If you are applying to business school, you have probably heard about the “case method” more times than you can count—and likely wondered what the experience is like and what it asks of MBA students. In this episode of The mbaMission Podcast, host Harold Simansky and mbaMission Executive Director Jessica Shklar sit down with Harvard Business School (HBS) professor Joshua Margolis, a faculty member in the Christensen Center for Teaching and Learning, for a candid look at how the case method works at the school that invented it.
The perfect MBA applicant does not actually exist. However, the perception of the perfect applicant absolutely does—such an individual scales greater and greater personal, community, and professional peaks undeterred until finally applying to business school. Because of this idealized image of an applicant, candidates who have taken any time off from their professional pursuits believe they are automatically at a disadvantage. They worry that the admissions committees will see the gap(s) in their professional timeline and dismiss their candidacy outright. After all, the schools probably have many other, seemingly more determined individuals they could admit instead, right?
For its first required application essay, the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, wants candidates to succinctly introduce themselves and then dig deep on a personal level and discuss something about which they are passionate. For the second year in a row, the school is asking for this information via video. For Haas’s second required essay, applicants are asked to explain where they hope to go professionally after earning their degree and how they anticipate the Haas MBA program will help them get there. The Haas application also includes two supplemental essays. The first one invites candidates to share how their background or experiences have influenced who they are. The second is a traditional optional essay that invites applicants, if needed, to address any unclear or problem areas in their profile. Together, the essays should allow you to offer insight into who you are as an individual and who you hope to be as a future business leader, to complement the information presented in your resume, recommendations, and basic stats. Read on for our more detailed analysis of all the school’s 2026–2027 prompts.
MBA candidates considering pursuing a real estate career often wonder whether they will be taken seriously if they come from a different industry, whether the MBA curriculum will properly prepare them to succeed, and whether the location of the program they choose might limit their options. While an MBA can absolutely pave the way for a candidate to enter real estate, the on-ramp is less obvious than it is for more conventional paths, such as consulting, banking, and tech, and students must commit to doing some intentional work outside the classroom.
In an admissions blog post, Allison Jamison, the assistant dean of admissions at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, noted the importance of keeping things straightforward in the application process. Reflecting this mindset, Fuqua’s demands with respect to application essays are on the minimal side, which most candidates likely appreciate. Applicants must respond to one short-answer essay question in a mere 100 words, and the maximum length for the program’s traditional essay is just 500 words. Although Fuqua’s distinctive “25 random things” prompt might give some candidates pause at first, we love it for the freedom it gives applicants to get creative and paint a well-rounded picture of themselves. It should therefore be approached with more enthusiasm than fear. (Plus, Jamison has previously noted that the admissions committee enjoys reading these essays the most.) Our detailed analysis of all Fuqua’s prompts for 2026–2027 follows.
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