We at mbaMission are proud to release our new Insider’s Guides, which includes 17 individual top-ranked business school titles, for the 2018-2019 MBA admissions season!
Informed by firsthand insight from students, alumni, program representatives, and admissions officers, the Insider’s Guides offer detailed and up-to-date descriptions of the following:
Defining characteristics of the business school’s location, class size, curriculum, teaching methods, facilities, alumni base/involvement, and rankings
Courses, experiential opportunities, faculty, and clubs related to MBAs’ most common career areas (consulting, finance, entrepreneurship, etc.)
The admissions committee’s stance on GMAT/GRE/TOEFL scores, recommendations, the waitlist, layoffs/unemployment, and other application elements
Notable professors and social/community events
Special year-over-year tables of rankings, class profile statistics, and top industries for each MBA program
We created our b-school-specific Insider’s Guides to help inform today’s MBA hopefuls with a comprehensive picture of the resources, environments, activities, and communities at each school, so they can choose the program that is truly best for them. Download your free copy of each of our comprehensive Insider’s Guides today!
Are you applying to business school this year? If so, you can enroll in one of our free business school workshops, which are offered both online and in person in major cities across the country!
This July, the event lineup includes the following sessions:
July 9 Writing a Standout Harvard Business School Essay (Online) Harvard Business School (HBS) receives more than 9,000 applications each year. During this live webinar, an experienced senior consultant will help prospective MBAs learn how to ensure their essay will grab the attention of an overworked HBS admissions officer.
July 12 Essay Writing (Online) How can you write essays that grab the attention of MBA admissions committees? An experienced senior consultant will use this simple but often perplexing question as the starting point to a workshop for prospective business school applicants.
July 15 MBA Tour – San Francisco Are you ready for your MBA? This summer, we at mbaMission are pleased to be attending The MBA Tour – US, where applicants from all over the country will meet with prospective MBA students, top business school admissions representatives, alumni, and other like-minded education enthusiasts to begin (or continue) their MBA journey!
July 17 MBA Tour – Houston Are you ready for your MBA? This summer, we at mbaMission are pleased to be attending The MBA Tour – US, where applicants from all over the country will meet with prospective MBA students, top business school admissions representatives, alumni, and other like-minded education enthusiasts to begin (or continue) their MBA journey!
July 18 Assessing Your MBA Profile (Online) In this session, learn to assess the quantitative and qualitative factors you bring to the table to better anticipate how you might be viewed by the admissions committee at the school of your dreams…and what you can do to improve that assessment!
July 21 MBA Tour – New York City Are you ready for your MBA? This summer, we at mbaMission are pleased to be attending The MBA Tour – US, where applicants from all over the country will meet with prospective MBA students, top business school admissions representatives, alumni, and other like-minded education enthusiasts to begin (or continue) their MBA journey!
July 23 MBA Tour – Chicago Are you ready for your MBA? This summer, we at mbaMission are pleased to be attending The MBA Tour – US, where applicants from all over the country will meet with prospective MBA students, top business school admissions representatives, alumni, and other like-minded education enthusiasts to begin (or continue) their MBA journey!
July 25 MBA Tour – Washington, D.C. Are you ready for your MBA? This summer, we at mbaMission are pleased to be attending The MBA Tour – US, where applicants from all over the country will meet with prospective MBA students, top business school admissions representatives, alumni, and other like-minded education enthusiasts to begin (or continue) their MBA journey!
July 26 MBA Tour – Boston Are you ready for your MBA? This summer, we at mbaMission are pleased to be attending The MBA Tour – US, where applicants from all over the country will meet with prospective MBA students, top business school admissions representatives, alumni, and other like-minded education enthusiasts to begin (or continue) their MBA journey!
To enroll in one of our free seminars, click the event title in the list above. We look forward to having you join us!
*Please note: You are viewing an essay analysis from the 2018-2019 admissions cycle. Click here to view our collection of essay analyses for the current admissions season.
We were thrilled to learn that nothing has changed with the application essay prompts for Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business this season, because that means the school’s intriguing “25 Random Things” essay is back for another round! Very few MBA programs give applicants as much room to roam and get creative with the application as Fuqua does, and we encourage any hesitant candidates out there to view this essay as the generous opportunity it is to provide a comprehensive picture of yourself as a well-rounded candidate. With such a quirky and “random” essay, we have trouble imagining any applicant not having fun with the process. So, enjoy the opportunity and get some inspiration for that and Fuqua’s other required submissions in our analysis, which follows…
Required short-answer essay questions Instructions: Answer all three of the following questions. For each question, respond in 500 characters only (the equivalent of about 100 words).
What are your short-term goals, post-MBA?
What are your long-term goals?
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?
Interested in learning how to tackle this year’s Duke Fuqua application essay? Watch the short video below before you continue reading the full analysis!
With this trio of questions, Fuqua is essentially asking for a standard, albeit very brief, personal statement—though the third query does include a rather nonstandard component. Candidates often feel they must be totally unequivocal in their goals, but in this case, Fuqua is giving applicants room to address and speculate on other options. The admissions committee knows that sometimes the best-laid plans do not play out as expected or may even yield unintended results, and the school wants to know that you are prepared to switch gears and recommit to a different path, if necessary—and that you 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 while 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 goals you present must be plausible and achievable.
As we noted, these questions concern many of the same topics covered in 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 subjects, along with multiple illustrative examples. Be sure to claim your copy today.
First required essay: 25 random things about yourself
Instructions: Present your response in list form, numbered 1 to 25. Some points may be only a few words, while others may be longer. Your complete list should not exceed two pages.
For context: Fuqua believes different types of people, points of view, and experiences bring out the best in everyone. And above all, we place a premium on succeeding while making a positive impact on businesses, organizations, and the world. These ways of thinking set the Duke MBA experience apart, and this concept extends beyond the student body to include faculty, staff, and administration. When a new person joins the Admissions team, we ask that person to share with everyone in the office a list of “25 Random Things About Yourself.” As an Admissions team, we already know the new hire’s professional and academic background, so learning these “25 Random Things” helps us get to know someone’s personality, background, special talents, and more.
In this spirit, the admissions committee also wants to get to know you–beyond the professional and academic achievements listed in your resume and transcript. You can share with us important life experiences, your likes/dislikes, hobbies, achievements, fun facts, or anything that helps us understand what makes you who you are. Share with us your list of “25 Random Things” about YOU.
*Please note: You are viewing an essay analysis from the 2018-2019 admissions cycle. Click here to view our collection of essay analyses for the current admissions season.
Last year, we noted that the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, seemed to have begun embracing the less-is-more movement with regard to its application essays, having cut back its required submissions slightly, and this year, the program seems to have adopted that mind-set a little more (with the exception of its optional essays). It has gone from three mandatory essays down to two and changed the bulk of its career-focused question from an explanation of the past to a projection into the future. As for that aforementioned optional essay, Berkeley-Haas has broken unique ground with an elaborate questionnaire prompt that appears complicated at first but is actually rather straightforward. Overall, candidates still have a good opportunity to present a well-rounded impression of themselves to the school, from who they are today to the professional they expect to be in their projected career. Our full analysis of Berkeley-Haas’s updated essay questions follows…
Interested in learning how to tackle this year’s Berkeley Haas application essays? Watch the short video below before you continue reading the full analysis!
Essay #1: Tell us a six-word story that reflects a memorable experience in your life-to-date. Elaborate on why it is meaningful to you. (300 words maximum)
Before you start hyperventilating, let us reassure you that you absolutely can convey a meaningful and compelling story in just six words. Perhaps the most famous example of this is Ernest Hemingway’s famous “six-word novel,” which reads, “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” In fact, entire Reddit, Pinterest, and Tumblr pages are dedicated to these succinct narratives, and several publications and Web sites have regular contests to see who can craft the best six-word tales. So, Berkeley-Haas may not be the first to come up with the idea, but it does appear to be the first business school to make it a part of its application!
In addition to presenting several examples for applicants on its team Web page, the Berkeley Haas admissions committee offers two key pieces of advice for this essay in a video application tip: using contractions (e.g., it’s, can’t, won’t, didn’t) is totally acceptable, and perfect grammar is not necessary. These are both important space savers. Thankfully, the school also gives you a 300-word essay in which to further elaborate on your mini story (up from 250 words last season), so you can expound on some elements of the narrative that may not be immediately understood, but take care to not use that portion of this essay response to simply retell your story in more detail.
Start by thinking carefully about how you want to present yourself as an applicant and an individual, and consider what you might say in your other essays for the program, to ensure that each piece you submit is complementary of the others and offers something different about you. You might consider this first essay the “colorful” essay and the other one the more “serious” submission. In this one, you have a special opportunity to provide a window into your life experience and personality. Your six-word story should captivate and intrigue the admissions reader, leaving him or her wanting to learn more. (Almost by definition, the reader will be enveloped in mystery!) Then, the second, 300-word portion of the essay should unravel any mystery, illuminate your character, and clarify the significance of the core narrative in who you are today, thereby giving the admissions committee a critical sense of understanding.
Essay #2: Briefly describe your immediate post-MBA career goal, and discuss how it will put you on a path to a meaningful and rewarding career. (300 words maximum)
Yet again, Berkeley-Haas has reframed its career-focused essay prompt. This year, rather than asking about candidates’ “prior experiences” and the foundation/impetus those have provided, the admissions committee asks applicants to discuss how their first post-MBA position will be the initial chapter of an ultimately fulfilling professional story. The school knows only too well that many candidates change their career goals during the course of the MBA program, given their exposure to new people, ideas, and options, so focusing on an applicant’s immediate post-graduate aspiration allows the admissions committee to assess where that individual is right now in his/her thinking and development. The concept of motivation is key, so you want to demonstrate that you are a forward-thinking person who sees business school as a vital step on your professional and personal journey and truly understands how the experience fits into your vision of your future. Also, take special note of the words “meaningful and rewarding” in the school’s prompt. Berkeley-Haas wants to know that you are pursuing an MBA because you are passionate and enthusiastic about the career you envision will follow, that it appeals to you in a personal and significant way—not just as a potential path to a bigger paycheck or fancy title (or worse, that you simply feel you are supposed to get an MBA for some reason). So be sure to have that excitement and drive show in your response by being authentic and demonstrating that you have truly thought about your path and are eager to get started.
*Please note: You are viewing an essay analysis from the 2018-2019 admissions cycle. Click here to view our collection of essay analyses for the current admissions season.
With Dawna Clarke back at the admissions helm for the University of Virginia’s Darden School after almost a decade and a half since her previous tenure there (and a stint as an mbaMission Senior Consultant), we were not surprised to see that she has put her stamp on the application process for this season, completely revamping the essay prompts. The single question Darden has posed the past few years has been replaced with five new prompts, each requesting a short blast of an essay that together total 750 words and cover applicants’ personal, professional, and educational objectives, while subtly acknowledging Darden’s character (its learning teams and 80-country reach, in particular). Our analysis follows…
“Tell us what you would want your learning team to know about you – personal, professional or both.” (100 words)
Interested in learning how to tackle this year’s UVA Darden application essays? Watch the short video below before you continue reading the full analysis!
Before you start writing, we suggest you do some background work on what a learning team is and how it functions. At Darden, learning teams are carefully selected groups of five to six students, assembled with the intent of creating an eclectic mix of personalities and backgrounds. This group meets in the evenings, Sunday through Thursday, to tackle the next day’s case work together (and if you are not familiar with the case method, now is the time to do your homework on it as well!). Learning teams are a core element of the Darden experience, in part because some cases are so voluminous that students must take a divide-and-conquer approach and teach one another the material. In short, learning teams are intense and complex, requiring strong teamwork skills and contributions but capable of providing support and camaraderie as students work their way through Darden’s notoriously challenging first year. For your essay response to be successful and compelling, you will need to show that you have something to offer your future teammates.
So, in a mere 100 words, you must reveal that you have a perspective, attribute, or background that will better enable your learning team to function. We are advocates of using anecdotes to reveal this kind of information and suggest you consider focusing on a single experience that demonstrates your positive team attributes and can represent how you would function on your learning team. This does not mean that you must describe a clichéd team experience to prove you are a team player. The key is simply to show you bring something of value to the table in this context—perhaps you are a great debater and can clearly see and elucidate multiple sides to a story, or you have particular experience with and insight into geopolitics, or you are naturally intellectually curious and have amassed a broad range of basic knowledge. Within reason, the trait does not matter! Establish that you have a skill or attribute that would be advantageous to Darden’s learning team experience, and you will send a compelling message.
“Each year, Darden connects with over 80 countries. If you could choose any location in the world, where would you want to go with Darden? And why?” (50 words)
In just two or three sentences, you have an opportunity to show your adventurous or intellectual side by selecting a country that reveals something interesting about you. However, this should not be a travelogue. Just succinctly explain why and how your choice will enhance your education and others’ as well.
(Note that that paragraph is exactly 50 words long!)
“Darden strives to identify and cultivate leaders who follow their purpose. At this stage, how would you describe your evolving leadership style and please provide an example.” (200 words)
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