MBA Essay Example

MIT Sloan seeks students whose personal characteristics demonstrate that they will make the most of the incredible opportunities at MIT, both academic and non-academic. We are on a quest to find those whose presence will enhance the experience of other students. We seek thoughtful leaders with exceptional intellectual abilities and the drive and determination to put their stamp on the world. We welcome people who are independent, authentic, and fearlessly creative — true doers.

Q) MIT Sloan MBA Video Essay: Introduce yourself to your future classmates. Here’s your chance to put a face with a name, let your personality shine through, be conversational, be yourself. We can’t wait to meet you! (60 seconds)

Q) How has the world you come from shaped who you are today? For example, your family, culture, community, all help to shape aspects of your life experiences and perspective. Please use this opportunity if you would like to share more about your background.

Background Information: A technologist from a military family shares the impact of military ethos – respect, discipline and self-reliance on his startup and his career. 

Theme: Self-Reliance

Q) How has the world you come from shaped who you are today? For example, your family, culture, community, all help to shape aspects of your life experiences and perspective. Please use this opportunity to share more about your background. (250 words or less)

Background Information: A consultant reflects the escape from the genocide in Rwanda and the impact the war trauma had in shaping his extra-curricular engagement as a visual storyteller. 

Theme: War Trauma, Creativity, Inclusion

Q) How has the world you come from shaped who you are today? For example, your family, culture, community, all help to shape aspects of your life experiences and perspective. Please use this opportunity if you would like to share more about your background.

MIT Sloan MBA Video Essay: Introduce yourself to your future classmates. Here’s your chance to put a face with a name, let your personality shine through, be conversational, be yourself. We can’t wait to meet you! (60 seconds)

Background Information: The applicant, an Oil & Gas Engineer and the first female to earn the title of Project Manager in the shortest time for her pioneering remote operations, credits her checklist mindset for her success.

Q) MIT Sloan MBA Video Essay: Introduce yourself to your future classmates. Here’s your chance to put a face with a name, let your personality shine through, be conversational, be yourself. We can’t wait to meet you! (60 seconds)

Background Information: A Chartered Account fascinated with AI automation mimics his professional experience to help low-income households balance their economic, physical, and psychological well-being.

MIT Sloan MBA Cover Letter Prompt >>

Background Information: A field engineer in the oil and gas industry who transitioned to renewable wants to help businesses adopt sustainability practices to the climate-change realities we are likely to see in 2030.

Theme: Adaptability, Climate Change, Sustainability

Theme (Explained): Working towards holistic systems and adapting to the realities of climate change is a theme not many applicants are narrating. 

MIT Sloan MBA Cover Letter Prompt >>

MIT Sloan MBA Cover Letter Prompt >>

Essay: Why Stanford?

Profile: Miss. N

Profile (Background): Miss. N, a Humanitarian Affairs Officer with an impressive record in the UN, pivoted and joined Facebook after getting frustrated with the slow pace of the bureaucracy in the organization. With the changes in Facebook to limit oversight on moderation, she rejoined the UN. The change she noticed at the UN from a leadership-driven to a technology-first culture made her aware that both extremes were not good for serving those affected in disaster-affected areas. 

Essay: Why Stanford?

Profile: Miss NL

Profile (Background): Miss NL, a PE investor, found her calling to enter a general management role while observing an inefficiency in delivery coffee to a customer in a Coffee Chain. Before working in PE, she was also part of the finance team that brought Apple Card to the market. 

Essay: Why Stanford?

Profile: Mr. SK

Profile (Background): Mr. SK, an accounting specialist in M&A, finds himself frustrated with contributing meaningfully to acquisitions and investment decisions. Although his accounting role is limited to due diligence, he witnessed deals that were driven by flawed beliefs of the founder/entrepreneur. 

With a Pivot to PE, Mr. SK wants to bring people-first principles to the PE industry. 

Essay: Why Stanford?

Profile: Mr. J

Profile (Background): Mr. J, a Brazilian investment banker, advised on pension funds. With a mandate to include ESG metrics in the fund, he explored deals that brought funds to farmlands in South America. With a family business in Africa in the agriculture sector, he wants to leverage his deal experience to bring sustainability to African farms.

Essay: Why Stanford?

Profile: Miss. K

Profile (Background): Miss K began her career in CPG marketing, helping reshape product narratives and consumer strategies at a multinational brand. She later took on a general management role within a commercial team, leading cross-functional initiatives to grow revenue while managing brand identity. Prior to Stanford, Miss. K also worked on community engagement projects focused on food access and health awareness, showing her interest in customer insights beyond profit metrics.

Essay: Why Stanford?

Profile: Miss. A 

Essay: Why Stanford?

Profile: Mr. KP

Profile (Background): Mr. KP has experience at NASA as part of the crew that designed a mission to find life on other planets. However, as a coastline resident, his real passion is erosion science and finding technological innovations that could create sustainable barriers for global flooding events.

Essay: Why Stanford?

Profile: Miss. J 

Profile (Background): Miss J came from a background in investment banking and corporate roles before venturing into entrepreneurship. She founded a consumer food brand that bridges cultural flavors with modern health trends, motivated by her heritage and a desire to introduce authentic Asian tastes to mainstream markets. 

Essay: Why Stanford?

Profile: Miss SK

Profile (Background): Miss. SK has strong leadership experience managing workers from 85 nationalities in the rig. As the only engineer to earn a triple promotion in 2 years, she also integrated a sustainable water infrastructure in a complex rig layout. 

Additionally, her status as one of four women engineers in the team makes her story even more impressive.

LBS MBA Essay: What makes you unique? (200 words)

Background Information: An entrepreneurial applicant narrates the circumstances that led to his education without any structure. 

The confidence to learn anything and tackle problems became a behavior that led him to entrepreneurship. 

Theme: Entrepreneurship, Resilience

Theme (Explained): Self-learning and Resilience as a prerequisite to entrepreneurship is not a theme that many applicants cover. 

LBS MBA Essay: What makes you unique? (200 words)

Background Information: Partisan media or editorial has been an accepted norm in publishing for the past 150 years in the US. The only difference now is that we are aware of the biases. Under such open ideological positioning, democracy is at risk of making fatal decisions that negatively impact the federal structure and welfare of US citizens.

Theme: Bipartisanship

LBS MBA Essay: What makes you unique? (200 words)

Background Information: Testing the authenticity of the insights from Generative AI was a challenge for the applicant when it suggested a stereotype. 

Theme: AI, Safety

LBS MBA Essay: What makes you unique? (200 words)

Background Information: Coming from an illustrious business family, the applicant found her true calling, serving the displaced at UNHCR – the UN’s agency assisting refugees to return to their home country or integrate/resettle in another country. 

Theme: Privilege 

LBS MBA Essay: What makes you unique? (200 words)

Background Information: The applicant, a Uruguay native who overcame poverty, reflects on the struggle of a single-parent household, violence in the neighborhood, and the IMPACT, mentorship had in orienting himself towards Math and soccer. 

The experience of mentorship as an intervention for low-income communities motivated him to start a non-profit for STEM Education. 

Theme: Education, STEM, Mentorship, Inequality