Describe the community that has been most meaningful to you. What is the most valuable thing you have gained from being a part of this community and what is the most important thing you have contributed to this community?
Yale has split the community essay into a three-part question – identify the community that is the most meaningful to you, what is the most valuable thing you gained from the community, and the most important thing you contributed to this community.
To answer Yale’s multi-part Community Essay question, follow these 3 strategies:
1. Identify the Community
By its broadest definition, a community is the neighborhood where you currently reside or where you grew up. But there are three more definitions of communities that can help you capture stories that are unconventional but shed light on a unique aspect of your personality or your life journey.
a) A group with a common objective: This group could be a learning group, your startup, the non-profit with which you have had a long association, or any hobby or sports group where you actively engage.
b) A group with similar struggles: The essays I have read often captures groups with similar struggles, like financial insecurity, violent neighborhood, inefficient or corrupt government, LGBTQ, or immigrant families rising up through socio-economic barriers.
c) A group with similar trauma: The trauma could be highly publicized in media – like War, Famine, Flooding, Earthquake, or other calamities that forced your family to move or extremely personal – addiction or other traumas, although I don’t recommend such examples for Yale MBA Essay unless it was a defining moment that changed your career or values.
Once you have identified the Community, reflect on how the community helped you.
2) Narrate how the Community Helped you
It could be a new way of approaching a problem.
The support group might have kept you in check from your worst self. Or the community might have played a critical role in giving you stability and hope. I have read essays of applicants who were misdirected into a path of addiction through bad influences.
Religious communities helped them find a higher meaning, and that pushed them to reassess their life.
For many, the community gave them the value to serve and give back to people who have gone through similar struggles.
It could also be related to a family member.
I read a moving account of an applicant struggling to find worthwhile academic goals when her mother was undergoing cancer treatment. But because she joined a community of family members who are going through a similar struggle, she found comfort and relief in learning about the practical aspect of caring for a loved one who is critically ill while also maintaining focus on their career.
3) Narrate how you Contributed Back
Often, applicants use a story or an initiative to show how they have contributed back.
The best ones are around founding stories – starting a non-profit, starting a venture with social goals, or dedicating regular hours every week to the community.
An often cliched but effective narrative is around education. Those who were oriented into STEM or Finance with the support of a mentor pay it forward by joining non-profits that cater to the youth who need guidance with their careers. The narrative is even more impressive If the beneficiary is from an economically insecure group. So, it need not be the exact community. Even if you were helping out someone who is in a much worse position than you were in your childhood or teenage, use the narrative.
Nothing is a cliché as long as you can connect your story with the community and the beneficiaries in the community.
For Sample Yale Essays, Download F1GMAT’s Yale MBA Essay Guide
