• 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
Berkeley Haas MBA Video Essay Question: The Berkeley MBA program develops leaders who embody our four Defining Leadership Principles. Briefly introduce yourself to the admissions committee, explain which Defining Leadership Principle resonates most with you, and tell us how you have exemplified the principle in your personal or professional life.
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 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.
We believe Columbia Business School is a special place with a collaborative learning environment in which students feel a sense of belonging, agency, and partnership--academically, culturally, and professionally.
How would you co-create your optimal MBA experience at CBS? Please be specific. (250 words) (Common for both January and August entering class)
Background Information: The Essay is of a Business development person working in Technology.
An MBA is as much about personal growth as it is about professional development. In addition to sharing your experience and goals in terms of career, we’d like to learn more about you outside of the office. Use this opportunity to tell us something about who you are… (250 word minimum)
When Chicago Booth asks you to highlight an aspect of your personality outside of work, it is important that you understand the different ways in which you can answer the question.
Stanford GSB MBA Essay A: What matters most to you, and why? (650 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.
We believe Columbia Business School is a special place with a collaborative learning environment in which students feel a sense of belonging, agency, and partnership--academically, culturally, and professionally.
How would you co-create your optimal MBA experience at CBS? Please be specific. (250 words) (Common for both January and August entering class)
Background Information: The fifth Essay is of a White Male Bostonian from a blue-collar neighborhood working in Real Estate Consulting.
We believe Columbia Business School is a special place with a collaborative learning environment in which students feel a sense of belonging, agency, and partnership--academically, culturally, and professionally.
How would you co-create your optimal MBA experience at CBS? Please be specific. (250 words) (Common for both January and August entering class)
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