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 The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) Business School asks candidates to submit two brief essays as part of their application. The first concerns the applicant’s self-assessed strengths and how they have applied them in the past in a beneficial way. The second essay involves basic topics commonly seen in business school applications: one’s professional goals and how attending the school can help in achieving them. Any applicants who feel the need to share more information with the admissions committee can use the optional essay to do so. Read on for our more in-depth analysis of all the program’s prompts.

HKUST 2023–2024 Essay Tips

Essay 1: What are your strengths? Please also share an example of how you have used your strengths to make a difference at work or outside of work. (Max 350 words)

We think we do not really have to state this, but just in case, be honest about your strengths in this essay, and do not try to “guess” what the committee wants to hear. Be truthful in describing who you legitimately are and what you have been able to accomplish by applying yourself. Transparent or disingenuous statements will not fool or convince anyone and will only reveal you as someone incapable of critical self-evaluation.

We encourage you to first thoroughly and thoughtfully brainstorm to identify your most compelling and revelatory possible responses. Where do you feel you truly excel? What do you repeatedly bring to the table that has allowed you to make meaningful contributions? It might be a hard skill, such as an aptitude for coding or managing finances. It could be a softer skill, such as being able to communicate easily with a wide range of people in just about any circumstance. And do not discount qualities such as empathy and creativity that might lead you to view situations in ways that others do not, thereby allowing you to identify opportunities for change/improvement that others overlook.

With respect to offering an illustrative example of your strengths in action, you want to be able to “own” your answer—as we like to say—meaning that no other applicant could write exactly the same thing as you do, even if the qualities or stories you choose to highlight are very similar. For example, writing something like “One of my greatest strengths is compassion, and I’ve made a difference in my community by volunteering with the local homeless shelter” would be far too general a response and could likely be stated by multiple applicants. Instead, something much more specific like “dedicated every Saturday morning for three years to helping cook and serve breakfast at the local homeless shelter, for which I also devised a bulk-shopping plan that now saves the organization hundreds of dollars each quarter” would stand out for its originality and paint a clearer picture of the candidate who wrote it with respect to their values, dedication, and fiscal creativity. In addition, using a narrative approach is a good way to paint a dynamic picture of how you conduct yourself and to engage your reader. 

Essay 2: What are your short and long-term goals. How do you plan to use HKUST’s MBA program to help you achieve those goals? (Max 350 words)

The HKUST admissions committee is simply looking for some rather straightforward information here. With 350 words, you should have plenty of space to outline your professional and business school aspirations in a direct and concise way. Ideally, the connection between your short-term objective and your long-term one will be readily evident and feasible. If not, provide whatever context or explanation is necessary for the admissions committee to understand your intended trajectory and why the transition from one to the other makes sense and should be attainable for you. 

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Applicants to Boston University’s Questrom School of Business can either submit a written essay or respond on video to three questions, though the school does not provide these prompts in advance. This approach gives Questrom candidates the opportunity to choose the format that better fits their character and personality and that they feel more comfortable with. An optional essay is available for any applicants who want or need to share additional information with the admissions committee. Our more in-depth analysis of the school’s rather straightforward prompts for 2023–2024 follows.

BU Questrom 2023–2024 Essay Tips

Essays

In order to get to know you on a more personal level, applicants to our full-time and part-time MBA programs are required to complete either three short video essays OR one written essay during the application process. Because everyone expresses themselves in different ways, the choice is yours.

VIDEO ESSAYS

If you’re someone who feels they can better express themselves and their reasons for applying to the Questrom School of Business through a video, we encourage you to complete the video essays.

We will first ask you a question that all candidates will receive. You’ll have thirty seconds to prepare, and then 60 seconds to record your answer. This will then repeat for two additional random short-answer questions.

You can practice an unlimited number of times with Kira Talent’s provided example questions, but once you start the formal video essay questions, you are only allowed one opportunity. This allows the committee to see your candid responses. The formal process should only take you about five minutes to complete, and can be done on your own time.

Questrom applicants will not know beforehand which questions they will need to answer in these short video essays. However, given that candidates can submit either these videos or a written essay—which implies that the two options are likely designed to elicit generally the same information from applicants—we suspect that the topics covered in the two formats are probably similar. In the written essay, which we will address more fully later in this post, the school asks candidates to “explain to the admissions committee why you’d like to earn your degree from the Questrom School of Business specifically. . . . address why you have selected the program you are applying to . . . and how that program will help you achieve your post-graduate goals.” So, in preparing to respond to the program’s video questions, be sure you are ready to speak to these subjects in case they are in fact addressed in the queries you receive.

You want to be prepared to respond to any questions that relate to your “fit” with Questrom as well. This means you should be able to provide evidence that you have done your research on the school and developed a true and thorough understanding of its culture. You should be ready, if needed, to convince the admissions committee that you are eager to take advantage of opportunities at the school, that you have thoughtfully considered your potential role and place within the program’s community, and that you understand what you could offer as a Questrom MBA student. To prepare, read student blogs, peruse discussion boards, catch up on the past year or more of the program’s press releases, and spend some time on Questrom’s YouTube channel. These are all good places to start (or better, continue!) educating yourself about what life there is really like. 

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Applicants to the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas (SMU Cox), must submit two required essays, with one being largely a traditional personal statement and the other asking candidates to share five things about themselves that they would like their future classmates to know. Applicants who feel they need a little more space to convey some key or clarifying information can take advantage of the school’s optional essay, though at just 250 words, they will need to be succinct in doing so. Read on for our full analysis of SMU Cox’s 2023–2024 application essay prompts.

SMU Cox 2023–2024 Essay Tips

Essay 1: SMU Cox is a close-knit community that values teamwork. Our students are put in study groups within their cohort to build leadership and collaboration skills. What are five things you would like your study group to know about you? (500 words or less)

Whether this question is meant to be specifically about leadership and teamwork or strictly about the qualities and experiences that make you unique is not immediately clear. To bridge this (potential) gap, at least some of the aspects of yourself that you outline in this essay should reveal or imply that you are a good team player and work well with others.

Before you start writing, do some foundational research into how study groups work at SMU Cox. The prompt notes that at least one purpose of the school’s study groups is to help students “build leadership and collaboration skills,” so if you feel that an aspect of your personality or a certain skill you possess would support this goal, be sure to include it in your essay.

Although the prompt’s implication is that you will be communicating with your future classmates, the truth is, of course, that you are speaking to the admissions committee (and maybe even to whoever will ultimately be assembling the school’s study groups). For your essay to be most successful and compelling, you must demonstrate that you are interesting, additive, and unique—and that you have something valuable to offer your future teammates. 

Essay 2: What are your short-term post-MBA career goals (including the target industry, sector, and/or organization) and your long-term ambitions? (100 words or less)

With this straightforward query about your motivation to earn an MBA and expectations as to where you will go with it after graduation, Cox simply wants you to spell out what you have in mind as you approach this next phase of your life and career. The school does not ask about your past professional experiences, but briefly providing some context for your goals could be good, especially if doing so strengthens or supports your stated aspirations in a clear way and helps the admissions committee better understand your trajectory and potential.

Cox wants to know that you have given this aspect of your MBA experience serious thought, have researched your options, and are approaching business school with a strong sense of purpose—that you have a fitting and attainable goals in mind and can articulate them clearly and thoroughly. By providing the level of detail the essay question demands (“industry, sector, and/or organization”), you will be able to convince the school that you have done the necessary background work and are fully cognizant of where you want to go after graduating. 

Think about what you truly want to do with your career and lay out your aspirations clearly. Keep in mind that the rest of your application needs to provide evidence that your stated goal aligns with your existing skills and profound interests, especially once they have been augmented by an MBA education. This will show that your professed goals are achievable and lend credibility to your claims. Similarly, you want to be sure that the connection between your short-term objective and your long-term vision is clear, credible, and possible.  

One’s short-term and long-term goals are part of a traditional personal statement, so we encourage you to download your free copy of the mbaMission Personal Statement Guide, which helps applicants write this style of essay for any school. This complimentary guide offers detailed advice on approaching and framing these topics, along with multiple illustrative examples.

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We at mbaMission are proud to announce the release of the latest edition of our MBA Insider’s Guides! Since we first launched these extensive guides in 2008, we have fine-tuned them each year to provide our readers with the most detailed and recent information on each school as possible. We revamped the structure of the books last year, which ensures that our 2023–2024 edition makes getting to know the schools easier than ever.

Our clients frequently ask, “If I write the optional essay about my [low GMAT score, low GPA, bad semester in college, long stretch of unemployment, etc.], will it call attention to that weakness and overemphasize it?” In short, no. Writing the optional essay about a weakness will instead allow you to control the narrative about that issue and thereby better mitigate any negative effects it might have.

The admissions committee very likely will take note of a low GMAT score or a low GPA and will be left with unanswered questions about that weakness if you do not use the optional essay to address it. Rather than putting the committee in the position of having to guess at an explanation, take control of the situation and grab the opportunity to explain the details behind the weakness.

For example, let us say you have a weak GPA overall because you worked full time in your first two years of college, but your GPA from your last two years is much stronger. Not writing the optional essay means that you are hoping the admissions committee will take the time to search through your transcript, note the change in the GPA, and examine your job history—and then make the connection between your two years of full-time work and your subsequently lower grades during those years. On the other hand, if you use the optional essay to explain exactly what happened, you no longer have to simply hope that they will put in that extra effort and can instead be confident that they are evaluating you using complete information. Likewise, they will not have to guess at the reason behind your low GPA, because you will have proactively filled in the story.

The bottom line is that the admissions committee is made up of professionals whose obligation is to examine all aspects of your profile. They are not punitive, but they are also not careless and will certainly note any weaknesses like those mentioned here. Keep in mind that these individuals are only human and are dealing with thousands of applications. Any way that you can save them time and effort by guiding them through the story of your application can only work to your advantage.