London Business School (LBS) has been posing the same core application essay question since 2015—one that largely constitutes a traditional personal statement—so the admissions committee must feel that the prompt elicits what it wants to know when evaluating candidates for the next class. More recently, the school added a second, albeit short, required essay, for which candidates are tasked with discussing their uniqueness. You might want to consider taking advantage of the optional essay as well if you feel that doing so will facilitate a more thorough evaluation of your candidacy. In our analysis, we offer our advice on crafting your approach, whether you ultimately decide to write two submissions for LBS or three.
The Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford takes a rather minimalist approach to application essays, asking its candidates to compose only one short, traditional written submission. The essay’s prompt gives applicants the leeway to share whatever additional information they believe the school needs to fully evaluate them, so they do not have to adhere to any particular topic. However, Oxford also requires applicants to complete an online assessment involving several competency-focused video questions. We imagine that many candidates would much prefer to write a second essay over contending with spontaneous queries on video, but applicants should embrace this opportunity to showcase themselves in a more dynamic way for the admissions committee. In our full analysis, we provide guidance on approaching Oxford Saïd’s single essay question and online assessment, as well as its separate prompts for 1+1 MBA candidates and reapplicants.
The University of Southern California (USC) Marshall School of Business takes a somewhat traditional approach to its application essays. For the school’s required essay, applicants must detail their short-term and long-term career goals and explain Marshall’s role in achieving them—though without much elaboration, given the submission’s mere 400-word limit. Applicants who feel they have an issue to explain or a particularly significant story to share can use the school’s second essay to do so if they wish, but all reapplicants are required to respond to this otherwise “optional” prompt. Our analysis of all of USC Marshall’s essay questions for this season follows.
Applicants to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School must first provide their rationale for pursuing an MBA and have 250 words with which to do so. The school’s second required essay also has a 250-word limit, where candidates must discuss which of the school’s core values align most closely with their career. Candidates who have more to share about themselves or issues to explain can use the school’s optional essay to (briefly) offer this key information. Read on for our in-depth analysis of Kenan-Flagler’s 2026–2027 essay questions.
In addition to completing a short video, applicants to Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management must submit two somewhat brief statements (400 and 300 words) as part of their application. The first prompt is professionally focused, requesting that candidates expound on their intentions for their career after graduation and explain the motivation behind their choices as well as what capabilities they already possess that will position them for success. The second prompt asks applicants to discuss a challenging or difficult situation they navigated and what they took away from the experience. The brevity and scope of the program’s required statements do not offer much opportunity for creativity, but we encourage applicants to try to make their responses as personal as possible to help them stand out better among the multitude of similar submissions Owen will receive. The school’s optional “explanatory statement” prompt allows candidates who might need to clarify any elements of their profile to the admissions committee to do so. Our more in-depth analysis of Owen’s statement prompts and video component follows.
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