• 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)
Background Information: The applicant, ambivalent to the mental health epidemic, facilitates one of the largest mental health awareness campaigns after tragedy hits home.
Leadership Traits: Openness, Communication
• Leadership-Focused Essay: What experiences have shaped how you invest in others and how you lead? (up to 250 words)
Background Information: The applicant's lack of access to digital infrastructure growing up, inspires him to lead a rural infrastructure project in South Africa.
• Leadership-Focused Essay: What experiences have shaped how you invest in others and how you lead? (up to 250 words)
Background Information: Through the changing economic and family dynamics of her father's mining business, the applicant finds her voice in a unique way, initially to find an audience for her underappreciated voice, and later as one of the youngest subject-matter experts in mining and commodities.
Leadership Traits: Resilience, Authenticity
• Leadership-Focused Essay: What experiences have shaped how you invest in others and how you lead? (up to 250 words)
Background Information: An applicant shares the burden of legacy as the son of an entrepreneur and how he has accumulated his father's leadership principles in his venture.
Leadership Traits: Customer-Centric, Authenticity
• Leadership-Focused Essay: What experiences have shaped how you invest in others and how you lead? (up to 250 words)
Background Information: From the privileges of a cocooned life, the applicant is displaced from Syria and forced to restart her life in the US.
Leadership Traits: Resilience
• Leadership-Focused Essay: What experiences have shaped how you invest in others and how you lead? (up to 250 words)
Background Information: The applicant navigates the horrors of war and finds his humanity by guiding underprivileged children build life and leadership skills.
Leadership Traits: Mentoring, Authenticity
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)
Background Information: During a mission, an applicant is inspired by a doctor to find meaning outside combat.
Curiosity: Career Choice
• Leadership-Focused Essay: What experiences have shaped how you invest in others and how you lead? (up to 250 words)
Background Information: The applicant - a second-generation Asian American, reaffirms the values of fiscal conservatism, building relationships, and empowering the local community through a crisis.
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)
Background Information: The applicant, an education major, recognizes that 70% of all students in Kenya don’t have a computer. The growth narrative is around the curiosity to overcome scarcity, which drives him to pivot from one solution to another.
Curiosity: Behavior
• Business-Minded Essay: Please reflect on how your choices have influenced your career path and aspirations. (up to 300 words)
Background Information: An applicant who has grown in her PE career is facing a dilemma: whether to continue in her finance career or pivot into her creative career, where she has over 50,000 loyal YouTube subscribers, and her videos have captured over 10 million views.
Theme: Passion, Talent
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)
Background Information: The applicant – a design and music talent, shares her journey through several setbacks. She attributes curiosity to her growth.
Curiosity: Philosophy
Stanford GSB MBA Essay A: What matters most to you, and why? (650 Words)
Background Information: An Oil & Gas Remote Engineer who had a phenomenal growth from a junior engineer to a remote engineer responsible for complex drilling projects and automating the entire operations, is assigned the role to develop strategies to retain the women workforce and develop a comprehensive plan to create an inclusive environment.
Theme: Understanding Identity and Perspective-Taking, Creating an Inclusive Environment
Background Information: A Technology Consultant is working on an innovative product that has a high consequence on evaluating credit-worthy citizens who are underserved by banks or misrepresented by traditional credit scoring agencies.
Theme: Addressing Systemic Inequity, Creating an Inclusive Environment
Background Information: A PE associate narrates the challenge of onboarding an older candidate to the team. The person had an illustrious career in Technology but was a newbie to the NFT fund the team was managing.
Even with the history of recruiting non-traditional candidates from different backgrounds – the age (45+) bias, skepticism against a region known for its conservative values, and a warped view of the socio-economic exposure the candidate had, all culminate into resistance from the team in fully embracing the candidate’s ideas.
Post-MBA Goal (Short-term): Journalism to New Media (Venture)
Post-MBA Goal (Long-term): New Media (Venture)
Knowledge Gap: Entrepreneurship, Leadership to motivate and lead teams in a new venture
Background Information: The fifth example is of a White Male liberal applicant working for a think tank in DC. Unlike ideologues-based think tanks, the non-profit that the applicant worked for has a history of helping Senators introduce transformative Acts. The secret ingredient behind the success was the composition of the team.
With recruitment geared towards finding balance in political ideologies, the applicant was often paired with conservative team members who had a different perspective on spending limits, regulations, and the value of life.
Kellogg MBA Essay One: Intentionality is a key aspect of what makes our graduates successful Kellogg leaders. Help us understand your journey by articulating your motivations for pursuing an MBA, the specific goals you aim to achieve, and why you believe now is the right moment. Moreover, share why you feel Kellogg is best suited to serve as a catalyst for your career aspirations and what you will contribute to our community of lifelong learners during your time here.
Kellogg MBA Essay One: Intentionality is a key aspect of what makes our graduates successful Kellogg leaders. Help us understand your journey by articulating your motivations for pursuing an MBA, the specific goals you aim to achieve, and why you believe now is the right moment. Moreover, share why you feel Kellogg is best suited to serve as a catalyst for your career aspirations and what you will contribute to our community of lifelong learners during your time here.
Kellogg MBA Essay One: Intentionality is a key aspect of what makes our graduates successful Kellogg leaders. Help us understand your journey by articulating your motivations for pursuing an MBA, the specific goals you aim to achieve, and why you believe now is the right moment. Moreover, share why you feel Kellogg is best suited to serve as a catalyst for your career aspirations and what you will contribute to our community of lifelong learners during your time here.
Kellogg MBA Essay One: Intentionality is a key aspect of what makes our graduates successful Kellogg leaders. Help us understand your journey by articulating your motivations for pursuing an MBA, the specific goals you aim to achieve, and why you believe now is the right moment. Moreover, share why you feel Kellogg is best suited to serve as a catalyst for your career aspirations and what you will contribute to our community of lifelong learners during your time here.
Kellogg MBA Essay One: Intentionality is a key aspect of what makes our graduates successful Kellogg leaders. Help us understand your journey by articulating your motivations for pursuing an MBA, the specific goals you aim to achieve, and why you believe now is the right moment. Moreover, share why you feel Kellogg is best suited to serve as a catalyst for your career aspirations and what you will contribute to our community of lifelong learners during your time here.
Background Information: A consultant puzzled by the hesitation of stakeholders to embrace digitization reevaluates incentives to streamline the implementation of digital tools, processes, and frameworks for the hospital network.
Theme: Change
Theme (Explained): Change narratives are critical to building an engaging story.
Either a change in the protagonist or their ability to take the team/organization through a period of rapid and drastic change – both read well in MBA essays.
Background Information: An LGBTQ minority entrepreneur after failing to raise funds for his apparel business addresses implicit biases in the VC community.
Theme: Leadership, Bias, Inclusion
Theme (Explained): Biases often involve narratives around a person or a culture in an organization, but a larger reason – economic incentives that propagate the biases is never addressed.
Profile: Entrepreneur
Industry: Fashion
Background Information: A technologist, responsible for managing a proprietary pricing algorithm, stares at zero sales in the airline and hospitality industry – a once-in-a-lifetime event that motivates him to find a creative solution.
Theme: Leadership, Creativity