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Last year, the admissions committee at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business radically revamped its essay questions—showing some creativity and flair by asking candidates for a list of 25 random things about themselves. Fuqua seems to have gained the insight it wanted through this approach, because its essay questions remain unchanged this year.

The school’s essay requirements—which consist of three short answers of 50 words each, the aforementioned list of 25 random things and a two-page essay—are not only unconventional, they are also demanding. You will need to share a lot of information about yourself, especially through your 25-item list! As always, we suggest that you brainstorm thoroughly and create a plan of action before putting your hands on your keyboard. Although this is standard advice from us, doing so for your Duke Fuqua essays is particularly important.

Required Short Answer Questions: Answer all 3 questions

For each short answer question, respond in 250 characters only (the equivalent of about 50 words).

1. What are your short-term goals, post-MBA?

2. What are your long-term goals?

3. Life is full of uncertainties, and plans and circumstances can change. As a result, navigating a career requires you to be adaptable. Should the short-term goals that you provided above not materialize what alternative directions have you considered?

With this trio of questions, Fuqua is essentially asking for a standard personal statement, but with one nonstandard component, presented in the third query. Most candidates feel that they have to be unequivocal in their goals, but here Fuqua is asking applicants to equivocate somewhat. Fuqua’s admissions committee knows that sometimes the best-laid plans do not always play out or yield the best results, and the school wants to know that you are prepared to switch gears and recommit to a different path, if necessary, and are fully capable of doing so. The key in answering this question is showing that your alternate goal is just as connected to your skills, interests and ambitions as your original plan and does not come “out of left field,” so to speak. For example, you would probably have a difficult time convincing the admissions committee that your short-term goal is to work in technology consulting, but your alternate goal would be to work in human resources, because these industries, for the most part, require entirely different skills and personalities. Just be mindful that both of the goals you present need to be plausible and achievable.

Because personal statements are similar from one application to the next, we have produced the mbaMission Personal Statement Guide, which helps applicants write this style of essay for any school. We offer this guide to candidates free of charge. Please feel free to download your copy today.

For a thorough exploration of Fuqua’s academic program/merits, defining characteristics, crucial statistics, social life, academic environment and more, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guide to the Fuqua School of Business.

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When writing about your career, strive to inspire your reader by showing that your goals are ambitious, but not so ambitious that they are implausible. You should work to find a middle ground between goals that are easily achievable and those that are naïve or entirely fantastic. For example, stating that in the short term, you want to return to your existing position at your firm would be an example of an unambitious goal and thus an unwise approach; on the other hand, declaring that in the short term, you want to become CEO of the New York Yankees would be shooting unreasonably high, and the goal would therefore be viewed as unrealistic.

Generally, with respect to short-term goals, you should be able to identify a reasonably precise position that you would expect to enter after graduating from your MBA program. (If you intend to start your own firm, you should have a clear understanding of what the firm will be, the direction you will take and how you will steward the business to achieve its short-term goals.) As for the long term, pick a goal that derives from your existing career path—or could be considered a logical transition from it—and that represents an ideal of sorts. Essentially, we recommend that you write about goals that would be within your grasp if everything were to go according to plan.

The Kellogg School of Management recently announced that it is adding a video interview component to its application process so that the admissions committee can get a feel for candidates’ “spontaneous” side. Although your essays may not be truly spontaneous, they should allow you to showcase the best of yourself in a compelling manner. Kellogg sticks with a traditional format for its application essays: two questions that require you to discuss your past experiences and one that is a classic personal statement/goal statement prompt. Our analysis follows…

Essay 1: What’s the greatest obstacle you’ve overcome (personally or professionally)? How has overcoming this obstacle prepared you to achieve success now and in the future? (350 word limit)

In any discussion of a situation in which you overcame something, you need to lay a foundation for your central anecdote by showing that you had significant momentum toward an important goal before encountering a very real obstacle. For your essay to be effective, you cannot simply take any story of accomplishment and embellish a trivial moment of the process leading up to it as though that moment had constituted a real challenge or hindrance. For example, saying, “I thought I had alienated my boss, but I actually hadn’t, and then I earned a promotion” just will not work.

You must create a clear narrative in which you are striving toward an ambitious goal and everything seems to indicate that you will achieve it—and then you encounter an obstacle that truly derails your plans. Ideally, the reader following your narrative would be surprised and disappointed by this turn of events, which means that the hurdle you face cannot be a mere triviality. Next you must explain the actions you took to “right the ship.” Although the task may seem daunting at first, with a clearly presented narrative, you can indeed achieve all of this in 250–275 words. Finally, you need to discuss what you learned from the experience—what was your takeaway? Avoid clichéd discussions about “resilience.” In what practical way have you been able to subsequently apply what you learned or expect to be able to do so in the future?

One important note: do not be afraid to reveal a weakness or error on your part. Although this is not a “failure” essay that basically requires you to admit that you erred, if your actions led to the creation of the obstacle or you failed to see the obstacle right before you, then you should not shy away from an honest discussion of your responsibility. If the schools were delusional enough to believe that you are perfect and have never made a mistake, they would not ask questions like this!

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Many MBA applicants feel that they are purchasing a brand when they choose which business school to attend, but the educational experience itself is what is crucial to your future, and no one will affect your education more than your professors. Each Wednesday, we profile a standout professor as identified by students. Today, we focus on James Van Horne from the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB).

In an interview with mbaMission, a Stanford GSB alumnus described James Van Horne (“Topics in Corporate Finance”) as an “old school professor,” because he addresses students formally, calling them “Mr./Ms./Mrs.” He is notorious for cold-calling students, and once he has selected a student to cold-call, often focuses on that same student for the duration of the class. As a result, students tend to prepare for his class with vigor. The alumnus added, “He pushes and pushes to make you justify every excruciating detail of your decisions, and will force you to make a definite decision before continuing with the discussion.” An advanced finance class open to second-year students, Van Horne’s “Topics in Corporate Finance” course indicates in its description that it is a quasi-seminar, because 50% of the sessions involve case discussions, and enrollment is limited. The course focuses on applications of such finance topics as capital structure, distribution policy, mergers and acquisitions and corporate restructuring. Van Horne is now professor emeritus at the GSB and is a recipient of the school’s MBA Distinguished Teaching Award (1982, 1997) and Sloan Teaching Excellence Award (1997).

For more information about the Stanford GSB and other top-ranked business schools, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.

Writing can be challenging for many business school applicants, and some have particular difficulty changing their essay structure from one essay to the next. For example, a candidate might choose to use a quote at the beginning of an essay to create a sense of urgency:

“This cannot be fixed. This cannot be fixed!” I stared blankly at the broken machinery and knew that the next few hours would be crucial…

Using this kind of attention-grabbing technique can be acceptable under certain circumstances, but you should never use the same technique twice (and definitely not three times!) in one application. By starting more than one essay in the same manner, you are effectively sending your reader the message that you understand how to use a gimmick but not how to tell a compelling story in your own way. This is also a quick way to lose the admissions reader’s interest! So be sure to vary your approach with each new essay within a single application. We work with our candidates to ensure that their ideas are presented in fresh and different ways, to captivate the admissions committee with each introduction and, indeed, each essay.