Schools measure your preparedness and research by analyzing how you quote the curriculum. The ‘Why MBA’ question needs a few lines dedicated to the specificity of the program. Here are a few pointers worth considering before you include curriculum details:
1) Curriculum Structure
General Management programs – Harvard, Stanford, Darden, and Haas, have continued the tradition of building the foundational knowledge in the core courses with the coverage of traditional management topics – Accounting, Finance, Marketing, Operations, Leadership and Strategy, followed by 2nd year specialization either in the form of concentrations, specialization, themes or tracks.
In concentrations, the admission team has divided the electives into broader categories so that the candidates will have a structure in 2nd year when they choose the electives. Most General Management MBA programs will give the option to pick electives without specialization. Stanford has General Management as an Area of interest. If you want a leadership role post-MBA, taking a group of courses with strong General Management focus would be ideal. For career switchers, interested in a job function, choosing specialization is mandatory.
More Curriculum Analysis with Winning MBA Essay Guide
2) Feasibility
During our consulting service, we get questions on whether switching industry is easy. And if so how to quote the curriculum. The answer is a little tricky. Despite the school’s nimbleness in changing the curriculum, most recruitment in diverse industries haulppens in top tier schools (top 10). Any school outside the ranking will have a tough time placing candidates in niche industries.
Location of the school is another factor. If the school is in a state/city/country known for Automobile/Aerospace/Manufacturing/Winery/Fashion/Sports, attracting recruiters is easy as the logistical challenges are limited and the career service team would have already established a relationship with the recruiters. If the school’s curriculum has a track or concentrations in the niche industry, it is safe to assume that the career service team is actively searching for recruiters in the industry. Despite the best efforts of the team, we have seen the school in tier-2 struggling to find opportunities in niche sectors. For essays, you can quote the concentration/track, but in reality, it would be much tougher to make the switch.
There is another reason. The best pay packages are offered in Consulting, Finance, and Technology. Overall Business School ranking depends on post-MBA salary. It is unlikely that the school would dedicate their placement efforts on industries where the salary falls below the median of the class. That is why few candidates choose non-profit or Entrepreneurship (start-up) opportunities, post-MBA. Additional pressure from peers to choose the most lucrative career path is not easy to withstand despite moving accounts of impact and change narrated in essays.
Most MBA candidates who pursue non-traditional goals do it on their own terms without involving the career service team. Some Employment reports exclude students seeking Entrepreneurial opportunities from the final data to avoid impact on their post-MBA salary data.
If you are an Entrepreneurial applicant, first define what Entrepreneurship is for you, before pursuing an MBA.
3) Electives and Curriculum Customizability
1-Year MBA program is not a direct threat to the traditional 2-year MBA programs in the top 10 rankings, but the poaching of talents from the application pool has forced the US schools in the 10-30 ranking to bring customizability in the first year itself. McCombs MBA, for instance, has a flexible core with work and leadership experience integrated in the first year itself. The only top MBA program, offering core elective is MIT Sloan. The Full-time MBA gives students elective option in Managerial Finance, Intro to Operations, Marketing Management, and Competitive Strategy.
Electives are a big part of the MBA experience. The real learning happens in the 2nd year. Most schools have concentrations/majors/themes/tracks/specializations in the 10-15 range. MBA program with majors/tracks will mention that explicitly in the certificate. Always remember, in an economic downturn, specialists are preferred over a generalist. Post-1980, we have a cyclic boom and bust in the economy, every 10 years. Prepare for the worst, and choose a specialization if you have found a career path.
Here is a snapshot of the themes/concentrations/majors/specializations/tracks for the top 15 MBA programs in the US 
Read Ultimate Guide for details
4) Experiential Learning
Second to internship, what makes MBA program withstand the bubbles and busts is the emphasis on offering experiential learning opportunities. Schools in New York (Stern, Columbia, and Cornell) have taken advantage of the financial centers and the concentration of the Media industry with lecture series, seminars, industry visits, and networking around the City. In addition to reducing travel time, most candidates choose the program with New York as a clear post-MBA location.
For other schools with strength in consulting (Kellogg, Harvard, and Stanford), the emphasis is on Global Experiential learning. Most likely, a Management Consultant will have to dedicate 60-65% of their time traveling to a client location and work in an unfamiliar environment. Therefore, it makes sense to train the candidate to travel and work on tight deadlines.
Close to half of Kellogg's Full-time and Part-time MBA students participate in the annual Global Initiatives in Management (GIM) where the students have to travel to an international location and spend close to 2-weeks interacting with government officials, and business leaders while developing a deeper understanding of the problem they are trying to solve.
At Stanford, Global Management Immersion Experience (GMIX), takes students to the client location in a new industry they are likely to work post-MBA and experience the culture. Harvard takes the meaning of experiential learning quite literally with the FIELD Global Immersions where students have to develop a product or service in collaboration with a partner organization. The variations are many for top MBA programs with each school bringing its own unique touch to the experience Understanding the differences is important to quote them in the essay. Read Ultimate Guide or Winning MBA Essay Guide, before creating a narrative around experiential learning.
5) Internships
For 2-year MBA programs, almost all candidates choose internships unless they are pursuing an Entrepreneurial path. Instead of plainly mentioning internship opportunities in essays, dig deep and find the conversion rate and performance data.
1) What percentage of internships converts to a full-time offer?
2) Which industry is the most popular in internships?
3) What function is the most popular in internships?
4) Which Employer has a long-standing reputation of picking the most interns?
Mention the industry/function for internships. If you have chosen Consulting, most likely you will be working for a non-profit and hone your consulting skills. But if you are planning to switch careers into Finance, an internship is an excellent route to full-time offers. Specify the preferred employer by analyzing the latest Employment report.
6) One Paragraph vs. Spreading Out
When we review essays, the biggest challenge has been spreading the curriculum mentions across the essay. We can’t blame the applicants. The first part of the ‘Why MBA’ questions will always involve motivation.
Applicants dedicate the opening paragraph on interesting life stories to connect with ‘Why MBA’ now. When the applicant switches the narrative to the specifics of the curriculum, they list out the most relevant part of the program, without thinking about the narrative. The result is an interesting first paragraph and then a list of courses/experiential learning they like. That is not what the admission team is expecting. You have to use elements of storytelling equally while mentioning curriculum. It is tricky, but we can help you with our Essay Review Service.
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About the Author
I am Atul Jose - the Founding Consultant at F1GMAT.
Over the past 15 years, I have helped MBA applicants gain admissions to Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, MIT, Chicago Booth, Kellogg, Columbia, Haas, Yale, NYU Stern, Ross, Duke Fuqua, Darden, Tuck, IMD, London Business School, INSEAD, IE, IESE, HEC Paris, McCombs, Tepper, and schools in the top 30 global MBA ranking.
I offer end-to-end Admissions Consulting and editing services – Career Planning, Application Essay Editing & Review, Recommendation Letter Editing, Interview Prep, assistance in finding funds and Scholarship Essay & Cover letter editing. See my Full Bio.
I am also the Author of the Winning MBA Essay Guide, covering 16+ top MBA programs with 240+ Sample Essays that I have updated every year since 2013 (11+ years. Phew!!)
I am an Admissions consultant who writes and edits Essays every year. And it is not easy to write good essays.
Contact me for any questions about MBA or Master's application. I would be happy to answer them all
Winning MBA Essay Guide - A Complete Guide for M7 and Top 15 MBA Application Essays
F1GMAT's Winning MBA Essay guide will teach you how to transform your essay into a life journey with trials and tribulations that will move the admission team.
+ Over 245 Sample Essays (Read Previews of F1GMAT's Winning MBA Essay Guide Sample Essays here)
+ Top 15 MBA Programs (Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Columbia, Booth, MIT, Kellogg, Yale, Haas, Darden, INSEAD, LBS, NYU Stern, Tuck, Duke Fuqua, Ross)
+ The Art of Storytelling
+ Leadership Narratives
+ Review Tips
+ Persuasion Strategies
+ The Secret to "unleashing" your unique voice
+ How to prepare and present for the Video Essay
+ How to write about your Strengths
+ How to write about your Weaknesses
+ Leadership Narratives
+ Review Tips
+ Persuasion Strategies
+ The Secret to "unleashing" your unique voice
+ How to prepare and present for the Video Essay
+ How to write about your Strengths
+ How to write about your Weaknesses
Want to try the individual school Essay Guides before upgrading to the Winning MBA Essay Guide? Try below.
F1GMAT's Essay Guides
Harvard MBA Essay Guide (20 Sample Essays)
Growth-Oriented Essay: Curiosity can be seen in many ways. Please share an example of how you have demonstrated curiosity and how that has influenced your growth. (up to 250 words)Example #1: Persistence Narrative
Background Information: The applicant – a design and music talent, shares her journey through several setbacks. She attributes curiosity to her growth.
Curiosity: Philosophy
Curiosity (Explained): Curiosity as a philosophy is tough to translate into a narrative unless you are from the creative industry or your contributions had an influence on a solution or an initiative.
MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to capture the humanity of the applicant and her influence in music instead of just highlighting how she overcame multiple roadblocks to gain attention as a designer.
Theme: Persistence
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Life Starts at NO (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #2: International Community Building
Background Information: The applicant, a Machine Learning (ML) entrepreneur specializing in healthcare diagnostics, shares how his curiosity to learn other ML algorithms’ evolution in diagnosing Alzheimer’s, cancer, and heart disease transformed his platform into a global community.
MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to show the applicant’s contributions in diagnostic from 2020 to 2024 by citing two events. Such examples build credibility instead of engagements that were recent. The evolution of the platform from an AI development community to a community for discussing the application of AI in diagnostics is captured through a ‘curiosity’ angle.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Growth through Collaboration (AI in Healthcare) (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #3: Culture
Background Information: The applicant, an Entrepreneur from India narrates his first entrepreneurial experience – facilitating exchange of stamps in the late 1990s.
Theme: Culture
MBA Essay Strategy: Instead of addressing the biases in the investor community that could turn preachy, I wanted to focus on the applicant and his entrepreneurial journey by citing two entrepreneurial experiences – a platform(club) for stamp collection and his Grocery delivery App.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – The American Dream (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #4: Addiction
Background Information: The applicant – a beneficiary of the foster home system, captures the sacrifice his adopted grandparents made to save him from a path of addiction. Paying it back through early intervention among teenagers and community engagement is the curiosity narrative.
Theme: Addiction
MBA Essay Strategy: My strategy is to capture a gratitude narrative in the first one-third of the essay to demonstrate motivation for starting the venture and dedicate the latter part of the essay to the unique solution
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Drug Addiction and Gaming (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #5: Scarcity
Background Information: The applicant, an education major, recognizes that 70% of all students in Kenya don’t have a computer. The curiosity that drives him to pivot from one solution to another is the growth narrative.
Theme: Innovation
MBA Essay Strategy: Often, innovation is captured with a ‘hero’ narrative where the applicant is the sole originator of an idea. I wanted to break that cliché and include a person from whom the applicant learned to use a concept called ‘scaffolding.’
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Scarcity (Growth-Oriented HBS Essay Example)Example #6: FinTech
Background Information: The applicant captures a vulnerable moment of a beneficiary to compare his journey of side hustle before a technology giant noticed his talent. Although cryptocurrency is not a flavor for the year, capture niches where innovation is still happening.
Theme: Education, Child Welfare
MBA Essay Strategy: Empathizing with a techno solution is tough without a strong backstory around the beneficiary. For the essay, I wanted to clearly establish the beneficiary – Rami, before the applicant narrates the similarities to his journey and finally shares the solution that emerged from his curiosity.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – FinTech as a Tool for Good (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #7: Learning from the best
Background Information: The applicant – a Remote Engineer in the Oil and Gas industry, reflects on a value that has helped her learn from the best regardless of her geographical limitations.
Theme: Learning
MBA Essay Strategy: The effectiveness of the case-study method depends on the assumption that peers in a Harvard MBA class will help elevate your learning experience. For the essay, I have highlighted the applicant’s recognition of this value proposition with three examples.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Learning from the Best (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #8: Military & Search for IMPACT
Background Information: The most common narrative for US military applicants is to quote 9/11 and the reaction your immediate family had while watching the events unfold. The horrifying moment is captured as a motivation to join the Military. On digging deeper, most applicants would share that their motivations were diverse.
Theme: Career Choice
MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to quickly highlight that the applicant had the choice of entering any industry. One achievement to demonstrate his curiosity that I shared in the first half is the invention of a game. Since the game is mentioned in the resume and verifiable through search, I didn’t quote the name. By clearly highlighting the person’s curiosity and career options, the family legacy is used as a factor in joining the military.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Career Choice after a Military Career (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)
Leadership-Focused Essay: What experiences have shaped who you are, how you invest in others, and what kind of leader you want to become? (up to 250 words)Example #9: Small Business Values
Background Information: The applicant - a second-generation Asian American, is familiar with the values of fiscal conservatism, building relationships, and understanding the daily struggles of the community through his family’s department store.
Theme: Customer-Centric
MBA Essay Strategy: The applicant’s role in developing an App for the store is highlighted in the essay at a crucial part of the narrative so that the essay is not all about his father. I have also humanized the journey – by sharing how upset the father was when the revenues fell by 40%. The essay is about the transformation in the applicant’s value from a person chasing productivity and optimization technique to someone who is truly thinking about the customers.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Small Business Values (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #10: Breaking Away from Family Business
Background Information: A unique challenge that applicants whose parents are public figures or CXOs of businesses or entrepreneurs are the pressure to live up to the parent’s standards or milestones. For the leadership narrative, the burden of legacy is established before the narrative addresses his leadership principles.
Theme: Authenticity
MBA Essay Strategy: For the essay, I want to capture an entrepreneur’s journey to rise above his entrepreneur father’s image. But I didn’t want to make the entire essay about this complex dynamics. The narrative is around the applicant’s focus on customers and surrounding with teams who keeps him grounded.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Breaking Away from Family Business(Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #11: Creativity and Communication
Background Information: When the overall percentage of users with internet access is 62% in South Africa and the inequality accentuated by the rural and urban divide, the applicant endured the lack of digital infrastructure, and spending close to 22% of the family income on gaining relevant information on schools, global exams, and financial assistance.
Theme: Creativity, Communication
MBA Essay Strategy: The strategy is to share why the applicant values no distraction in a child’s home for optimum education experience. Then I highlight the many roadblocks the applicant’s non-profit faced in receiving fee waiver for their cooperative run ISP.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Non-Profit (Telecom) (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #12: Mental Health
Background Information: The applicant like most didn’t pay much attention to the mental health epidemic until tragedy hit home.
Theme: Communication, Innovation
MBA Essay Strategy: A question we frequently get from applicants is whether they should cite tragedy in the family as a motivation for a venture or a non-profit initiative. As long as you don’t linger too much on the tragedy and offer a balanced narrative, there are no restrictions on leveraging unique stories from your life.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Mental Health (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #13: Trauma, Healing & Finding Authentic Self
Background Information: The applicant narrates the absurdity of war in the narrative about the duties in Kabul, and the trauma. Instead of wallowing in on the horror, the applicant takes what makes military applicants strong and guides unprivileged children build life and leadership skills.
Theme: Resilience
MBA Essay Strategy: Capturing PTSD in an essay, the healing process, and the cues that helped the applicant are too sacred to be shared in a Harvard MBA application essay. However, with the right motivation and narrative arcs, you can capture the essence of your journey without sharing the darkest secrets. That is what I did by merging two stories – the horrors of the war with a non-profit engagement.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Military & PTSD (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #14: Addiction, Setback and Leadership Mantra
Background Information: In this narrative, the applicant captures Peru’s Silver mining boom of 2006. The growth experienced in her father’s business shifted the family’s economic status to a new stratosphere. Through the changing economic and family dynamics, the applicant finds her voice in a unique way, initially to record her unheard voice but later as one of the youngest subject matter experts in mining and commodities.
Theme: Failure
MBA Essay Strategy: For the essay, the strategy is to show how life’s unpredictability is a blessing. By narrating two setback events, the essay demonstrates the applicant’s resilience and her acknowledgment of people who made a comeback possible.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Addiction, Setback and Leadership Mantra (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #15: War, Immigration and Starting Over Again
Background Information: Despite a raging war in Syria, the family of the applicant was unblemished by the chaos. The strategic government assets near the applicant’s house would have made the region an easy target, but it was not. The calmness of her journey is shattered in one event. From the privileges of a cocooned life, the applicant is forced to think about survival, her sister’s future, and her future in the US. The second half of the narrative captures the change that was forced on her.
Theme: Gratitude, Resilience
MBA Essay Strategy: I consciously chose not to start the essay with a dialogue or trauma. Two lines are allocated to set up the narrative before the trauma event.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – War, Immigration and Starting Over Again (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Harvard MBA Business-Minded Essay: Please reflect on how your experiences have influenced your career choices and aspirations and the impact you will have on the businesses, organizations, and communities you plan to serve. (up to 300 words)
Example #16: Creative or Finance
Background Information: The applicant starts the narrative with the origin of her talents. The unbridled enthusiasm receives a reality check when in high school, the applicant’s father has a conversation with her about academics. While the applicant picked up her quant skills, she was reaching over 50,000 loyal fans, and her videos captured 1 million views.
Theme: Passion, Talent
MBA Essay Strategy: Capturing vulnerability is the toughest part for Harvard MBA applicants. For this essay example, I have captured the applicant’s uncertainty about career choice throughout the essay. Here the goal is to show vulnerability in the career choice essay while for leadership and growth essay, I could capture one example each from creative and PE industry respectively to balance the narrative. So don’t follow this example without a strategy.
Read: Harvard MBA Business-Minded Essay – Creative or Finance (Business-Minded HBS MBA Essay Example)- Stanford MBA Essay Guide (24 Sample Essays)
- Columbia MBA Essay Guide (21 Sample Essays)
- Wharton MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays)
- INSEAD MBA Essay Guide (19 Sample Essays)
- Darden MBA Essay Guide (21 Sample Essays)
- Yale SOM MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays)
- Tuck MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays)
- Haas MBA Essay Guide (18 Sample Essays)
- NYU Stern MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays + 6 Examples - Visual Essay)
- LBS MBA Essay Guide (6 Sample Essays)
- MIT Sloan MBA Essay Guide (6 Sample Cover Letters + 3 Sample Video Statement Scripts + 3 Sample Optional Essays)
- Kellogg MBA Essay Guide (11 Sample Essays)
- Chicago Booth MBA Essay Guide (12 Sample Essays)
- Ross MBA Essay Guide (31 Sample Essays)
- Duke Fuqua MBA Essay Guide (10 Sample Essays + Two 25 Random Things Samples)
- Cambridge MBA Essay Guide (12 Sample Essays)
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