Candidates for Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business must provide just one written essay (of a somewhat succinct 500 words) in response to their choice of three questions. Applicants can discuss how their personal attributes and experiences could be additive to the school’s community, the leadership qualities they possess and how those will enable them to contribute to the McDonough community, or a particularly significant “win” from their professional life. McDonough also requires a short video essay in which candidates reveal something they have enjoyed within the recent past that is separate from their professional life. The school’s optional essay gives applicants the leeway to discuss anything they feel is necessary, so it should be sufficient to meet everyone’s needs. Our full analysis of McDonough’s essay prompts for 2026–2027 follows.
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Personal Essay
We want to hear your story. When responding to our required essays, be authentic and take time to reflect on your goals and past experiences. Craft a response that explains how these experiences led you to pursue an MBA.
Our goal at Georgetown McDonough is to craft a diverse class with people who have had varying personal and professional life experiences. As such, we want to give our applicants the opportunity to select one essay (from a list of three) that allows them the ability to best highlight their experiences, characteristics, and values that showcase the value proposition that they can bring to the McDonough community. Please select one of the following three essays to complete in 500 words (approximately two pages, double spaced) and include the essay prompt and your first/last name at the top of your submission.
Essay Option One – Georgetown Community
Our mission is rooted in Jesuit principles of equality and respect for everyone and an ethos of caring for the whole person. Inclusivity and diversity are core to supporting a community of people with an intersectional understanding of themselves and the world around them. Share how your educational, familial, cultural, economic, social, and/or other individual life experiences will contribute to the diversity of perspectives and ideas at Georgetown University.
This essay is a great opportunity to provide the McDonough admissions committee with a better understanding of you as a unique individual. Start by thinking about the aspects of your personality that you believe truly define you—not just what you do and have done, but who you are—and fully explore your background, hobbies, talents, values, motivations, and quirks. You want to provide a well-rounded picture of yourself that draws from multiple areas and shows that you possess characteristics and/or knowledge that would make you a positive addition to the school’s diverse community. You will also need to describe the situations and circumstances that have helped you develop these qualities and understandings. Although your personal background, strengths, and abilities might overlap with those of other McDonough applicants in some way, you can differentiate yourself here via the stories you choose to illustrate them.
A good way to start identifying your best options for this essay is by making a list of things you believe are notable about you and that would be helpful to have in an MBA environment. Then, pinpoint the experiences you have had that engendered these qualities. Especially consider situations from your past that both allow you to discuss your strengths and standout characteristics and in which you worked with or alongside individuals who were different from you. Instances when you helped create an inclusive atmosphere for others would also, understandably, be great fodder for this essay. If you can show the admissions committee concrete evidence that you know how to collaborate and communicate effectively with others who have disparate backgrounds, mindsets, and/or styles, your essay will be even more powerful.
You will then need to demonstrate both self-awareness and a thorough understanding of McDonough by drawing connections between (1) what you have done and who you are and (2) what you can subsequently provide at the school as a member of its community. To do this effectively, you will need to truly familiarize yourself in depth with what the McDonough MBA experience is like. Go beyond the school’s website and published materials and connect directly with students, alumni, and other people who can provide firsthand, insider knowledge. Absolutely visit campus if at all possible, and sit in on a class. Read news articles about the school as well as student blogs, check out McDonough’s YouTube channel, and, if offered, attend admissions events in your area. As you do all this research, look for places where your skills, strengths, and personality would not just fit but also contribute in some way. You want to make sure that in your essay, you are not merely showcasing traits, events, and achievements that you think are interesting or singular. They also need to clearly fit with McDonough specifically.
The broad scope of this essay prompt allows you a great amount of freedom to choose and share the information you believe is most important for the admissions committee to know about you, but you have only 500 words for this submission, so focus on conveying your core message(s) clearly and directly. Concentrate on the elements of your identify that you feel are most significant and position you to make a meaningful contribution, explain for the admissions committee how those elements developed or were obtained, and show a connection between them and specific aspects of the program.
Essay Option Two – Human-Centered Leadership
Artificial intelligence can generate answers in seconds, but it cannot define your values. As AI becomes more integrated into our lives and careers, what qualities do you believe will become more important for today’s business leaders? Share an experience that illustrates how those qualities have shaped you and how you hope to contribute them to the Georgetown MBA community.
For the first time, the McDonough admissions committee is asking candidates to address the topic of artificial intelligence (AI), and this will likely become a topic of discussion in more business schools’ essays going forward. We recognize some significant parallels between this essay option and Essay Option One, and we suggest using a similar structure for your response here. Your main challenge is to determine which qualities are crucial for business leaders to possess in response to AI becoming an increasingly larger factor in the workplace. Note that this essay prompt is not asking your thoughts on AI’s specific influence. Instead, focus on the soft skills that leaders will need as AI continues to analyze information and automate work. As you brainstorm ideas, consider the traits that resonate the most with you personally. Which of these qualities do you already possess? Then, as is necessary for any effective essay response, you must share a anecdote about a time in the past when you demonstrated two or three of these traits. You should also explain what you learned from this experience and how it made you a better leader going forward.
As with Essay Option One, you will need to close your response by conveying how you will share these qualities you possess with the McDonough community. Once again, this is an opportunity to convince the admissions committee that you have done your research on the school and can envision where and how you will contribute. After speaking with students and alumni, reading articles and blogs, and potentially even visiting campus, you should be able to highlight the specific clubs, classes, and events where your leadership qualities will add the most value.
Essay Option Three – Achieving Excellence
Georgetown McDonough is committed to achieving greater excellence to enrich the legacies of our students and alumni. Please reflect on a professional experience from your resume where you achieved outstanding results. Describe why this experience exemplified excellence, highlight the strengths or skills you utilized that contributed to this achievement, and share how these qualities will help you leave a legacy at Georgetown.
We imagine that at this point in your life, you have achieved a number of things professionally that you could use as fodder for an application essay. However, your goal here is not simply to impress the admissions committee with the scale or impact of your accomplishment but also to offer one that best fits this particular prompt. This means you will need to select a story of achievement that allows you to spotlight certain abilities and qualities that demonstrate your potential. The McDonough admissions committee should take away two important things from your essay. The first is a better understanding of your values, which will be conveyed by the nature of the experience you choose and the reasons you consider it so successful (i.e., how do you define “excellence,” especially in your area of interest?). And the second is an awareness of some of the key skills you already possess and how you employ them to achieve a desired outcome.
In addition to creating a compelling narrative for this essay, you should take care to not sound as though you are in any way bragging. The school is less interested in the specific accomplishment you describe and more interested in how you achieved it and why you consider it so significant and successful. As you tell your story, emphasize your actions, and let the story do a lot of the work for you. Finally, McDonough asks you how the skills that played a significant role in this experience will enable you to have an impact at the school, so you must demonstrate that you have a thorough understanding of the MBA experience there. Refer back to our advice for the school’s first essay option with respect to researching the school beyond its website and marketing publications. You need to be able to clearly show a correlation between certain offerings at McDonough and the strengths you demonstrated in the story you have shared.
Video Essay
We believe a vibrant community is built on diverse and unique individuals, and we want you to bring your whole self to Georgetown McDonough. We’ve learned about your professional and leadership qualities throughout the application, but now we want to know more about you beyond work. Whether it’s a new hobby, a fun adventure, or a simple pleasure, in one minute, share what has recently brought you joy outside of work.
McDonough’s video essay is intended for you to offer the school a glimpse into your core character and personality as an individual, so your focus should be on ensuring that your video submission is as authentic and natural as possible. Do not use any of it to pitch your candidacy, express your admiration for the program, discuss your career, or blatantly pander to the school. And absolutely avoid repeating any information that is already clearly conveyed elsewhere in your application. Your video must contain only new information for the admissions committee and shine a light on your personality and character.
You have only one minute in which to make an impression, and even without knowing you personally, we are confident in our belief that you have more to say about your chosen hobby, passion, or interest than can be conveyed in a mere 60 seconds—so do not waste any of them! Tell the admissions committee about whatever inspires, excites, amuses, relaxes, entertains, energizes, or galvanizes you, and go beyond offering a basic description to really draw a (verbal) picture of how your chosen interest manifests in your life. Compare, for example, “I love baking and make up new cookie recipes all the time” with “I find inspiration all around me for new and interesting cookie flavors and spend my commutes home in the evenings jotting down new recipes to try. At one point, I was bringing in so many dozens of cookies to my coworkers each week that they asked if I could find a different test group for some of the recipes so they wouldn’t have to sign up for Weight Watchers!” The latter is much more illustrative and entertaining—and would likely make a more lasting impression on the admissions committee.
Pay special attention to the word “recently” in the prompt. The school wants to know what you find exciting or entertaining in your life today, not something you enjoyed or spent a lot of time doing when you were younger—no matter how passionate you might have been about it at the time. However, if your chosen interest is one that you have maintained for many years, starting from a young age, and you still engage in it today, that longevity will certainly show the admissions committee your remarkable dedication to it. Similarly, keep the word “joy” in mind when choosing your topic. You might, for example, commit a significant amount of time each month to a philanthropic cause, but before you highlight this activity (perhaps in hopes of impressing the admissions committee with your benevolent nature), stop and assess how much true “joy” it brings—versus, say, satisfaction or pride. McDonough is asking about happiness, so make sure that emotion is the primary one associated with whatever you discuss in this essay.
Although the school does not ask you to explain why your chosen topic is so important to you, this is absolutely information that needs to be conveyed in some way. Your “why” is what will help you stand out from other candidates who might share the same or a similar interest. Depending on your topic, you might need to state your reason(s) outright, but ideally, this would be clear to the admissions viewer through either the enthusiasm with which you speak or the details you offer.
Given that this is a video, you will obviously need to think beyond what you will say and consider the clothing you will wear, the setting or background of your video, your tone of voice, your language style, whether you will include music, and a host of other details. Brainstorm ways you could nonverbally communicate and reinforce your message to complement what you are saying and help permeate your submission with as much information and color as possible. For example, if you are an avid biker, consider using a GoPro or similar camera to film your video while you are actively riding. If you are a dedicated guitar player, perhaps strum your guitar as you speak (or, if you are especially confident, you could even sing about yourself!). Think about what you believe is an integral part of who you are today, and then let your creativity flow.
On a practical note, be sure to speak clearly in your video. You naturally do not want any part of your message to be lost or misunderstood, and the admissions committee will likely view your communication skills and style as indicators of how you might interact with your classmates and/or speak in the classroom. Spend some time practicing in front of a mirror or a friend, but do not overrehearse. You want to come across as genuine and natural.
Optional Essay
Please provide any information you would like to add to your application that you have not otherwise included (300–350 words, approximately one page, double spaced).
We tend to believe that the best use of the optional essay is to explain confusing or problematic issues in your candidacy, and this prompt offers an opportunity to do just that. So, if you need to, this is your chance to address any questions an admissions officer might have about your profile—a poor grade or overall GPA, a low GMAT or GRE score, a gap in your work experience, etc. In our mbaMission Optional Essays Guide, we offer detailed advice on how best to take advantage of the optional essay, with multiple examples, to help you mitigate any problem areas in your application.
However, because the question can be interpreted rather broadly, it does open the door for you to discuss anything that is not addressed elsewhere in your application and that you feel is truly critical for the admissions committee to know to be able to evaluate you fully and effectively. We caution you about simply trying to fill this space because you fear that not doing so would somehow count against you. Remember, by submitting an additional essay, you are asking the admissions committee to do extra work on your behalf, so you need to make sure that time is warranted. If you are using the essay to emphasize something that if omitted would render your application incomplete, take this opportunity to write a very brief narrative that reveals this key new aspect of your candidacy.
Re-Applicant Essay
Required for re-applicants. How have you strengthened your candidacy since your last application? We are particularly interested in hearing about how you have grown professionally and personally (300–350 words, approximately one page, double spaced).
Whether you have improved your academic record, received a promotion, begun a new and exciting project, increased your community involvement, or taken on some sort of personal challenge, the key to success with this essay is conveying a very deliberate path of achievement. McDonough wants to know that you have been actively striving to improve yourself and your profile, and that you have seized opportunities during the previous year to do so, because a McDonough MBA is vital to you. The responses to this essay question will vary greatly from one candidate to the next, because each person’s needs and experiences differ. We are more than happy to provide one-on-one assistance with this highly personal essay to ensure that your efforts over the past year are presented in the best light possible.
To learn more about the essays for other top business schools, visit our MBA Essay Tips and Examples page.
