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IESE, like all business schools, is in search of capable, ambitious candidates who know why they need an MBA and what they want to do once they have one. The school does not demand too much from its applicants with respect to written essays, requiring just one 300-word submission, but candidates must also record a brief video essay. An optional essay is available for anyone who has still more information to share with the admissions committee, whether to mitigate a shortcoming in their profile or to highlight a key strength or story that the committee would otherwise not learn about. Our more detailed analysis of IESE’s essay prompts for this season follows. 

IESE 2024–2025 Essay Tips

Career Goals Essay: What are your immediate career goal after graduation and your mid-term career goal 5–10 years after graduation? How will the IESE MBA program help you achieve them? (word limit 300 max)

With this straightforward query about your expectations for where you will go with your MBA after graduating, IESE simply wants you to spell out what you have in mind as you approach this phase of your life and career. Be as specific as possible, yet still succinct, in your description of where you see yourself immediately after graduation and then several years further down the line, from the industry and role to any additional details about which you currently feel confident (perhaps certain companies or responsibilities that appeal to you in particular). The school’s 300-word limit prevents you from going into excessive detail about your past, but be sure to offer enough information to provide context and support for your stated goals. You want the objectives you present to make sense for you, based on your professional path thus far, and the progression from one stage of your professional career to the next to be clear and reasonable.

Next, you must explain how being an MBA student at IESE will assist you in achieving your professional aspirations. The admissions committee wants to see that you have dedicated just as much thought, if not more, to why you want to study at IESE as you have to what you want to do for your career. Think carefully about what you need to learn or gain (with respect to skills, network, experiences, and knowledge base) to be able to reach your stated goals, and then detail which specific resources and opportunities at the school you believe will allow you to do so. Your goal is to convince the admissions committee that IESE is the missing link between who and where you are now and who and where you envision yourself to be in the future. To accomplish this, you need to do research on the school that goes beyond its website, viewbook, and related marketing materials and make direct contact with students, alumni, and other school representatives. If possible, attend an in-person admissions event or visit the campus to familiarize yourself with the program’s environment and resources, and if not, find online events and options that would allow you to do so. Truly understanding IESE’s offerings and community, as well as how it all works, is key in identifying and then articulating your need for an IESE MBA in particular. If you position yourself to clearly discuss how the particular offerings you have identified relate directly to your needs, you will increase your chances substantially of crafting an effective essay. 

The core components of this essay are elements of a traditional personal statement, so we encourage you to download your free copy of the mbaMission Personal Statement Guide, which explains ways of approaching these topics and offers several illustrative sample essays. And to learn more about IESE’s academic program, unique resources, and other key features, download your free copy of the mbaMission IESE Business School Program Guide as well.

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Applicants to the University of Washington (UW) Foster School of Business must provide two average-length essays but have the option of submitting two more, allowing candidates to cover more of what they feel are the most compelling parts of their candidacy. The school’s first required essay focuses on applicants’ desire to attend business school with respect to their career plans and professional needs, and the second tasks candidates with sharing their personal definition of resilience and examples of times when they have exhibited it themselves. The first optional essay provides a rather open-ended opportunity to discuss anything significant, whether positive or problematic, while the second optional essay deals exclusively with the weighty issue of encouraging and supporting diversity, inclusion, and equity. Read on for our full analysis of UW Foster’s 2024–2025 application essay questions. 

University of Washington Foster School of Business Essay Analysis, 2024–2025 

Essay 1: Post-MBA Plans (750 words maximum) – Tell us your ideas about what lies ahead in your career. What are the gaps or deficiencies currently preventing you from pursuing these potential career paths? How do you plan to use your time in the Foster MBA program to fill these gaps and advance your career?

The overall essay the school is essentially requesting here covers many of the primary topics included in a traditional personal statement—what your goals are, why you need an MBA to attain them, and why you need the degree from the school you are applying to—though the wording is obviously different in Foster’s prompt. To access our extensive guidance on how to craft such an essay, download a free copy of the mbaMission Personal Statement Guide, which explains ways of approaching these subjects effectively and offers several illustrative sample essays. 

Essay 2: Personal Resilience (500 words maximum) – Resilience is one of the most important values of a successful Foster student. Tell us about what resilience means to you and share some of the ways that you have demonstrated resilience in overcoming personal or professional challenges. How do you anticipate showing resilience during your time as an MBA candidate? 

With this prompt, the admissions committee wants to know how you act, react, and think when things do not go according to plan and you are required to reassess, pivot, and persevere. Foster clearly knows that many of life’s greatest successes require one to “try, try again,” as the expression goes, and that this attitude is necessary to gain and accomplish the most, not just in business school but also in the world after graduation. This essay is your opportunity to reassure the admissions committee that you possess the powerful combination of flexibility, tenacity, and drive that will position you to realize your goals.

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The UCLA Anderson School of Management requires candidates to provide three “short essays.” The first is about their need for an MBA, and the second focuses on their short- and long-term professional objectives. For the third, applicants are asked to discuss their expectations for their time in the Anderson MBA program, particularly with respect to their leadership development. In total, the three essays have a maximum word count of just 550 words, so candidates must be concise and direct in their responses. Some applicants might be tempted to use the optional essay to squeeze in more information about themselves, but anyone considering this option must be prudent about doing so, because Anderson very clearly states that the essay is specifically for “extenuating circumstances.” Our full analysis of all the school’s 2024–2025 prompts follows.

UCLA Anderson 2024-2025 Essay Tips

We look forward to learning about your perspectives and plans via your responses to the short essay prompts. Essays complement the answers you provide throughout the application to show us your whole profile. The best applications are introspective, genuine and succinct in directly answering our questions and showing clear plans for the future.

Strong essays describe the impact of your achievement and clarify its connection to your future MBA plans in the short- and long-term. We look forward to learning about the specific ways your achievement helped set you up for future success.

A) Short Essay Prompts: For the 2024-2025 application year, we have three short essay prompts that are required for first-time applicants:

1. Why are you pursuing an MBA? (150 words)

This is a very straightforward request for your motivation for wanting to attend business school. What do you need to learn, gain, or experience that you believe is necessary to get you from where you are now to where you want to be in the future? Consider all the benefits and opportunities that business school provides, such as the network, exposure to a wide range of diverse individuals and environments, extracurricular opportunities and events, mentorship possibilities, access to distinguished faculty members, and hands-on learning experiences. Do not discuss your professional aspirations in this essay; you will address that part of your profile in your second essay. 

An MBA is a major investment in a variety of ways and on multiple levels, and the Anderson admissions committee wants to know that you are enthusiastic about the entire experience and feel that the commitment of resources is both necessary and worthwhile. Succinctly explain how earning your MBA will be additive to your life, personally as well as professionally. 

2. Describe your short-term and long-term post-MBA career goals. (150 words)

This is another very straightforward question that does not require a lot of embellishment. Be as specific as you can to show the admissions committee that you have a clear plan and focus. If you know the exact role you want to target, along with the industry and/or function and perhaps even specific organizations you would like to join, simply present this information. If you do not, be as detailed as you can in 150 words in describing the overall path you want to take, perhaps the kind of work you would like to do and/or the problem you want to help solve. Showing intention and focus is key. The school is not looking for any one “right” answer here, but you want to make sure that your stated goals make sense given your background (which the admissions committee will be able to extrapolate from your resume) and that the transition from your short-term aspiration to your longer-term goal is both understandable and realistic.

These first two essays cover some of the traditional elements of a standard personal statement, so we encourage you to download a free copy of the mbaMission Personal Statement Guide, which offers in-depth guidance on how to frame and discuss these elements of your candidacy, along with multiple illustrative examples.

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Although some top business schools have been gradually reducing the number of application essays they require, the University of Cambridge Judge Business School still demands four separate submissions from its candidates. The program’s first essay is about applicants’ career goals and related preparation, the second focuses on a “professional mistake” and the candidate’s analysis of it, the third requires that applicants discuss a meaningful past team experience, and in the fourth essay, candidates must focus on a time when someone made a difference in their lives. Read on for our full essay analysis, with tips on how to approach each question and create strong essays for your 2024–2025 Judge application.

Cambridge Judge 2024–2025 Essay Tips

Essay 1: Please provide details of your post-MBA career plans. The statement should not exceed 500 words and must address the following:

– What are your short- and long-term career objectives? How will the Cambridge MBA equip you to achieve these?

– Looking at your short-term career goal, describe the research you have done to understand how this industry/role/location recruits MBA talent and what they are looking for in a candidate.

– How confident do you feel about meeting your short-term career goal? What skills/characteristics do you already have that will help you to achieve them, and what preparation are you doing now?

Although the school does not frame this essay as such, with this prompt, it is basically requesting a rather traditional personal statement, so our first recommendation is to download your free copy of the mbaMission Personal Statement Guide. This complimentary guide offers detailed advice on how to approach and frame the information requested in these three bullet points and includes multiple illustrative examples.

More specifically with respect to Judge’s multipart question, the school wants to know not only the basic facts of your career aspirations but also how prepared you currently are to achieve them and how certain you feel about ultimately doing so. How equipped are you already, and how much closer to your goals will earning a business degree from Judge move you? What have you done thus far (and plan to do) that will help ensure that you graduate with the skills, experiences, knowledge, and/or connections you need to build a bridge between where you are now and where you want go? You must refer to specific resources and offerings at the school that connect directly to these areas of improvement so that the admissions committee knows you have thoroughly considered and researched your options and determined that Judge is the best fit for your particular needs and interests. The school also wants to see evidence that you understand you must play an active role in achieving success and that you are ready and willing to do your part, rather than simply relying on the program and its name or reputation to move you forward on your career trajectory. Perhaps you have engaged in job shadowing, arranged informational interviews with individuals in your desired industry and/or role, or read related trade publications; whatever preparation and edification you have thus far completed, make sure the admissions committee is aware. 

The school understandably also wants to know that you are coming to the MBA program with a fire in your belly, so to speak—that you are striving toward your goals with a sense of determination and an assuredness that you will achieve them. Confidence is a crucial factor in success, and demonstrating a sincere sense of enthusiasm and conviction will make a positive impression on the admissions committee. Judge is not interested in candidates who are hoping that the school will simply drop them into their desired role after graduation, so show beyond a doubt that you are determined to attain your professional objectives and ready to get to work.

Essay 2: Tell us about a time when you made a professional mistake. How could it have ended differently? (up to 200 words)

Failures and slipups are important learning opportunities. With this prompt, Judge’s admissions committee wants to know what you take away from situations in which things do not progress as seamlessly as you had planned or hoped. Do you place blame elsewhere and try to make excuses? Or do you view these sorts of setbacks with an analytical eye, using what they can teach you to achieve better results with similar ventures going forward? In an objective sense, the scale or scope of the situation you share in this essay is not as important as how affecting and influential it was for you personally. That a world-class business school would be interested in candidates who are self-aware, eager, and open-minded learners only makes sense. Judge has posed similar essay prompts in the past, so the core idea is clearly one that the admissions committee views as pivotal in identifying applicants they feel will be successful in the school’s MBA program.

Finally, “how could it have ended differently?” is a roundabout way of asking you to share what you learned from the experience. By articulating what a more favorable outcome would look like and how it could be achieved, you will show the admissions committee that you were able to find lessons in the experience and that those takeaways have prepared you to better navigate similar situations in the future. Convey that the information, insight, and/or skills you acquired via the mistake have changed how you view or operate in the world in a positive way. Ultimately, Judge wants to know not only that you have faced and worked through the demanding process of overcoming a misstep but also how the situation has contributed to the person you are today.  

Note that Judge specifies that the story you share in this essay must be a professional one, so you might want to consider sharing a personal story for Essay 3, to provide a broader sense of your personality and background.

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This post was written by our resident Career Coach Elissa Harris. To sign up for a free 30-minute career consultation with Elissa, please click here.

Whether you are getting ready for business school, looking to change jobs, or wanting to excel in your current role, we think you will appreciate these recent career-related articles that caught our attention.

• Landing a Job Is All About Who You Know (Again) (Read time: three to four minutes) This article reminds readers that networking is more critical than ever for finding a job in our current market, and for most people, applying for roles online has lost its effectiveness as a result of employee referral programs and new artificial intelligence–related tools. The solution to landing a job is going back to the basics: networking.

•  The No. 1 AI Mistake Job Seekers Make (Read time: three minutes) Artificial intelligence (AI) can be tremendously helpful to you in your job search, if you use it effectively. Without knowing the right ways to ask ChatGPT for help, you could end up with inaccurate or vague resumes and cover letters. This article shares four tips for optimizing the value of AI in drafting job search–related documents. 

• 9 Questions to Help You Figure Out Why You’re Burned Out (Read time: three to four minutes) Burnout is real, and it affects more than just your job performance. Identifying the factors contributing to your burnout is the first step in making changes that will address it and enable you to avoid it in the future. 

• How to Stand Out at Work Without Stepping on Toes (Read time: three to four minutes) The author of this article offers four reframes for people who grew up in “quiet cultures” but want to get noticed in the “loud culture” of the United States without feeling harsh, aggressive, or boastful. Her step-by-step framework provides specific guidance for individuals who do not want to sacrifice their personal traits to succeed. 

mbaMission’s Career Coaches are happy to explore with you any career-related topics—including selecting potential paths, crafting your professional narrative, and maximizing the effectiveness of your job search—during a complimentary, 30-minute career consultation. Sign up for your free session today!