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) 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 >>
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 Entrepreneur from India, shares his American dream by reflecting on his entrepreneurial experiences in India and contrasting them with the support offered by the American VC ecosystem.
Curiosity: Culture
Profile: Mr. V
Profile (Background): Mr. V, the creator of a tracker for conserving marine life, now seeks a holistic learning experience to bring multiple stakeholders from 100+ countries to his conservation efforts.
Essay Approach: “Why Chicago Booth MBA?”
• 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
Stanford GSB MBA Essay A: What matters most to you, and why? (650 Words)
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 young technology leader makes one of the toughest decisions in his professional career – to let go of two senior team members.
Theme: Leadership
I have explained about segue in my new MBA Essay Writing Series. I would highly recommend that you read them to understand the many contexts of Segues.
Theme: Entrepreneurial Thinking, Failure, Diversity
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?
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 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.
Pre-MBA Employer: Facebook
Pre-MBA Title: Product Manager
Post-MBA Title: Associate
Post-MBA Employer: Venture Capital Firm
Foundational Knowledge: Because the candidate has extensive experience in Technology, the curriculum mentioned in the goals essay was customized to include foundational skills in Finance and Investments.
Haas MBA students selected for the IBD (International Business Development) consulting engagement, apart from sharing the tourist getaways, share a poignant observation - while discussing the client and their customers from thousands of miles away, they lacked the perspective on the ground realities. The statistics were too impersonal. When they reached on-site, the real challenges for enterprises to overcome infrastructural limitations and price sensitivity became apparent.
Background Information: An applicant caught in the battle of his analytical and creative brain finds a match at Teach for America, where he is entrusted to apply his editing skills to keep Grade 1 to Grade 3 students engaged in online study sessions.
Theme: Creativity
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
Background Information: A technologist narrates the leadership traits he acquired from his entrepreneur father.
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.
In today’s global business environment, the only constant is change. Using NYU Stern’s brand call to action, we want to know how you view change. Change: _____ it. Fill in the blank with a word of your choice. Why does this word resonate with you? How will you embrace your own personal tagline while at Stern? Examples:
Background Information: A Product Development Manager is assigned the role of building partnerships with retailers and developing an offline strategy to compete with Korea’s leading phone manufacturer, which had a monopoly over the Indian market.
Theme: Resilience, Entrepreneurial Thinking
Background Information: A technologist shares his unique 'listening' skill, the application of his skill for a retail startup, and his goal to apply his strength as a management consultant.
Theme: Listening
Stanford GSB MBA Essay A: What matters most to you, and why? (650 Words)
Background Information: The applicant’s experience as an insider to his father’s entrepreneurial journey is the hook that sets the narrative to a tragic event. The tragedy set in motion a philosophy of life that was helpful in connecting with an Entrepreneur in Ghana
Theme: Listening