Another common mba essay question is - What does an “ethic” mean to you and how important is it? Give a specific example (e.g. decisions you had to make in the past) to illustrate this.
For me, Ethics means a well-defined standard of fairness. The standards ensure that I conduct myself with honesty and compassion. It is also my responsibility to assess the standards regularly for social and cultural influences, and take corrective steps if necessary.
For specific examples from your professional life, mention:
1) How you negotiated your way around a suggestion by your manager/supervisor to perform certain tasks that was against your ethics.
2) This example should emphasis how you were able to negotiate on the new course of action that was ethical .
3) Emphasis the win-win strategy that you suggested and how it was a workaround for the initial unethical action suggested by your supervisor(provide examples of resistance on your new course of action)
4) Provide tangible output in following the actions that you suggested to the team.
5) Provide specific values that you believed in and conclude on how you were able to maintain them during the execution of the task
If you have worked long enough, you would have faced this issue. For example it would be something like compromising on the quality of the product to meet the deadline or charging you customer with exorbitant fees for a minor change in product feature.
Learn how to answer the MBA Application Ethics Essay according to your Target School. Pick your Essay Guide
F1GMAT's Harvard MBA Essay Guide will teach you to introduce yourself:
1) With Assertiveness
2) By Articulating your Social Value
3) By Demonstrating your decision-making ability
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F1GMAT's LBS MBA Essay Guide will:
1) Give you a detailed Analysis of London Business School MBA Curriculum for 2016
2) Describe how to match Pre-MBA experience with Post-MBA goals using two career paths - Finance and Consulting as examples
3) Show you how to select student clubs to match your post-MBA aspirations
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F1GMAT's Booth MBA Essay Guide will:
1) Demonstrate how to write about each pictorial representation
2) Recommend the best image to choose for your essay
3) Summarize the Chicago Booth MBA Program, so that you don't have to do extensive research for the essay
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F1GMAT's INSEAD MBA Essay Guide will:
1) Demonstrate with W-Pattern Narrative on how to use context and roles to describe your strengths and weaknesses
2) Show you how to use the IMPACT table to list your greatest achievements
3) Show you how to write about Failure without getting too defensive
4) Show you how to write about extra-curricular activities
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F1GMAT's MIT Sloan MBA Essay Guide will teach you:
1) Share the acceptance pattern in Sloan MBA
2) Show you how to shortlist successes that matter to MIT Sloan MBA Admissions team
3) Demonstrate with examples on how to create an IMPACT Table with Achievements, Impact, Success in Dollar terms, Impact Index and Total Value.
4) Show you how to differentiate between Managerial and Leadership roles
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F1GMAT's Kellogg MBA Essay Guide will:
1) Give you a detailed Analysis of Kellogg Full-time MBA Curriculum for 2016
2) Give you Four Examples on how to answer Essay 1 (Leadership)
3) Show you how to answer Essay 2 with a 3-step structure
Awareness -> Reflection -> Future with Kellogg MBA
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F1GMAT's NYU Stern MBA Essay Guide will:
1) Give you a detailed Analysis of NYU Stern MBA Curriculum for 2016
2) How to answer Essay 1 by mapping specializations to your post-MBA goals
3) Show you how to answer Essay 2 in six ways (Travelogue, Artist, Breaking Stereotype, Impact Oriented, Family Legacy and Infomercial)
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F1GMAT's Stanford MBA Essay Guide will:
1) Give you a detailed Analysis of Stanford MBA Curriculum for 2016
2) Show you how to answer Essay B in three ways (as a Career Enhancer, as an Entrepreneur and as a Career Switcher)
3) How to use ‘The Big Five Model’ to evaluate your unique personality for Essay A.
4) Sample Essay for Essay A: What matters most to you, and why? (750 Words)
Note: Do not copy the sample essay (Use it only for inspiration)
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F1GMAT's Wharton MBA Essay Guide will:
1) Give you a detailed Analysis of Wharton MBA Curriculum for 2016
2) Describe Four professional gains as Examples
3) Describe Four personal gains as Examples
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About the Author
I am Atul Jose, Founding Consultant of F1GMAT, an MBA admissions consultancy that has worked with applicants since 2009.
For the past 15 years I have edited the application files of admits to the M7 programs: Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Wharton School, MIT Sloan, Chicago Booth, Kellogg School of Management, and Columbia Business School, together with admits to Berkeley Haas, Yale School of Management, NYU Stern, Michigan Ross, Duke Fuqua, Darden, Tuck, IMD, London Business School, INSEAD, SDA Bocconi, IESE Business School, HEC Paris, McCombs, and Tepper, plus other programs inside the global top 30.
My work covers the full MBA application deliverable: career planning and profile evaluation, application essay editing, recommendation letter editing, mock interviews and interview preparation, scholarship and fellowship essay editing, and cover letter editing for funding applications. Full bio with credentials and admit history is here.
I am the author of the Winning MBA Essay Guide, the best-selling essay guide covering M7 MBA programs. I have written and updated the guide annually since 2013, which makes the 2026 edition the thirteenth.
The reason I still write and edit essays every cycle: a good MBA essay carries a real applicant's voice. Writing essays for F1GMAT's Books and Editing essays weekly is how I stay calibrated to what current admissions committees respond to.
Contact me for school selection, career planning, essay strategy, narrative development, essay editing, interview preparation, scholarship essay editing, or guidance documents for recommendation letters.