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Opioid Crisis (598 Words): Chicago Booth MBA Outside Work Essay Example

Chicago Booth MBA Essay# An MBA is as much about personal growth as it is about professional development. In addition to sharing your experience and goals in terms of career, we’d like to learn more about you outside of the office. Use this opportunity to tell us something about who you are… (Minimum 250 words, no maximum)?

Background Information: A primary care physician who was shaken by a personal tragedy in rural Iowa starts a non-profit, leveraging connections from her alma mater to fund her venture. She approaches a medical school to scale their successful rural relocation program for physicians and recognizes that developing a strong Finance skill is necessary to fix the last piece of the puzzle. 

Theme: Rural Healthcare

Theme (Explained): The opioid crisis and the lack of qualified physicians available to manage emergencies in rural America is one theme of the essay. 

The second theme is around solutions that don’t require policy intervention or legislation targeted at the Pharma industry. 

The two themes show the admissions team how the applicant is solving the problem and why it is important.  

The non-profit engagement is an additional contribution outside the applicant’s day job as a primary care physician. 

Profile: Doctor

Industry: Healthcare, Non-Profit

MBA Essay Strategy: Often, applicants rely on one problem statement or a factor for ease of building a narrative around it. In the real world, the problems are never one-dimensional.

In this case, building enough courage to start a venture was the first problem. 

Once the applicant leveraged her network to fund her venture, scaling a Physician Shortage Area Program (PSAP) was a step to avoid reinventing the wheel. 

Finally, creating preventive healthcare strategies by addressing signs of depression and anxiety before teenagers adopt addictive substances is a unique strategy to the century’s biggest healthcare crisis in the US.

Opener: The opening line connects the applicant’s memories of living with his uncle and cousins in rural Iowa – a contrast to the space-hungry existence in NYC.

Chicago Booth MBA Outside Work Essay Example: Opioid Crisis and Healthcare Innovation (598 Words)

A big part of my memory as a child was the summers in rural Iowa, where I tagged along with my Uncle in his tractor to explore the ten-thousand-acre farm. Quite a contrast to the space-hungry lifestyle I was used to in New York City. 

The visit during the summer of 2016 was a somber event. The playful cousin, with whom I shared many memories, had overdosed on opioids. The 70,000+ Americans that die of drug overdoses every year aren’t a statistic anymore. I had ...
 

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Chicago Booth MBA Essay Guide

Question 1: How will a Booth MBA help you achieve your immediate and long-term post-MBA career goals? (Minimum 250 words, no maximum.)

Question 2: Chicago Booth appreciates the individual experiences and perspectives that all of our students bring to our community. This respect for different viewpoints creates an open-minded environment Chicago Booth MBA Essay 2 Image Promptthat supports curiosity, inspires us to think more broadly, and take risks. At Booth, community is about collaborative thinking and learning from one another to better ourselves, our ideas, and the world around us.

The photos below represent some of the values described above that we uphold at Chicago Booth. Select one and share how it resonates with one of your own values. (250-word minimum)

 

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About the Author 

Atul Jose

I am Atul Jose, Founding Consultant of F1GMAT, an MBA admissions consultancy that has worked with applicants since 2009.

 

For the past 15 years I have edited the application files of admits to the M7 programs: Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Wharton School, MIT Sloan, Chicago Booth, Kellogg School of Management, and Columbia Business School, together with admits to Berkeley Haas, Yale School of Management, NYU Stern, Michigan Ross, Duke Fuqua, Darden, Tuck, IMD, London Business School, INSEAD, SDA Bocconi, IESE Business School, HEC Paris, McCombs, and Tepper, plus other programs inside the global top 30.

 

My work covers the full MBA application deliverable: career planning and profile evaluation, application essay editing, recommendation letter editing, mock interviews and interview preparation, scholarship and fellowship essay editing, and cover letter editing for funding applications. Full bio with credentials and admit history is here.

 

I am the author of the Winning MBA Essay Guide, the best-selling essay guide covering M7 MBA programs. I have written and updated the guide annually since 2013, which makes the 2026 edition the thirteenth.

 

The reason I still write and edit essays every cycle: a good MBA essay carries a real applicant's voice. Writing essays for F1GMAT's Books and Editing essays weekly is how I stay calibrated to what current admissions committees respond to.

 

Contact me for school selection, career planning, essay strategy, narrative development, essay editing, interview preparation, scholarship essay editing, or guidance documents for recommendation letters.