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

MIT Sloan MBA Cover Letter Prompt >>

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. 

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: 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

Required Haas MBA Essay #3: One of our goals at Berkeley Haas is to develop leaders who value diversity and to create an inclusive environment in which people from different ethnicities, genders, lived experiences, and national origins feel welcomed and supported. Describe any experience or exposure you have in the area of diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and belonging whether through community organizations, personal, or in the workplace?

Berkeley Haas MBA What Makes you Feel Alive Essay (Selling and Serving Low-Income Immigrants)

Theme: Selling

Background Information: The applicant notices one person in his team consistently underperforming. His humane intervention to address the personal challenges helped the teammate rise to a star performer. 

Theme: Inclusion, Mentorship

Theme (Explained): Often, mentorship when a peer or a sub-ordinate underperforms need context-setting about the problem.

For the essay, the theme of the intervention is holistic mentorship where the person’s personal challenges are handled sensitively.

Background Information: The applicant – a white male applicant working with a diverse team from China, South Africa, and India for a technology giant, confronts a peer who makes unflattering comments about his international peers on a visit to the US.

Theme: Inclusion, Courage, Xenophobia

Tuck MBA Essay: Describe a time you meaningfully contributed to someone else’s sense of inclusion in your professional or personal community. (300 words) 

Background Information: The applicant proactively offered guidance and mentorship to a junior analyst who was struggling to interpret contracts in an M&A deal

Theme: Inclusion, Mentorship

Theme (Explained): Mentorship to make a peer or a subordinate feel included is the best way to demonstrate your sensitivity to the person’s struggles. 

Tuck MBA Essay: Describe a time you meaningfully contributed to someone else’s sense of inclusion in your professional or personal community. (300 words)

Background Information: In the applicant in charge of leading a team of 20+ associates for an insurance giant witnessed an error in judgment from one of the 5 team leads. Reversing a decision to let go of the person is the ‘risky’ sense of inclusion narrative.

Theme: Inclusion, Ethics, Courage

Tuck MBA Essay: Describe a time you meaningfully contributed to someone else’s sense of inclusion in your professional or personal community. (290 words)

Background Information: A leading YouTube creator in the ‘editing for educational video’ niche narrates a peer’s bout with depression after he faced a stagnation in viewership. The applicant’s encouraging mindset with video collaboration helped the peer feel a sense of inclusion among the creator community.

Theme: Inclusion

Columbia MBA Essay Question

The Phillips Pathway for Inclusive Leadership (PPIL) is a co-curricular program designed to provide students with the skills and strategies needed to develop as inclusive leaders. Through various resources and programming, students explore and reflect on the following five inclusive leadership skills: Mitigating Bias and Prejudice; Managing Intercultural Dialogue; Addressing Systemic Inequity; Understanding Identity and Perspective Taking; and Creating an Inclusive Environment.