying to is an important consideration, and it is not a good idea to go over the word limit. Admissions committees want to see that you can follow instructions and are capable of writing succinctly. It will not reflect well on you to go over the allowed word count.

2. Is the MBA Essay Less Important Than My GPA and GMAT Score?

No, your MBA essay is at least equally as important as your GPA and GMAT score . While your GPA and GMAT scores are good indicators of your academic abilities, the MBA essay is the admission committee’s first opportunity to get to know you personally. 

This is also the first impression you will make on the committee, so it’s imperative that you write a strong and compelling essay. Most business schools use a holistic approach to assessing applications, and your response to the essay question can determine whether you are a good fit for their program.

3. Is There an MBA Essay Guide for Reapplicants?

Many schools will require or suggest that reapplicants submit an additional essay. 

This will vary by school, and it is important to check with each school’s website for the exact details of what’s expected of reapplicants. If it’s optional, it is a good idea to submit one because it allows you to explain how you’ve grown personally and professionally since your previous application. 

4. Can I Use the Same Business School Essay if I’m Reapplying?

It’s unlikely you’ll be successful using the same essay since your response could have been the reason you were rejected the first time around. 

It’s best to consult with an MBA admissions expert or mentor to find out where you went wrong and what you can do to make your reapplication essay strong and stand out in the best way possible.

5. How Do I Edit My MBA Essay Draft to Make It Better?

First of all, make sure there are no errors with your spelling, grammar, and syntax. Business schools want students with superb communication skills, and having basic errors in your MBA essay does not demonstrate that you have strong communication skills. 

Then, you should go through the common mistakes outlined above and make sure those are not present in your essay; if they are, fix them. Seeking a second opinion from a friend, mentor, colleague, or MBA essay editing expert will also help locate errors or improvement areas.

6. How Can I Ensure My Business School Essay Stands Out?

Whether you are faced with the Wharton MBA essays , Harvard Business School essay , or Booth MBA essays , to name a few, there are a few things you can do to make your essay stand out. 

The event or experience you choose to write about should be something you are able to write about in a compelling narrative. It should also be something you can write about with passion, which will allow the admission committee to see your genuine and authentic voice. 

Your strengths should be woven in with the story you’re telling. These things will make your essay stand out to the admission committee and help them remember you.

Unlock Your Future with the Perfect Business School Essay

Knowing how to write a great MBA essay can be a challenging component of the business school application process. 

But, if you know where to start, make an outline for each essay, and get expert assistance, the process becomes significantly more manageable. Following these steps will help you write a killer MBA essay.

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20 Great MBA Application Essay Samples (With Links)

Want to ace your MBA application? A stellar essay can be your golden ticket.

With elite business schools like Harvard and Stanford boasting acceptance rates as low as 10% and 6% respectively, every aspect of your application counts. While GPA and GMAT scores matter, your essay can be a game-changer. Recognizing its weight, we’ve gathered top-notch MBA essay samples, endorsed by admission committees from premier institutions. Dive in and let’s craft that standout application!

What is an MBA Application Essay?

An MBA application essay is a detailed write-up about your personal and professional goals and aspirations. It also explains how the MBA program will help you attain your objectives for the future. Your essay is your one shot to convince the admission committee to consider you for the initial interview.

What Admission Committee Look for in an MBA Essay?

• Academic ability
• Impressive work experience
• Career Course
• Authenticity of goals
• Competencies, leadership , dedication, challenges, and growth
• The right reason for pursuing an MBA
• Your compatibility with the culture in which the program is being offered

If you want to learn more, here is the complete guide on how admission committees process MBA applications.

20 Great MBA Applications Essays Samples

Now you have known that what makes a great MBA admission essay, the next step is to write one for yourself. Before writing, check out this list of expert-vetted MBA application essays that secured admissions to top-rated business schools in the world. Admission consultants have shared these samples and they can be helpful if you read and analyze them carefully. If you’re completely unsure about how to get started, there are also custom essay writing services that can help you structure your essay with the help of professional editors.

Sample 1: Leadership-focused MBA application essay

This sample is particularly focused on leadership traits. If your essay is about explaining your leadership quality experience, this sample is right up your alley. The best thing about the essay is that it is written in a simple, engaging, and humorous style. It defines a great experience in a very conversational style.

Sample 2: Self-focused MBA application essay 

If you are asked to write about your strengths, weaknesses, aims, and goals in your application essay, this sample will help you. The applicant who wrote this got accepted to the INSEAD business school. It doesn’t merely describe her strengths and weaknesses, but it presents a complete picture of herself as a person. It highlighted the events and incidents that shaped her personality.

Sample 3: Life-hardships-focused MBA application essay

If you want to explain your life’s hardships and the events that turned you into an ambitious person, this sample is for you. In this application essay, the candidate has defined three phases of his life and how he survived through each adversity. He beautifully explained why the MBA program is important to his future.

Sample 4: Continuous growth and learning-focused MBA application essay

This essay was submitted to Harvard Business School. The best thing about this piece is that the writer has explained her learning and professional development journey in a very sequential and engaging manner, which is truly admirable. A useful thing to remember about the MBA essays included in this list is that you can merge them into a single printable and perfectly formatted file with Sodapdf or another PDF editor. Having all of them stored in a single PDF is going to be quite helpful when it’s time to write your piece. But guess what? There are more examples to explore below, so let’s keep going…

Sample 5: Best MBA application essay for low scorers

Have a low GPA? What would you write about academics in an MBA essay to convince the admission committee? Do not overthink! MBA essay is not all about high achievements and sterling background. It is also an opportunity to atone for your past mistakes. This MBA essay was written by a student who obtained very low academic grades, yet got admitted to her desired business school. Her turning point? A powerful application essay.

Sample 6: A guitarist’s application essay for the MBA program

Suppose you are ambitious in a skill or profession that has nothing to do with the MBA program, yet you need the degree for certain reasons. How would you showcase that irrelevant skill in your MBA application essay? This sample essay will show how you how. A guitarist who got selected for the MBA program wrote this one. The applicant has intelligently defined his passion for guitar as a way of developing discipline, determination, leadership, and success. He explained how his passion affected his academics and how the guitar helped him cope with the challenges.

Sample 7: An engineer’s essay for MBA application

If you come from a technical or engineering background and have the ambition to pursue an MBA degree to boost your engineering career, this sample essay will help pave the way for you. This essay was submitted by a mechanical engineer to Harvard Business School. The writer explained how his engineering experience motivated him to pursue an MBA and how the program is important to his long-term goals.

Sample 8: Harvard Business School MBA essay

This essay was written by a candidate who got accepted to Harvard Business School. Check it out to know what the prestigious academic institution looks for in your essay.

Sample 9: Wharton Business School MBA essay

This essay has been honored as one of the best MBA essays ever received by the Wharton Business School in Pennsylvania. Check out the structure, organization, and flow, and adapt the same to your essay.

Sample 10: Columbia Business School MBA essay

The Columbia Business School’s admission committee shared this MBA essay. They explained why the applicant who wrote this was instantly accepted to the program and why they appreciated its content.

Sample 11: Stanford Graduate School of Business MBA essay

This essay was written by a candidate who got accepted to Stanford Business School for an MBA. If you are aiming to get your MBA at Stanford, this sample will give you a deep understanding of what convinces the esteemed school’s admission committee to accept applicants into their fold.

Sample 12: University of California Business School MBA essay

This sample was taken from a pool of successful MBA application essays submitted to the University of California business school. Read it carefully and analyze its structure, words, and substance before you compose your own fantastic MBA essay.

Sample 13: University of OXFORD business school MBA essay

If Oxford Business School is your target destiny for earning your MBA, then check out this outstanding application essay. The person who wrote it managed to grab the admission committee member’s attention.

Sample 14: London Business School MBA essay

This essay was written by a candidate who got accepted to the London Business School. The school’s admission consultant shared this sample as a reference to other MBA aspirants. This piece will specifically help you understand the tone, writing style, formatting, and overall flow of the MBA application essay that meets the school’s standards.

Sample 15: A goal-oriented MBA application essay

Sometimes the MBA admission portal may demand an essay specifically focused on your future goals. In such a case, you must be very sure about yourself and must convey your goals and future directions based on your experiences and planning. Check out this sample to get an idea of how a successful candidate writes about personal goals.

Sample 16: Executive MBA essay

This successful MBA application essay was submitted to the MIT Sloan Executive MBA Program. EMBA essay requires you to show strong potential, impact, leadership, and the ultimate need for the program. Read this essay if EMBA is on your horizon.

Sample 17: MBA video essay

Many business schools are turning to video-based essays for MBA applications. A video-based essay is a better option to express yourself directly to the admission committee. A successful candidate for the Kellogg School of Management submitted this sample. Listen to the video and appreciate how beautifully the applicant has explained his journey from beginning to end. Want to learn more about video MBA essays? Here is a complete guide.

Sample 18: Short-answer-based MBA application essay

Some business schools require candidates to respond to short questions to get insights into their personalities and suitability for the MBA program. More or less, most of the questions revolve around the same theme. The key to success is to grasp the intention of the admission committee behind the questions and to stick to your identity . These successful answers submitted to the Tepper School of Business will help you in formulating your answers.

Sample 19: MIT Sloan School of Management

This essay was submitted by a successful candidate for the MIT Sloan School of Management MBA program. See how this applicant smartly answered the essay questions.

Sample 20:  Michigan Ross School of Business MBA program

The Michigan Ross Business School asks a diverse range of questions from candidates to analyze their competencies from multiple perspectives. If Michigan Ross is where you intend to get your MBA, this essay submitted by a candidate who got admitted to the school’s MBA program will help keep you on track.

What Should be Included in the MBA Application Essay?

• Your background: What shaped you into what you are now? Including ethnicity, obstacles, and struggles.
• Self-reflection: Your values, characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses.
• Your goals : How do you envision your future?
• Aspirations: Why MBA is important to you and how this program will help you in shaping your future?
• Justification: If you have low academic grades, explain the reasons you did not do well and what you learned from it.
• Experience and achievements: What have you achieved so far?

These are the significant components of an MBA essay. Just adjust the sequence, play with words, and come up with a persuasive yet realistic picture of yourself.

What Makes a Great MBA Application Essay?

• Be school-specific. Explain why you are passionate about the MBA program of the school to which you’re applying.
• Avoid edition. Write simply and engagingly. Let the reader read a meaningful story about you.
• Make it 100% typo-free. Grammatical errors and typos will ruin your essay. Apply standard essay format and structure guidelines , scan your piece several times for errors, get it reviewed by an expert, and present a very professional piece to the admission committee.
• Be original. Do not copy-paste from any source. Strictly follow plagiarism guidelines.
• Write an overwhelming introduction to urge the reader to keep reading and conclude your essay with a strong declaration.
• Be authentic. Write what you are, not what the committee wants to read.
• Be concise, as many schools impose a limit on the essay word count .

Do you want more tips? Here is a complete guide to writing a compelling MBA application essay.

The application essay is a core part of the admission process in the increasingly competitive MBA program. If you do not want to miss the chance of getting selected, you need to know what will make your essay stand out . The expert-vetted list of MBA application essay samples we cited here worked for the top business schools. Learn them by heart, and who knows, it may work for you too. Put your other activities aside, read and analyze the list carefully, and start writing your MBA essay to land in your dream business school.

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10 Reasons It Makes Sense to Get an MBA

• 16 Nov 2018

Should I earn an MBA to improve my business skills ?

It’s a question many professionals ask themselves at some point in their career, and one that calls for serious thought and introspection.

Pursuing a graduate education is a major commitment that requires you to take stock of where you are in your profession and where you want to be. Earning an MBA can be a way to accelerate your career or take it in an entirely new direction.

If you’re considering business school but aren’t sure it’s the right path for you, here are ten reasons to consider getting an MBA.

• It’s an Investment In Yourself
• It Can Raise Your Salary Potential
• It Can Grow Your Employability
• It Can Help You Launch Your Own Business
• You’ll Develop a Framework for Problem-Solving
• You’ll Grow as a Leader
• You’ll Build a Global Perspective
• You’ll Be Exposed to Diverse Viewpoints
• You’ll Form Meaningful Relationships
• You’ll Join an Extensive Alumni Network

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REASONS TO GET AN MBA

1. it’s an investment in yourself.

The path to an MBA is different for everyone. After all, it isn’t a required credential to advance and doesn’t directly translate to a specific position in the workforce.

Kate Bennett, director of marketing for MBA Admissions at Harvard Business School and a 2009 HBS graduate, says that enrolling in an MBA program is a personal choice that stems from a desire to better yourself and elevate your career.

“The purpose of a full-time MBA program is to give students an opportunity to immerse themselves for two years in a period of intense personal and professional development that enables students to really accelerate their career, as well as prepares them to lead organizations,” Bennett says.

By stepping back from the day-to-day demands of your work life and immersing yourself in an educational environment, you’re afforded time for both self-discovery and reflection.

“It’s rare to have two years to focus on improving yourself and charting how you want to make an impact," Bennett says. "The two years allow you to reflect on the difference you want to make in the world."

Pursuing an MBA can provide you the chance to look inside yourself and determine how you can hone your skills and abilities to pursue your passions and make your career goals a reality.

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2. It Can Increase Your Salary Potential

Another reason that many professionals decide to earn an MBA is salary: According to data compiled by Payscale , the average salary earned by MBA graduates is $88,137.

It’s important to note that the program you complete can have a significant impact on your salary. For example, the average base salary for Harvard Business School's MBA Class of 2019 is $148,750—68 percent more than the average salary for all MBA graduates.

As a point of comparison, data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the average bachelor’s degree holder earns an annual salary of $60,996, while the average master’s degree holder earns $72,852. Not only that, but compared with other advanced business degrees, an MBA has been shown to lead to a higher starting salary for graduates entering the workforce.

3. It Can Enhance Your Employability

Although institutions offer a range of graduate-level business programs, the MBA remains one of the most sought-after credentials for prospective students. In fact, a recent survey conducted by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) found that 60 percent of students prefer an MBA to other degrees.

The MBA is also highly valued by employers. Another recent survey by GMAC found that 77 percent of US employers plan to hire MBA graduates between 2019 and 2020. This demand is especially pronounced for larger organizations, with 90 percent of Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies stating their intent to hire MBA graduates.

Because employers continue to value MBAs, earning one can be an excellent means of increasing your employability and job security.

As with salary, your employability after earning an MBA depends on several factors, including which program you complete. For example, 94 percent of HBS's MBA Class of 2019 received a job offer after graduation.

4. It Can Help You Launch Your Own Business

While some individuals choose to earn an MBA to better perform their job duties, many others do so because they want to start their own company .

Taking the time to invest in yourself offers you the ability to reflect on your goals and the unique positioning of your business. Learning new problem-solving methods can help you deal with the inevitable challenges of entrepreneurship. Leadership skills offer an advantage if you choose to scale your operation . A global perspective can help you see opportunities in a new way. And an extensive network of classmates, professors, and alumni can be an excellent resource for advice that guides you through business obstacles.

Related: Must-Have Entrepreneurial Skills for Aspiring Business Owners

5. You’ll Develop a Framework for Problem-Solving

Learning how to assess a problem and come up with a viable solution is a core element of an MBA education.

At Harvard Business School, those skills are largely built through the case method . This teaching approach places you in the role of a decision-maker, such as CEO, and requires you to imagine how you might respond to real-world business issues. You then share your point of view with your classmates and listen to their perspectives, too.

“At HBS, students read and discuss over 500 cases by the end of their two years,” Bennett says. “That develops a great ability to quickly assess a situation and figure out what path to go down.”

Through engaging in such rigorous classroom lessons, an MBA program can equip you with a process for breaking down complex issues and exercising sound judgment in the face of uncertainty.

6. You’ll Grow as a Leader

In an MBA program, you don’t just discuss leadership—you practice it, too. And the academic setting of business school enables you to experiment with different leadership styles in a low-stakes setting.

“If a student wants to try out a new way of persuading someone else, the classroom environment is a risk-free way to get feedback from peers on how that worked,” Bennett says. “If you were the founder of a startup in an investment meeting with a venture capitalist, that would be a much riskier time to try a new approach.”

At Harvard Business School, you apply the leadership lessons that you glean from cases through the field method . By assuming the role of a leader in interactive workshops and global immersion programs, you’re able to identify which managerial styles suit you—and which ones don’t.

This type of hands-on experience reinforces the knowledge that you gain in the classroom and provides you with a better sense of how you can effectively lead within an organization.

7. You’ll Build a Global Perspective

An MBA program with a general management curriculum is designed to prepare you to lead in any function, in any industry, anywhere in the world. It’s a distinct benefit to learning about business in an educational setting versus the workplace.

“A number of people have a chance to work in one other country or one other global market, but it’s pretty rare to find a job where you can learn about how business is conducted in every region throughout the world,” Bennett says. “An MBA program gives you the opportunity to learn that in a classroom and in field-based exercises.”

Through access to international research centers, a diverse student body, and immersion programs, an MBA program can present you with numerous resources to expand your knowledge of international business—instilling the confidence you need to manage people and teams across the globe .

Related: Build Your CORe as a Global Thinker

8. You’ll Be Exposed to Diverse Viewpoints

The lessons you learn in an MBA program don’t just come from your coursework, but from fellow students as well.

“I came to business school from consulting and thought my perspective was broad having worked in multiple industries—ranging from education to retail to aerospace and defense—but it wasn’t until I got to HBS that I realized my perspective wasn’t nearly as broad as I thought,” Bennett says. “It took hearing perspectives from classmates who had started companies, led troops in the military, built amazing nonprofit programs, or served in the CIA to really start to see the full range of angles to a problem.”

Business school can broaden your worldview and allow your opinions to be challenged by peers from all over the globe and different industries. The knowledge that your classmates impart can lead to tremendous personal growth and deeper business intuition.

9. You’ll Form Meaningful Relationships with Students and Professors

While an MBA program is an intense academic experience, its culture is one that fosters collaboration over competition. Between your interactions with students in the classroom, discussion groups, and clubs, you’re part of a warm, inclusive environment from the moment you begin business school.

Whether you’re seeking career advice , help with coursework, or insight into a particular industry, you can find a member of the community who is willing to help you.

“There is such a diversity of backgrounds prior to coming to school that for almost any path a student is interested in taking after, there are going to be people on campus who would be happy to talk about their experience,” Bennett says.

The meaningful connections you make aren’t just with your classmates, but professors, too. Beyond teaching, faculty members often serve as mentors and advisors, and many are willing to put you in touch with their professional connections, setting you up for success in your job search.

10. You’ll Join an Extensive Alumni Network

In addition to the network of peers and professors you build throughout your academic experience, you have access to an alumni community that you can reach out to for career advice and business opportunities.

“You graduate with a network of people you know, but on top of that, it’s wonderful how responsive the entire alumni network is—even people you’ve never met before,” Bennett says.

Harvard Business School has a community of more than 83,000 alumni in 170 countries , and Bennett says that many graduates have tapped into it to find business partners, investors, and co-founders, or to gain leads for their next job.

On top of leveraging the network to make professional connections, many alumni choose to form clubs and affiliations. Becoming a member of these groups builds on the sense of camaraderie that you experience during your time in an MBA program and can sustain it well past graduation.

Determining If an MBA Is Right for You

The decision to pursue an MBA is a personal one you need to make after evaluating your passions and aspirations.

Whatever your goals, an MBA program can help you build management and leadership skills you can carry with you for the rest of your career. While business school is a major time and financial commitment, the personal and professional rewards that it can yield are invaluable.

“Between the students and alumni you meet, the cases you discuss, club speakers and conferences, and career education programming, the MBA experience will open your eyes to possibilities you didn’t know existed before,” Bennett says.

Preparing for an MBA

Are you interested in pursuing an MBA, but not sure you’re ready for the challenge? That’s a common concern among professionals who worry that juggling work, family, and their job may be too much. The good news is that there are ways you can prepare yourself before diving into business school full time.

One option is to enroll in an online business program, such as HBS Online’s Credential of Readiness (CORe) , which can help you transition back into the mindset of a student—particularly if it’s been a while since you completed your bachelor’s degree. CORe consists of three courses— Business Analytics , Economics for Managers , and Financial Accounting —and is specifically designed to help you grow your business acumen and skills.

Are you considering earning an MBA? Explore our three-course Credential of Readiness (CORe) program and download our free guide to preparing for business school.

This post was updated on September 8, 2020. It was originally published on November 16, 2018.

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The Most Important MBA Application Essay Question: “Why Do You Want This Degree?”

If you plan on applying to Business School, you will have to answer several essay questions on each of your applications.

MBA/Business Programs You Should Consider

Pepperdine University

Online master of business administration.

Stevens Institute of Technology

Tufts University

Online master of global business administration.

The University of Tennessee

Executive master of business administration - global supply chain.

Merrimack College

Master of science in management.

Some of the common prompts you might be asked to tackle include:

• What is your greatest accomplishment?
• What are your outside activities and interests?
• Whom do you admire most?
• What unique contributions might you make to our diverse student body?

Although essay questions vary by school and can span a number of topics, there is one critical theme around which the majority of business schools beg an answer:

• Why do you want an MBA? Why do you want it at this time in your career? And why here, at this school?

Explore case studies. Pitch solutions to executives from major companies. No GMAT or GRE Required to apply.

When it comes to business school admissions, this is the million dollar question.

Answer convincingly and authentically, and you may well find yourself on the way to earning admission. But answer lazily or with half-baked reasoning, and you can inadvertently torpedo your application.

The fact is, if you can’t articulate why you want an MBA, schools will be far less inclined to award you one of their coveted spots. Because MBA coursework is rigorous, those who are not fully committed to the degree may not make it through. If you are just applying on a whim, or without a clear direction for your future, you will be seen as a high-risk admit. Students who aren’t sure about the value of their degree often squander important opportunities while at school. This is another reason for prospective programs to ding you.

The bottom line? This is the foundational essay for your business school application. What you write will define your candidacy and greatly impact your chances of getting in.

Any MBA candidate, no matter their background or goals, needs to explain their reasoning for pursuing business school in specific terms. Earning an MBA is expensive and time consuming; it shouldn’t be taken lightly. Schools are looking for focused candidates who know what they want and where they’re headed next. Applications should reflect a solid plan, and should sell that plan to admissions officers.

The more specific you can be about your career path post-MBA, sharing both short and long term goals, the better. In particular, admissions committees want to hear how you will take full advantage of their school’s resources, tailor your studies around their specialized curricula, and go on to become a successful and proud representative of their institution.

But what if you’re uncertain of your career path, but still want an MBA? How do you answer questions about your future plans?

Try to select an industry that you have some interest in or one that relates to your current field, and do some research around it. Again, choose short and long term goals that complement your plans for entering this industry, and elaborate on those plans in your essay. Armed with an MBA, what kind of position will you want to pursue? Will you be seeking higher management roles? Switching careers? There are plenty of acceptable pathways to pursue post-MBA; it’s just important that you plan to align yourself with one of them, rather than meandering about.

Business schools are keenly interested in your potential. That’s because, right or wrong, the schools will be judged for their career placement stats — meaning the number of grads who get a position, along with their post-MBA earnings. To keep career placement numbers strong, schools seek candidates who are likely to do well once they enter the business world.

This does not mean that you can’t change your mind about your career once you are enrolled in a business school program. In fact, many students do. But first, you have to get in.

A final word: your essay should not only reflect your commitment to specific career goals, but also to that individual school. Tailor your writing to talk about the program’s offerings and unique focus. Don’t let prospective schools think that you would go to any old MBA program. Declare your love for their institution. Tell them why this is a match, and why you can only find true meaning in their hallowed halls. With any luck, your love will be rewarded with an offer of admission.

Questions or feedback? Email [email protected]

About the Author

Ms. Nedda Gilbert is a seasoned clinical social worker, author, and educational consultant with 25 years of experience helping college-bound and graduate students find their ideal schools. She is a prolific author, including The Princeton Review Guide to the Best Business Schools and Essays that Made a Difference. Ms. Gilbert has been a guest writer for Forbes and a sought-after keynote speaker on college admissions. Previously, she played a crucial role at the Princeton Review Test Preparation Company and was Chairman of the Board of Graduate Philadelphia. Ms. Gilbert holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University and is a certified interdisciplinary collaborative family law professional in New Jersey.

About the Editor

Tom Meltzer spent over 20 years writing and teaching for The Princeton Review, where he was lead author of the company's popular guide to colleges, before joining Noodle.

To learn more about our editorial standards, you can click here .

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How to get into an MBA program: Our top tips

Key takeaways.

• Applying for an MBA program can be a long and difficult process.
• Focus your energy on optimizing the key application components to create a standout application.
• Know your application deadlines and plan in advance to complete each part of your MBA application on time.

Getting into a Master of Business Administration (MBA) program is certainly a challenge. The average acceptance rate for the top MBA programs in 2022 was 22.2 percent. But the odds are getting better over time. This acceptance rate used to be under one in five.

Even with improved odds, getting into an MBA program can seem daunting. However, with the right preparation, persistence and a little guidance from an expert, you can increase your likelihood of getting accepted.

What you’ll need to get into an MBA program

Each school has its own application process, and you’ll need different information for each one. However, there are a few common requirements for your MBA application.

Stand-out standardized test scores

MBA applications require test scores from the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) or Graduate Record Examination (GRE) to compare applicant ability.

The GMAT evaluates an applicant’s quantitative, analytical, writing, reading and verbal skills. Students should take this test several months before the application deadline to give themselves enough time to retake it if needed.

Applicants can prepare for the test through in-person or online prep courses. You can find a lot of free or low-cost resources online. The makers of the GMAT have provided several of their own resources to help test-takers prepare, including a mini quiz and a free eight-week study planner.

Business schools often accept scores in the 650 to 690 range but prefer 700 or higher.

While the GMAT is often the first choice for MBA students and schools, you can also consider the GRE. This standardized test measures academic readiness for graduate programs of many types. More than 1,000 business schools accept GRE scores.

The costs for the two different tests vary. You can take the GMAT at a test center for $275 or online for $300. Taking the GRE costs $220.

A strong undergraduate transcript

Undergraduate transcripts showcase the applicants’ academic ability. MBA admissions officers look at your cumulative GPA but also consider factors like the undergraduate institution’s academic reputation and the types of courses you’ve taken.

These factors help admissions officers compare and rank students by their GPAs.

Many top business schools do not set a minimum requirement for undergraduate GPAs, but you’ll have the best chance of being accepted to top MBA programs with a GPA above 3.5.

A tailored resume

Your resume should focus on grabbing the attention of the MBA admissions counselor. A traditional resume highlights your job skills and experiences. With an MBA resume, you want to highlight your accomplishments and help the reader understand why they matter.

“I always ask this question: ‘So what?’ after reading each bullet on a resume,” says Barbara Coward, founder and principal of MBA 360° Admissions Consulting. “Make the reader care. Show the significance of your work. Also, establish an emotional connection with the reader. Tie all of your experiences and education together through a single narrative.”

The resume should tell the story of why you are a good fit for the program. To craft a stellar resume, familiarize yourself with the MBA program and what they look for in candidates. Highlight experiences and skills that show you fit the mold.

Well-written essays

Many business schools require between one and three personal essays from applicants.

MBA admissions officers use personal essays to get to know the candidates. A well-written essay may be the deciding factor among applicants with similar academic backgrounds. Admissions officers look for clear, concise and persuasive essays with no grammatical errors.

Students should expect essay prompts like:

• How will this MBA program help you meet your career goals?
• What will you contribute to the business school/MBA program?
• What makes you a good candidate for this MBA program?

There are a few keys to writing a good essay for your MBA application. One of the common mistakes applicants make is not answering the question, according to Coward Ensure that your essay actually addresses the prompt. She also advises that you focus on clarity over complexity.

“Make it easy for the reader to understand what you are saying,” says Coward. “Simple sentences and concise messaging make it easy for a reader to get to know you better. You’re not trying to impress. Your job is to educate the reader so they can make an informed decision.”

Letters of recommendation

MBA programs typically require one to three letters of recommendation from people who know the applicant in a professional capacity, such as an employer or college coach. Students should avoid asking for letters from family members or friends.

Letters of recommendation must emphasize professional accomplishments and desirable qualities and should explain why the applicant would be a good candidate for the program.

Interview skills

Many MBA programs require applicants to interview. This can be a sign that you’ve moved on to the next stage in the admissions process. You may interview with an admissions officer or an program alumnus alumnus. In all scenarios, the MBA interview is a chance to stand out and fill in any gaps in your application.

Preparing effectively for the interview can give you a leg up on other applicants. Here are a few things to remember as you prepare:

• Practice (but not too much). Research common interview questions and rehearse your answers. You may want to practice adding more details than you normally would if you don’t like to talk about yourself. However, don’t practice so much that it feels like you are reciting a script. Instead, memorize your main talking points for each answer and vary your delivery.
• Review your application materials. Look over your resume, personal essays and other application materials before the interview. The interviewer may ask you questions about what you wrote, so you’ll want to have a fresh memory. Make sure your written application and interview answers are consistent.
• Be yourself. You’re looking for a program that wants you, so let your personality and interests shine. Talk about how you want to use your MBA . Discuss your passions and interests and don’t try to be a different person. Showing your personality can help your application be unique.

What MBA admissions officers want to see

While you want to show your personality, it’s important to understand what MBA admissions officers are looking for. You don’t want to be fake, but you also want to show desirable qualities.

Emotional intelligence, ability to work with others, empathy, curiosity and kindness are some of the key traits that MBA admissions officers search for in MBA candidates, according to Coward.

“I say that the admissions process is like the TSA at the airport. You don’t want that alarm to go off when you walk through security,” she adds. “Show that you will be a positive contributor to the cohort and that you are a nice person, not a jerk.”

Look at your own experiences and resume and think about how you can highlight examples of these traits in your own life. You can also show that you have these key traits through your interview process.

When to start prepping

Many business schools have several rounds of deadlines for admissions throughout the year. Students typically apply during the fall, winter or spring and receive an admissions decision within two to three months.

You’ll want to give yourself plenty of time to prepare each of the components of your MBA application. Think about how long each part of the application may take you and build a timeline accordingly. You’ll also need to consider when you can take the GMAT or GRE in order to get the scores by the application deadline. As you prepare, try to give yourself extra time so you don’t feel overly stressed.

If you find yourself on a tight turnaround to complete an application, remain calm. It’s best to focus your energy on the components you find most difficult first. You can get those out of the way and complete the easier application components closer to the deadline.

The bottom line

Getting accepted into an MBA program is a competitive process, particularly at the most prestigious schools. As you embark on this effort, be sure to do your research. Track application deadlines and lay the groundwork for a compelling application. Plan on gaining relevant work experience, building relationships with potential references and preparing for the GMAT or GRE.

Once your application is locked in, explore MBA loans and other funding options to ensure you can cover the cost of attendance.

Five Reasons to Write an MBA Optional Essay

April 17, 2024

Jeremy Shinewald

As you are working on your MBA applications, you will inevitably come across an opportunity to write an optional essay. Virtually every application has one. But do you need to write an optional essay? What exactly is it for? And who should use it?

Most business schools offer the optional essay as a space where you can proactively address weaknesses in your profile or preemptively answer any questions you feel an admissions committee reader might have after they review the other parts of your application.

Here is what a sample optional essay prompt looks like:

If needed, use this section to briefly describe any extenuating circumstances, unexplained gaps in work experience, choice of recommenders, inconsistent or questionable academic performance, etc. or if you wish to provide further information or additional context around your application to the admissions committee, please upload a brief explanation of any areas of concern in your academic history or personal history.

Usually, you can tell from the wording of these prompts that the admissions committee does not expect every applicant to use the space. For example, this prompt begins by specifying “if needed.” You should really only take advantage of the optional essay or the “additional information” text box if you feel you have something that is critical to explain or address.

We have identified five scenarios in which you should definitely consider writing an optional essay. These are not the only reasons you might submit such an essay, but if any of these resonate with you, we strongly urge you to take this opportunity to clarify your circumstances for the admissions committee.

Reason 1: Poor academic performance

One of the topics we see MBA applicants address in the optional essay most frequently is a weakness in their past academic performance. If you feel that your academic record is not as strong as it should be for your target program, then proactively discussing this potential concern or weakness in the optional space can be beneficial. For example, you might have a low overall GPA, or your grades dipped substantially during a particular semester, or you have a few specific failing grades, an academic probation, a number of dropped or incomplete classes, a change of major in the middle of your degree, or some other aberration on your transcript.

You might be wondering why you would draw the admissions committee’s attention to your academic weakness this way. Be aware that the committee is going to see and notice everything in your profile, and they will note any shortcomings on your transcript whether you mention them or not. The schools always look closely at applicants’ academic records, because they want to know that the candidates will be able to successfully manage the MBA coursework. If your academic background includes anything that might call your abilities into question, you want to take control of that narrative and reassure the admissions committee, rather than leaving them to guess or wonder. You want to offer the necessary information that will enable them to either view your challenges in the most positive light possible or understand how you have overcome them. Simply put, you cannot hide your weaknesses. So you should use the optional space to explain anything problematic from your past and/or to reassure the admissions committee about your future academic potential. 

So, how should you address these issues? First, explain and acknowledge the weakness in a straightforward manner. Provide any additional context, as needed, and of course, be honest. If you had a personal situation that negatively affected your academic performance, such as an illness, a family problem, or financial challenges that required you to work a full-time job while you were studying—whatever the issue might have been—spell out the situation clearly yet briefly.

Second, take responsibility for any factors over which you had control but perhaps did not manage in an ideal manner—for example, you might have struggled in your transition to college life or engaged in behavior you are not proud of. Third, if applicable, make the case for how you have grown and changed since that time and why you are prepared for the academic challenge of business school now. 

Reason 2: Gaps in your resume or transcript

Admissions committees will pick up on any notable gaps on your resume or academic transcript. Perhaps you were laid off or fired from one of your prior roles. Or perhaps you had a personal health or family issue you were dealing with during that time off. The admissions reader will not know what your situation was unless you share it with them.

Many MBA applications specifically ask whether you have any gaps of a certain length, typically, three months or more. If you feel you can offer a sufficient explanation in the space provided in the application, you probably do not need to use the optional essay space, but if you have a gap that could use some clarification, and the application does not offer a dedicated space in which to do so, you can submit an optional essay that addresses the issue.

Reason 3: Disciplinary or criminal issue

Again, you will not be able to hide a problematic issue from the admissions committee. Even if a certain matter is not apparent anywhere in your application, if you are offered admission to a school, they will conduct a background check, and this could uncover anything you might have hoped to keep quiet. Rather than letting the admissions committee wonder about the details of a situation—or worse, make up their own theories—the best thing you can do is offer clarification yourself. Use the optional essay to help them fully understand what you dealt with, what you learned from the incident, and, most importantly, how you have changed since that time. Explain the occurrence succinctly. Take responsibility for your actions, and demonstrate your subsequent growth. We have seen numerous clients overcome these kinds of situations and get accepted to business school—including an applicant who had been charged with drunk driving and got into the Stanford Graduate School of Business. 

Reason 4: Lower than average test scores

Another common weakness that applicants address in the optional space is a lower than average test score that they do not feel is indicative of their potential academic performance in business school. However, be aware that simply acknowledging your lower test score in the optional space does not mean that the admissions committee will overlook it or give you a pass. If your score is lower than the program’s average, it will still be a weakness in your application that you will need to mitigate in some way.

That said, if you feel that your score does not reflect your true academic ability, you can use the optional essay to highlight other evidence of your quantitative, analytical, data interpretation, verbal, and/or communication skills. Schools will be particularly interested to see that you have demonstrated quantitative ability somewhere in your past, given that MBA programs are inherently quantitative.

If you have a low Quant score on your GMAT or GRE, for example, the admissions committee will definitely want to see your quant skills evidenced elsewhere. Maybe in your professional life, you regularly perform quantitative analysis, create financial models, or do extensive analytical problem-solving. You can point this out in the optional space. Also, spotlight any certifications you have earned that are quantitative in nature, such as the CFA Charter or the CPA; these can serve as additional evidence of your ability to handle the rigors of business school.

Reason 5: Choice of recommender

Applicants also commonly use the optional essay to explain why their current supervisor is not providing a recommendation for them, especially if the school’s application instructions note that a letter from one’s supervisor is preferred. You would therefore need to explain why you did not choose this individual as your recommender. This is actually relatively common. For example, you might not want to disclose yet that you plan to go to business school, because doing so could negatively affect your chances for a promotion or bonus. Or perhaps you have not worked under the supervisor for very long, so they would not be able to speak to your abilities and past achievements. Simply explain the situation briefly and clearly.

Be aware that many applications actually include a short-answer question that specifically asks you to comment if you have not asked your supervisor to recommend you. So, before you move forward with writing an essay about the situation, review your target school’s application thoroughly to see whether it includes such a question. If so, go ahead and use that space instead. 

Optional essay tips

When providing an explanation in an optional essay or additional information text box, keep your submission brief, take responsibility for your actions (if needed), and demonstrate growth, when applicable. Do not waste an admissions reader’s time with long-winded storytelling. And remember that this is optional . Not submitting an optional essay or leaving an additional information box blank will not be detrimental to your candidacy if you have nothing in your profile that warrants clarification. So unless you indeed have something problematic to address, do not use the space at all.

If you are not sure whether your specific situation merits an optional essay or any other form of additional explanation, feel free to reach out to our experienced MBA admissions consultants for advice. We offer complimentary 30-minute consultation calls across many time zones, and we would be happy to discuss your personal situation and ideal plan of attack. Also, download a copy of our free Optional Essays Guide for even more tips and examples.

Tags: optional essay

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• Apr 25, 2024 Assessing Your MBA Profile (Online)
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Upcoming Deadlines

• Apr 12, 2024 UCLA Anderson (Round 3)
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2023–2024 MBA Essay Tips

• Berkeley Haas School of Business Essay Tips and Examples
• BU Questrom School of Business Essay Tips and Examples
• Cambridge Judge Business School Essay Tips and Examples
• Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business Essay Tips and Examples
• Chicago Booth School of Business Essay Tips and Examples
• Columbia Business School Essay Tips and Examples
• Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management Essay and Examples
• Dartmouth Tuck School of Business Essay Tips and Examples
• Duke Fuqua School of Business Essay Tips and Examples
• Emory Goizueta Business School Essay Tips and Examples
• Esade Essay Tips and Examples
• Georgetown McDonough School of Business Essay Tips and Examples
• Harvard Business School 2+2 Deferred MBA Program Essay Analysis 2024
• Harvard Business School Essay Tips and Examples
• HEC Paris Essay Tips and Examples
• HKUST Business School Essay Tips and Examples
• IE Business School Essay Tips and Examples
• IESE Business School Essay Tips and Examples
• INSEAD Essay Tips and Examples
• International Institute for Management Development (IMD) Essay Tips and Examples
• Ivey Business School Essay Tips and Examples
• London Business School Essay Tips and Examples
• Michigan Ross School of Business Essay Tips and Examples
• MIT Sloan School of Management Essay Tips and Examples
• Northwestern Kellogg School of Management Essay Tips and Examples
• Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business Essay Tips and Examples
• NYU Stern School of Business Essay Tips and Examples
• Ohio Fisher College of Business Essay Tips and Examples
• Oxford Saïd Business School Essay Tips and Examples
• SMU Cox School of Business Essay Tips and Examples
• Stanford Graduate School of Business Application Essay Tips and Examples
• Texas McCombs School of Business Essay Tips and Examples
• The Consortium for Graduate Study in Management Essay Tips and Examples
• The Wharton School Essay Tips and Examples
• Toronto Rotman School of Management Essay Tips and Examples
• UCLA Anderson School of Management Essay Tips and Examples
• UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School Essay Tips and Examples
• USC Marshall School of Business Essay Tips and Examples
• UVA Darden School of Business Essay Tips and Examples
• UW Foster School of Business Essay Tips and Examples
• Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Management Essay Analysis, 2023–2024
• Villanova School of Business Essay Tips and Examples
• Yale School of Management Essay Tips and Examples

Click here for the 2022–2023 MBA Essay Tips

MBA Program Updates

• Berkeley-Haas
• Boston University (Questrom)
• Cambridge Judge Business School
• Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper)
• Columbia University (Columbia Business School)
• Consortium for Graduate Study in Management
• Cornell University (Johnson)
• Dartmouth College (Tuck)
• Duke University (Fuqua)
• Emory University (Goizueta)
• George Washington University (GWSB)
• Georgetown University (McDonough)
• Harvard University (Harvard Business School)
• IE Business School
• IESE Business School
• Indian School of Business
• Indiana University (Kelley)
• Ivey Business School
• London Business School
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan)
• New York University (Stern)
• Northwestern University (Kellogg)
• Notre Dame (Mendoza)
• Ohio State University (Fisher College)
• Oxford University (Saïd Business School)
• Penn State Smeal College of Business
• Rotman School of Management
• Saïd Business School
• Southern Methodist University (Cox School of Business)
• Stanford University (Stanford Graduate School of Business)
• University of California Los Angeles (Anderson)
• University of Cambridge (Judge)
• University of Chicago (Booth)
• University of London (London Business School)
• University of Michigan (Ross)
• University of North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler)
• University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)
• University of Southern California (Marshall)
• University of Texas at Austin (McCombs)
• University of Virginia (Darden)
• Vanderbilt University (Owen)
• Villanova School of Business
• Yale University (School of Management)

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US News MBA Rankings Best Business Schools in 2024

After two years perched at the top of the heap, the Chicago Booth School of Business slipped slightly in the latest US News MBA rankings of the best business schools in 2024 . This year, Stanford Graduate School of Business and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School share the top spot in a throwback to their 2021 positions. Meanwhile, the Kellogg School of Management and Chicago Booth have tied for third place, and the MIT Sloan School of Management nabbed fifth place.

If anyone is wondering what happened to powerhouse Harvard Business School , US News knocked it down to number six this year. US News revealed that a change in the methodology–assessing post-graduate salaries by profession–created some rank changes.

“Schools may have improved or declined a bit in this edition’s ranking depending on how well their graduates’ salaries, especially when controlling for profession, compared with the graduates of other schools,” they explained.

What are your chances of getting into a top business school? Contact us to talk strategy with a  free 15-minute advising session  with an SBC Principal Consultant.

US News MBA Rankings for the Top 20 Schools

Source: US News & World Report

Methodology

The methodology used by US News to rank full-time MBA programs focuses on career placement success, student excellence, and qualitative assessments. Half of the ranking formula considers placement and earnings outcomes, while the other half assesses academic metrics and opinions from experts.

There’s a shift towards emphasizing outcome measures like employment and earnings, with a new factor added to assess post-graduate earnings by profession. This change reflects the importance of advanced earnings and better career opportunities for business school graduates. The ranking may fluctuate based on how well graduates’ salaries compare with those of other schools, with emphasis placed on salaries relative to employment.

In response to these latest rankings, Poets & Quants remarked , “Harvard Business School needs to boost pay (or produce a large sample) since it ranks among the very best in nearly every other measure. HBS may be a victim of methodology, but (as the saying goes), no one remembers the score…just the result.”

Stacy Blackman Consulting offers multiple services to meet your MBA application needs, from our  All-In Partnership  and  Interview Prep  to  hourly help  with essay editing, resume review, and much more! Contact us today for a  free 15-minute advising session  to talk strategy with a Principal SBC consultant.

Here’s a snapshot of the caliber of expertise on our SBC team .

HBS Admissions Board at Harvard Business School HBS MBA

HBS Admissions Board at Harvard Business School Kellogg MBA

Director HBS Admissions at Harvard Business School MBA, the Wharton School

HBS Admissions Board at Harvard Business School

Director HBS Admissions at Harvard Business School HBS MBA

Admissions Officer at Stanford's Graduate School of Business (GSB) MBA, Stanford's Graduate School of Business (GSB)

Asst Director MBA Admissions at Stanford's Graduate School of Business (GSB) Director MBA Admissions at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business

MBA, Stanford's Graduate School of Business (GSB) Minority Admissions, the GSB Diversity Programs, the GSB

Associate Director MBA Admissions at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania

Associate Director MBA Admissions and Marketing at the Wharton MBA’s Lauder Institute

Director, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania Professional Writer

Assistant Director MBA Admissions at Columbia Business School (CBS) NYU Admissions

Assistant Director MBA Admissions at Columbia Business School (CBS) M.S.Ed, Higher Education, U of Pennsylvania

Associate Director MBA Admissions at Columbia Business School (CBS)

Ashley is a former MBA Admissions Board Member for Harvard Business School (HBS), where she interviewed and evaluated thousands of business school applicants for over a six year tenure.  Ashley  holds an MBA from HBS. During her HBS years,  Ashley  was the Sports Editor for the Harbus and a member of the B-School Blades Ice Hockey Team. After HBS, she worked in Marketing at the Gillette Company on Male and Female shaving ...

Kerry is a former member of the Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS). During her 5+ year tenure at HBS, she read and evaluated hundreds of applications and interviewed MBA candidates from a wide range of backgrounds across the globe. She also led marketing and outreach efforts focused on increasing diversity and inclusion, ran the Summer Venture in Management Program (SVMP), and launched the 2+2 Program during her time in Admissions. Kerry holds a B.A. from Bates College and  ...

A former associate director of admissions at Harvard Business School, Pauline served on the HBS MBA Admissions Board full-time for four years. She evaluated and interviewed HBS applicants, both on-campus and globally.  Pauline's career has included sales and marketing management roles with Coca-Cola, Gillette, Procter & Gamble, and IBM.  For over 10 years, Pauline has expertly guided MBA applicants, and her clients h ...

Geri is a former member of the Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS).  In her 7 year tenure in HBS Admissions, she read and evaluated hundreds of applications and interviewed MBA candidates from a diverse set of academic, geographic, and employment backgrounds.  Geri also traveled globally representing the school at outreach events in order to raise awareness for women and international students.  In additio ...

Laura comes from the MBA Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS) and is an HBS MBA alumnus. In her HBS Admissions role, she evaluated and interviewed hundreds of business school candidates, including internationals, women, military and other applicant pools, for five years.  Prior to her time as a student at HBS, Laura began her career in advertising and marketing in Chicago at Leo Burnett where she worked on th ...

Andrea served as the Associate Director of MBA Admissions at Harvard Business School (HBS) for over five years.  In this role, she provided strategic direction for student yield-management activities and also served as a full member of the admissions committee. In 2007, Andrea launched the new 2+2 Program at Harvard Business School – a program targeted at college junior applicants to Harvard Business School.  Andrea has also served as a Career Coach for Harvard Business School for both cu ...

Jennifer served as Admissions Officer at the Stanford (GSB) for five years. She holds an MBA from Stanford (GSB) and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Jennifer has over 15 years experience in guiding applicants through the increasingly competitive admissions process into top MBA programs. Having read thousands and thousands of essays and applications while at Stanford (GSB) Admiss ...

Erin served in key roles in MBA Admissions--as Director at Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and Assistant Director at Stanford's Graduate School of Business (GSB). Erin served on the admissions committee at each school and has read thousands of applications in her career. At Haas, she served for seven years in roles that encompassed evaluation, outreach, and diversity and inclusion. During her tenure in Admissions at GSB, she was responsible for candidate evaluation, applicant outreach, ...

Susie comes from the Admissions Office of the Stanford Graduate School of Business where she reviewed and evaluated hundreds of prospective students’ applications.  She holds an MBA from Stanford’s GSB and a BA from Stanford in Economics. Prior to advising MBA applicants, Susie held a variety of roles over a 15-year period in capital markets, finance, and real estate, including as partner in one of the nation’s most innovative finance and real estate investment organizations. In that r ...

Dione holds an MBA degree from Stanford Business School (GSB) and a BA degree from Stanford University, where she double majored in Economics and Communication with concentrations in journalism and sociology. Dione has served as an Admissions reader and member of the Minority Admissions Advisory Committee at Stanford.   Dione is an accomplished and respected advocate and thought leader on education and diversity. She is ...

Anthony served as the Associate Director of MBA Admissions at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he dedicated over 10 years of expertise. During his time as a Wharton Admissions Officer, he read and reviewed thousands of applications and helped bring in a class of 800+ students a year.   Anthony has traveled both domestically and internationally to recruit a ...

Meghan served as the Associate Director of Admissions and Marketing at the Wharton MBA’s Lauder Institute, a joint degree program combining the Wharton MBA with an MA in International Studies. In her role on the Wharton MBA admissions committee, Meghan advised domestic and international applicants; conducted interviews and information sessions domestically and overseas in Asia, Central and South America, and Europe; and evaluated applicants for admission to the program. Meghan also managed ...

Amy comes from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where she was Associate Director. Amy devoted 12 years at the Wharton School, working closely with MBA students and supporting the admissions team.  During her tenure at Wharton, Amy served as a trusted adviser to prospective applicants as well as admitted and matriculated students.  She conducted admissions chats with applicants early in the admissions ...

Ally brings six years of admissions experience to the SBC team, most recently as an Assistant Director of Admission for the full-time MBA program at Columbia Business School (CBS).  During her time at Columbia, Ally was responsible for reviewing applications, planning recruitment events, and interviewing candidates for both the full-time MBA program and the Executive MBA program. She traveled both internationally and dome ...

Erin has over seven years of experience working across major institutions, including University of Pennsylvania, Columbia Business School, and NYU's Stern School of Business. At Columbia Business School, Erin was an Assistant Director of Admissions where she evaluated applications for both the full time and executive MBA programs, sat on the admissions and merit scholarship committees and advised applicants on which program might be the best fit for them based on their work experience and pro ...

Emma comes from the MBA Admissions Office at Columbia Business School (CBS), where she was Associate Director.  Emma conducted dozens of interviews each cycle for the MBA and EMBA programs, as well as coordinating the alumni ambassador interview program. She read and evaluated hundreds of applications each cycle, delivered information sessions to audiences across the globe, and advised countless waitlisted applicants.

SBC’s star-studded consultant team is unparalleled. Our clients benefit from current intelligence that we receive from the former MBA Admissions Officers from Harvard HBS, Stanford GSB and every elite business program in the US and Europe.  These MBA Admissions Officers have chosen to work exclusively with SBC.

Just two of the many superstars on the SBC team: Meet Erin , who was Assistant Director of MBA Admissions at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business (GSB) and Director of MBA Admissions at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

Meet Andrea , who served as the Associate Director of MBA Admissions at Harvard Business School (HBS) for over five years.

Tap into this inside knowledge for your MBA applications by requesting a consultation .

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Learn about our all-in service, meet the sbc consulting team.

(323) 934-3936 info@StacyBlackman.com

Latest Blog Post

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In this B-Schooled episode, host Chandler pulls together suggestions from other SBC podcasts and new insights to give you all the tools you need to survive your time on the waitlist and, hopefully, thrive. ... →

Meet The Georgia Tech Scheller MBA Class Of 2025

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Atlanta, Georgia is a great place to be an MBA for many reasons. Among the biggest: It’s home to a vibrant ecosystem of businesses in every industry, from large global companies to startups and nonprofits.

The Scheller College of Business at Georgia Institute of Technology is situated in the bustling heart of Atlanta, putting it smack dab in the center of one of the most dynamic cities in the United States. That makes Scheller an ideal home base for those seeking excellence and innovation in their MBA journey — and year after year, that’s what the Scheller College delivers. 

Scheller is not a huge program, distinguishing itself through intimate class sizes and a more personalized learning experience. That helps create a community — already entrepreneurial in mindset — that is also collaborative in spirit.  This is one of several reasons Andrew Chetcuti thinks Scheller is a great place to live and study.

But there’s more to it, he says. “On a more fun level, Atlanta has an awesome cultural scene, encompassing world-class restaurants, events, and sporting venues,” Chetcuti says. 

WHY THEY CHOSE SCHELLER

Originally from Malta, Chetcuti is a three-time Olympian. He decided Scheller was the right choice based on its small class sizes, which makes for a more intimate learning experience and “a more individualized approach to my learning,” something that “allowed for tailored and personalized feedback.” This helped him to successfully land an internship at Bain and Company for summer 2024.

From Georgia, Quintrione Dunlap is a first-gen college student who hopes to inspire others like him to attend business school. He chose Scheller for the practical, hands-on experiences he knew he would gain at the school.

“I wanted to join an MBA program that went the extra mile to ensure the students not only understood the course material but also allowed their students to get hands-on experience in seeing how the course material can be applied within an organization,” Dunlap says. 

With all there is to offer in the world of business school, it helps to have a ton of energy, which well describes Steven Leonidas Chrysosferidis . The Georgia native was drawn to Scheller because of its TI:GER program, which stands for Technology Innovation: Generating Economic Results. Chrysosferidis says the STEM concentration in Strategy and Innovation “is an exciting opportunity to embed into multiple technology startup ecosystems” — important to him because he wants to explore his entrepreneurial side, and “gaining exposure to these ecosystems is interesting and growth-oriented.”

FAVORITE COURSES, CLUBS & ACTIVITIES

Anthony Teachey  enjoyed the case competition during orientation. His team was selected as one of the finalists. “We worked creatively and efficiently under a time constraint,” he says. “Afterward, I was confident that we would work well together throughout our first semester.” He also loved Hobby Nights, where he and other MBAs tasted everyone’s chili and told stories around a campfire.

With a background in engineering and a love for Hobby Nights as well, Jayalaxmi Jagannathan from India enjoyed tailgating the football games the most, supporting the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. She’d start the day hosting brunch for her MBA friends, followed by participating in the lively tailgate atmosphere at the game, where she was able to connect with other alumni and peers in a social setting.

“The day became an unforgettable blend of camaraderie, learning American football as a newcomer, and creating lasting bonds in the vibrant Georgia Tech community,” she says.

BIGGEST ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN THEIR CAREERS SO FAR

MBAs come to Scheller with a wide array of experiences. Neil Harris has a background in mechanical engineering, but came to Scheller because he wanted to strengthen his skills in business, law, and technology. In his role as a Mechanical Project Engineer at Vanderlande, Harris worked as a pneumatics specialist by leading the first in-house design for a fulfillment center, something that is traditionally outsourced.

Pursuing your MBA is all about trying new things, getting out of your comfort zone — and maybe pivoting in your career, too. That describes how Annette Knell from Peru decided to pursue her MBA: She wanted to move on from law to work in strategy and innovation. As a litigation lawyer, Knell says the best accomplishment in her career was developing a data analytics platform that greatly enhances case management, empowers partners with data-driven decisions, and transforms client reporting — cutting lawyer tasks by 90%. 

THEIR BIGGEST ACCOMPLISHMENT SO FAR AS AN MBA STUDENT

As an MBA student, Knell is proud that she has been able to “successfully balance social life, recruiting, and class work” — earning, she says, the title of her cohort’s “Social Butterfly.” 

From Washington, D.C., Dallas Charles came to Scheller to be at the intersection of business and technology. There are two things she’s most proud of thus far in her MBA experience: the network she has been able to build, and becoming the first-year rep for Scheller’s Marketing Club. “​​It wasn’t until recently that I discovered what I wanted to do with my career and having this new opportunity to grow in the space is validating and rewarding,” Charles says. 

Maddie Elledge from New Jersey says her most notable accomplishment was being awarded a Forté Fellowship and attending the Women’s MBA Conference in Dallas, Texas in June 2023. “The talks were inspiring and engaging, only heightening my excitement to join my MBA program,” Elledge says. “Forté is such a special network of amazing women and I feel so grateful to be a part of it.”

A ‘DID WE JUST BECOME BEST FRIENDS?’ MOMENT

Elledge’s brightest memory is surrounding the ever-popular Hobby Nights: “My favorite memory was a Hobby Night thrown by three students titled ‘International Spice-Off’,” she says. Students sampled authentic Thai and Indian cuisine made by their fellow classmates, and the dishes increased in spice level as the night progressed. “It was such an amazing experience to taste all of the dishes and learn about our friends’ cultures a little bit more,” Elledge says.

Before they were accepted into the program, several prospects were invited to attend a women’s dinner event with recently admitted and current students. This was Allison Ziants ’ favorite experience so far. “I was sitting at the head of the table next to two admitted students that I didn’t know, and we were having your typical ‘get to know you’ conversation,” she says. Ziants wasn’t expecting it would come up, yet she and the other two women discovered they all had a passion for soccer. “It was a ‘Did we just become best friends?’ moment, and they are my best friends in the program today!” she says. 

ADVICE TO FUTURE SCHELLER MBA STUDENTS

Sarmy Saad , a Syrian-born entrepreneur, says that so far he has found the southern hospitality at Scheller to be extremely welcoming. His favorite memories revolve around evenings spent at Cyprus, a local bar. “​​The casual atmosphere provided the perfect backdrop for bonding with classmates, engaging in great conversations, and forming lasting connections,” Saad says. The camaraderie built during those laid-back moments makes academic challenges more manageable and enriches his overall MBA experience, he adds.

Saad has a few words of wisdom for future Scheller MBAs. “Don’t be afraid to let your achievements stand out. Have a goal and highlight how Scheller’s MBA program is the gateway for you to reach that goal,” he advises. 

Texan Taylor Sloop chose Scheller because of her passions in engineering. Her advice to future MBAs: “Focus on what sets you apart as a candidate.” She adds that everyone has some weak areas, but they also have something that is unique about them and makes them the perfect candidate.

“Spend time finding that unique selling point and prepare to discuss that topic in the interview process,” Sloop says. 

Questions about this article? Email us or leave a comment below.

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MBA in UK without GMAT: Without Work Experience, Colleges & Cost

• Updated On April 18, 2024
• Published In General

Did you know that the UK is the second most popular study destination for Indian students after the US? 

Table of Contents

Since you are considering pursuing an MBA in the UK, you’ll be glad to know that several top-tier universities don’t require the GMAT as part of their admissions process. 

Studying in the UK is an unparalleled experience that combines world-class education with cultural diversity. 

With top-tier universities like Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial College London , the UK is a popular study destination for students from around the world. 

Studying in the UK is not just about getting a degree, it’s about gaining invaluable experience, making lifelong connections and opening doors to new opportunities. 

Admission Requirements for MBA in UK without GMAT

• To apply for most programs, you’ll need to have a bachelor’s degree with a minimum GPA of 3.0.
• Additionally, depending on the length of your undergraduate program, you may need to have 2-3 years of work experience.
• It’s important to have a strong resume, as well as letters of recommendation and a statement of purpose .
• Some programs may accept GRE scores instead of GMAT scores for standardised tests.
• You may need to provide IELTS (7.0) or TOEFL (600) scores to prove your proficiency in English.

The best guidance for your STUDY ABROAD DREAM

Start your journey with the best study abroad experts in India

Differences in admission criteria

Here’s a breakdown of some key differences in admission criteria for Indian students applying to traditional MBAs and those without a GMAT requirement in the UK:

Also Read: Top 10 MBA Colleges in UK for Indian students 2024

Top MBA Universities in the UK without GMAT

Several top-tier universities don’t require the GMAT as part of their admissions process. 

So why not take advantage of this opportunity and explore your options? Who knows, you may just discover the perfect program for you!

Here is a list of 10 universities that offer MBA in the UK without GMAT:

Here is a detailed overview of the top 5 business schools that offer MBA in UK without GMAT:

London Business School 

London Business School is a top business school in London, UK, offering a highly customisable MBA program. 

Unlike other schools, London Business School doesn’t require the GMAT, but instead, the Executive Assessment or GRE.

The program is designed to develop leadership skills and provide real-world experience through internships and global immersion trips.

The Admission criteria for the university are: 

• GMAT is not required , but a good score can improve your chances of getting in.
• Your application will be evaluated based on work experience , academic background , leadership , and management skills .
• Letter of recommendation
• You need a minimum B average grade in an undergraduate course in business or a related field, as well as a minimum B grade in specific undergraduate courses.
• You need at least 2 years of work experience in a relevant field to be eligible for the program.

An overview of London Business School :

Cambridge (Judge), University of Cambridge 

Cambridge Judge Business School is a top-ranked business school at the University of Cambridge.

Its MBA program offers a unique and innovative curriculum that emphasises leadership, sustainability, and entrepreneurship. 

The school doesn’t require GMAT scores for admission, making it an attractive option for those who prefer not to take the exam.

• Statement of Purpose

An overview of Cambridge (Judge) :

Oxford (Saïd), Oxford University 

Oxford University’s Saïd Business School offers an MBA program that does not require GMAT scores. 

The program focuses on developing leadership skills and global business perspectives through a diverse student community and expert faculty.

An overview of Oxford (Saïd):

Imperial College Business School

Imperial College Business School offers a top-rated MBA program that does not require GMAT scores. 

The program focuses on leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship and provides students with hands-on experience through projects and consulting opportunities. 

Graduates have gone on to work for top global companies in various industries.

An overview of Imperial Business School:

Warwick Business School 

Warwick Business School is a top-ranked business school located in the UK. 

Their MBA program does not require GMAT scores for admission, making it more accessible for students. 

The program focuses on developing leadership skills and offers a varied range of elective courses to cater to students’ career goals.

An overview of Warwick Business School:

Also Read: Top 10 Cheap Universities in UK for Indian students 

MBA Types and Specialisations in the UK: 

UK universities offer a variety of MBA programs to cater to diverse career goals. Here’s a glimpse into the two main categories:

Types of MBAs:

General MBA: This is a well-rounded option, perfect if you want a strong foundation in all areas of business. You’ll cover core subjects like finance, marketing, accounting, and leadership. This flexibility is ideal if you’re unsure of your exact career path or want to switch industries. It’s also a good choice if your undergraduate degree isn’t in business.

Executive MBA (EMBA): Designed for experienced professionals (often with 8+ years of work experience), EMBAs allow you to continue working full-time while pursuing your MBA. The classes are typically offered in intensive modules or on weekends. This format is especially attractive for Indian students who might need to balance their studies with existing work commitments back home.

Online MBA: This is a flexible option for students who can’t relocate to the UK for full-time studies. While online MBAs might not offer the same networking opportunities as on-campus programs, they can still be a valuable way to earn your qualification while staying in India.

Specialisations:

• Finance: A popular choice for Indian students with a quantitative bent. Specialisation courses in investment banking, financial modelling, and risk management can open doors to lucrative careers in London’s financial district or other global financial hubs.
• Marketing: Marketing offers a blend of creativity and analytical skills. Specialisations in areas like digital marketing, brand management, or market research can be a great fit for students who enjoy understanding consumer behaviour and developing targeted marketing strategies.
• Entrepreneurship: The entrepreneurial spirit is strong in India! An MBA with an entrepreneurship specialisation can equip you with the skills and knowledge to launch your venture. You’ll learn about business planning, venture capital, and how to navigate the challenges of starting a new business.
• Business Analytics: Data is king in today’s business world. This specialisation equips you with the skills to collect, analyse, and interpret data to drive better business decisions. This is a fast-growing field with excellent job prospects in the UK and globally.
• International Management: The UK is a global hub for business, and this specialisation prepares you to navigate the complexities of international commerce. Courses in cross-cultural management, global strategy, and international trade can give you an edge in a competitive job market.

Remember: When choosing an MBA program and specialisation, consider your career goals, academic background, and work experience. Researching universities and talking to alumni can also be helpful in making your decision.

Also Read: May Intake in UK 2024

Advantages of Pursuing MBA in UK without GMAT

If you choose to pursue an MBA program in the UK that doesn’t require a GMAT exam, you can have many benefits. You can get a great education , have a successful career , and enjoy all the amazing things the UK has to offer.

Here are a few advantages that you can get while pursuing an MBA in UK without GMAT: 

1. Simplified application process: No need to prepare for GMAT. Focus on showcasing professional achievements, academic record, and leadership potential.

2. Career advancement: UK MBA programs without GMAT requirements offer a faster completion timeframe (12-18 months) compared to traditional programs. 

3. Cost-effective excellence: UK MBAs provide a high-quality education at a more competitive cost point when compared to many top programs in other countries.

4. Post-graduation work permit eligibility: Pursue an MBA in the UK and gain valuable UK work experience through the Post-Graduation Work Permit program.

5. Culturally enriching environment: UK business schools foster a diverse and inclusive student body. Gain invaluable exposure to a multitude of perspectives and build a robust network of international colleagues.

6. Specialised program options: Many UK MBAs offer specialisations in areas that align with specific career goals, such as International Business or Finance. 

Cost of Studying MBA in the UK

Studying in the UK can be an exciting and enriching experience for Indian students. However, it’s important to consider the financial aspects of studying abroad.  

Tuition fees, accommodation, living expenses , and other costs can add up quickly. 

Here’s what you need to know about the average cost of studying in the UK: 

The UK offers a world-renowned education system with some of the top universities in the world. 

A degree from a UK university can open doors to a wide range of career opportunities and can provide you with a competitive edge in the job market. 

Remember: The cost of studying in the UK varies depending on the course and institution you choose.

Also Read: Cost of Studying in the UK in 2024

Cost of living in the UK for Indian students  

Living in the UK can be an exciting adventure, but it’s important to be prepared for the cost of living. 

From accommodation and food to transportation and healthcare, the expenses can add up quickly.  

However, with higher salaries compared to other countries, the investment may be worth it. 

Here is a detailed breakdown of the living expenses in the UK:

Average Salary of an MBA Graduate in the UK 

The UK has a wealth of exciting job opportunities waiting for you! With an estimated annual income of INR 30L (approximately) in your starting role, you can expect to embark on an exciting journey in your field of expertise.

Keep in mind that salaries may vary based on your area of specialisation and where you are located, but don’t let that hold you back from pursuing your dream job in the UK!

Here is a table of the top 10 professions in the UK along with the average salaries they offer.

Note: These salaries are approximate and can vary based on factors such as experience, location, and the specific employer.

Also Read: Scholarships for MBA in UK

Tips for Preparing and Applying for MBA in UK without GMAT

Here are some key points to keep in mind when preparing and applying for an MBA in UK without GMAT:

• Highlight Your Work Experience: This is your golden ticket! Showcase your accomplishments , leadership qualities , and relevant skills gained through work. Quantify your achievements with numbers and percentages to demonstrate impact.
• Craft a Compelling Statement of Purpose (SOP): This is your chance to tell your story. Explain your career goals , how the MBA aligns with those goals , and what unique value you bring to the program . Be clear, and concise, and showcase your written communication skills.
• Recommendation Letters: Seek recommendations from supervisors or professors who can speak to your work ethic , leadership potential , and academic abilities . Choose recommenders who know you well and can provide specific examples of your strengths.
• Polish Your English Language Skills: Strong English proficiency is important. If required, aim for a high score on the IELTS or TOEFL test. Consider additional English language courses if needed.
• Research and Shortlist Universities: UK universities offering GMAT waiver programs have varying strengths and specialisations. Research programs that align with your career aspirations , budget , and preferred format (full-time, part-time, online).
• Network with Alumni and Admissions Staff: Connect with alumni from your target universities on platforms. They can provide valuable insights into the program and application process. Additionally, reach out to admissions staff with any specific questions.

By focusing on these tips and showcasing your strengths, you can make a strong application for an MBA program in the UK, even without a GMAT score.

Remember, your work experience, achievements, and potential are just as valuable as a test score!

Pursuing an MBA in the UK without GMAT offers a simplified application process and a faster completion timeframe compared to traditional programs.

It can be a cost-effective way to earn a degree from a top-ranked institution , while also providing the opportunity to gain valuable UK work experience through the Post-Graduation Work Permit program. 

With a diverse and inclusive student body, UK business schools offer a culturally enriching environment that fosters a global network of colleagues. 

In case the process gets you overwhelmed, you can have the opportunity to talk to our counsellors at LeapScholar , who can provide great assistance.

By researching and shortlisting universities , highlighting work experience , crafting a compelling statement of purpose , and networking with alumni and admissions staff , Indian students can make a strong application for an MBA program in the UK, even without a GMAT score.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. list 5 mba colleges in uk without gmat.

A. There are several colleges in the UK that offer admission without requiring GMAT scores. Some popular options include the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, and the London School of Economics and Political Science. It’s always a good idea to research specific program requirements before applying.

Q. What are the admission requirements for MBA in UK without GMAT?

A. Several UK universities offer MBA programs without requiring GMAT scores for admission. However, they may have other admission requirements such as a bachelor’s degree, work experience, and English language proficiency. It is best to check the specific requirements of your preferred universities before applying.

Q. Can I apply for MBA in UK without GMAT if I don’t have work experience?

A. The GMAT is not a requirement for all MBA programs in the UK, but many schools still require it. If you don’t have work experience, you may still be able to apply to some programs without taking the GMAT. However, this will depend on the specific requirements of each program, so it’s best to research and contact the schools directly to find out their policies on GMAT waivers.

Q. What are the key differences in admission criteria for traditional MBA and MBA without GMAT in the UK?

A. The key differences in admission criteria for traditional MBA and MBA without GMAT in the UK are that a GMAT score is mandatory for most traditional MBA programs, while it is not required for MBA programs without GMAT. Work experience is emphasised more in MBA programs without GMAT, whereas standardised test scores and academic performance are given more importance in traditional MBA programs. Additionally, a high GPA in a relevant bachelor’s degree is essential for traditional MBA programs, whereas a good GPA and relevant work experience are crucial for MBA programs without GMAT.

Q. Which universities MBA in UK without GMAT?

A. There are several top-tier universities in the UK that offer MBA without GMAT. The University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, Imperial College London, The University of Edinburgh, The University of Manchester, King’s College London, The University of Warwick, University of Leeds, University of Glasglow, and Durham University are among them.

Q. What are the advantages of pursuing an MBA in the UK without GMAT?

A. Pursuing an MBA in the UK without GMAT has several advantages. Firstly, it allows candidates to focus more on their work experience and achievements. Secondly, it makes the application process less competitive compared to traditional MBA programs. Thirdly, it expands the pool of potential applicants who may not have been able to apply due to low GMAT scores. Finally, it provides an opportunity to explore top-tier universities that don’t require GMAT as part of their admissions process.

Q. What is the cost of studying MBA in the UK?

A. The cost of studying MBA in the UK varies depending on the university and the program you choose. On average, the tuition fees for MBA programs in the UK range from INR 20L to 60L per year. Some top-tier universities may charge even higher fees for their MBA programs. It’s important to research and compare the costs of different programs before making a final decision.

Q. What is the cost of living in the UK for Indian students?

A. The cost of living in the UK for Indian students varies depending on the location and lifestyle. On average, the monthly living expenses for a student can range from INR 84,000 to INR 1L, which includes accommodation, food, transport, and other personal expenses. However, this can vary depending on the city and individual choices and preferences.

Q. What are some tips for preparing and applying for MBA in the UK without GMAT?

A. To prepare and apply for MBA in the UK without GMAT, you should focus on building a strong resume, obtaining letters of recommendation, and writing a compelling statement of purpose. You should also ensure you meet the admission requirements, including a minimum GPA of 3.0 and 2-3 years of work experience. Additionally, consider taking the GRE test and providing IELTS or TOEFL scores to showcase your proficiency in English. Finally, research universities that offer MBA without GMAT and explore their admission criteria and application processes.

Q. Is there an alternative to GMAT for MBA programs in the UK?

A. Yes, some MBA programs in the UK may accept GRE scores instead of GMAT scores for standardised tests. Additionally, some universities may not require a standardised test score at all and instead focus on work experience and academic performance. It’s important to research the specific admission requirements of each program you’re interested in to determine if GMAT or other standardised tests are required.

Q. Which college offers MBA in UK without GMAT and Work experience?

A. There are some universities in the UK that offer MBA without GMAT and work experience, but having work experience can increase the chances of admission. One such university is the University of Edinburgh, which offers an MBA program without GMAT and work experience requirements. However, having a strong academic background, a good GPA, and a compelling statement of purpose are essential for admission.

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Psst — Wanna Know Why Gossip Has Evolved in Every Human Society?

Talking about other people behind their backs can be an important way of encouraging cooperation, according to a new theoretical model.

April 11, 2024

Tea for two: Gossip can deter selfishness — if it’s accurate. | iStock/skynesher

A few years ago, researchers attached recording devices to a few hundred Americans and sampled their conversations over several days. They found that these volunteers spent, on average, 52 minutes per day having conversations about people who were not there. In other words, gossiping.

Gossip is a ubiquitous feature of human communication, explains Michele Gelfand , a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Everyone seems to do it no matter where or when they live. “You can go back to the history and see that it was prevalent in Mesopotamia and Greece. Anthropologists talk about it being at the center of life in hunter-gatherer societies,” Gelfand says. Yet from an evolutionary standpoint, gossip is puzzling. “It’s unclear why gossiping, which requires considerable time and energy on a person’s part as well as giving away potentially very valuable information, evolved as an adaptive strategy at all,” she says. “What’s in it for gossipers?”

To explore the social evolution of gossip, Gelfand assembled a multidisciplinary team that was led by Xinyue Pan , a doctoral student at the University of Maryland, and also included Vincent Hsiao , a postdoctoral research fellow at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, and Dana S. Nau , a professor emeritus of computer science at UMD. In a recent article published in PNAS , they conclude that gossipers have an evolutionary edge not only because they spread useful information about people’s reputations but also because they encourage people to behave less selfishly.

“Gossip is helpful because it disseminates information about people’s reputations, and that can help recipients of this information connect with more cooperative people,” Gelfand says. “As more people are thinking about others’ reputations, they’re getting concerned about their own reputations too, and they don’t want to be the subject of future gossip. So that deters them from acting selfishly.”

Quote The idea that gossip is always disparaging, Michele Gelfand says, has “crowded out our understanding of the positive nature of gossip.”

That may sound counterintuitive. Many people, particularly Americans, assume that gossip is usually disparaging or undermines social cohesion. This misconception, Gelfand says, has “crowded out our understanding of the positive nature of gossip” and its role in the evolution of cooperation. Her team did find, however, that cooperation thrived only when gossipers’ information was accurate.

Gelfand’s and her colleagues observed this playing out in an evolutionary game-theoretical model that they built to simulate how people gossip. The model was populated by “agents” who utilized one of six strategies that determined how they would exchange gossip with neighboring agents. After each interaction, the agents would decide whether to continue with their original gossip strategy or adopt their neighbor’s strategy. “We included many different strategies in this model,” Gelfand says. “The strategy with the highest payoff is more likely to be learned or emulated.”

How Virtual Gossipers Survive

After running thousands of iterations of their model, the researchers found that virtual gossipers not only survived but flourished: Across all the simulations, 90% of agents eventually became gossipers. Gelfand and her coauthors concluded that gossipers proliferated because they served the double function of “reputation dissemination” and “selfishness deterrence.” Individuals acted more cooperatively if they knew that information about their behavior was being shared with others. In turn, they behaved less selfishly around known gossipers, which gave gossipers an evolutionary advantage.

In general, the agents employed strategies in which they used gossip to protect themselves or take advantage of others. By the end of the simulation, nearly 60% of all agents had adopted an “exploitive” strategy, while another 18% took an “opportunistic” strategy. However, the evolution of gossip tempered these common approaches as agents became more sensitive to what others thought of them and more willing to work together, ultimately promoting high cooperation rates.

This dynamic was illustrated by opportunistic agents. These reputation-conscious individuals, Gelfand explains, “are very strategic: When they learn that another agent is a gossiper, then they cooperate with them, but otherwise they don’t.” The opportunists formed a mutually beneficial relationship with gossipers: The gossipers provided a check on the opportunists’ desire to burnish their reputations, while the opportunists boosted the gossipers’ power to deter selfish behavior. In this way, she says, “opportunistic agents and gossipers co-evolve — they need each other.”

“Opportunistic agents kind of get a bad rap. They’re seen as kind of sneaky,” Gelfand says. “But in fact, they’re actually helping a lot in the population. If there’s not a lot of opportunists, there won’t be many gossipers and vice versa.”

This finding, Gelfand notes, “would be very difficult to prove in a large-scale, long-term experiment.” The game-theoretical model made it possible to observe an entire population as it changed over several generations. It also made it possible to dial up or down parameters such as how often the agents interacted and how much information they shared. “We can manipulate mobility; we can manipulate other aspects of network structure,” Gelfand says. “That’s really difficult to do in experiments with real people.”

Gelfand notes that collecting more data in the field could refine the theory introduced in this study and let it be examined across the globe. Yet the evolution of virtual gossipers suggests some takeaways that real people might apply to their communication strategies. “If you’re a gossiper, then you’ll have a reputation as a gossiper and people will know you’re a gossiper,” Gelfand says. “This probably will make them particularly opportunistic to cooperate more with you. And this can be an advantage — so long as you also have a reputation for being accurate about what you spread, of course.”

For media inquiries, visit the Newsroom .

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